Meet Dirtea And The Brothers Brewing The Functional Mushroom Revolution
Super-successful serial entrepreneurs, brothers Simon and Andrew Salter – Andrew was a member of the Forbes 30 under 30 class of 2020 for the work of their Limelyte culture and innovation studio; unfortunately, older brother Simon aged out– suffered from a malady common to those in their profession: burnout.
Looking for a safe, effective and natural solution, they discovered that functional mushrooms delivered the health and wellbeing benefits they were searching for. And being serial entrepreneurs, they were wired to bring their discovery to the world through a new venture – Dirtea – their first product-centric business.
'We started Dirtea because nothing we tried fixed the burnout issue, not coffee, not supplements, none of the wellness fads. Once we found mushrooms, we couldn't find a brand that we trusted or that spoke our language. So we built Dirtea to be trusted, to be potent, efficacious and the best functional mushroom products in the world in terms of quality,' Andrew explained.
London-based Dirtea launched in 2016 and has made a big splash across the pond with its range of mushroom-infused coffee, matcha, chai and cacao blends, as well as powder supplements and gummies.
Dirtea is carried in nearly 2,000 stores in the U.K., including Selfridge, Harrods, Boots, Planet Organic and SoulCycle and is offered in numerous coffee shops. A notable example is the Dirtea 'Feel Good Bar' in Selfridges London, which started as a pop-up but earned the right to become a full-time concession.
While Dirtea is available to U.S. consumers via its website and Amazon, it's readying to launch the 'Shroom Boom' on this side of the pond. Starting this fall, Dirtea gummies will be featured in 750 Vitamin Shoppe stores nationwide.
Physical stores serve a dual purpose. They are a platform to educate consumers about the health benefits of functional mushrooms and are a central hub to foster the Dirtea community, leveraging their experience launching the #FeelingNuts campaign against testicular cancer that went viral and the digital-concierge service Velocity Black, which was acquired by Capital One in 2023.
For thousands of years, functional mushrooms have been used in traditional Chinese and India's Ayurveda medicine, but only recently has science caught up with the healing power of mushrooms.
The number of scientific papers published on functional mushrooms has exploded since the turn of the century, according to the National Library of Medicine's database. In 2000, it catalogued 230 papers. In 2024, there were more than 1,100 papers recorded.
All that scientific work proving the effectiveness of mushrooms to boost immunity, enhance cognitive function, reduce stress and give an energy boost has crossed over into the mainstream.
Fortune Business Insights estimates the global functional mushroom market reached $31 billion in 2024, will grow to nearly $34 billion this year and top $60 billion by 2032 at a compound-annual-growth rate of 9%.
However, it could grow faster if the brothers are as successful as past history suggests. In 2014, the brothers launched the #FeelingNuts campaign to educate men about the early warning signs of testicular cancer that went viral with a billion people, including numerous high-profile celebrities, behind it and that was spun off as a British television special.
Dirtea offers the power-five functional mushrooms each targeting specific wellness and health benefits:
And each Dirtea formula is fortified with a nutritional supplement to give an extra kick. For example, Chaga, Cordyceps and Reishi products come with vitamin B12 and Lion's Mane and Tremella delivers a dose of zinc.
Dirtea's chief science officer, Dr. Tara Swart, renown neuroscientist who holds both an M.D. and a Ph.D., assures all products meet the highest clinical standards and guides development of new products.
Beyond packing a health and wellbeing punch for consumers, the brothers know people have to experience the benefits to become Dirtea converts. That's where the Selfrigdes' Feel Good Bar and broadening distribution through branded experiences comes in.
'In business, we're known for building social movements and campaigns around consumer brands and causes as well,' Andrew said, adding, 'We've always leveraged entertainment and culture because we think that's the best way to build cult like followings.'
For example, they just launched the first wellness nightclub pop-up experience in London, called the Dirtea Reset Club, that blends, education, sauna, music, culture into a healthy nightclub experience. 'We're giving people a chance to experience real dopamine so you wake up the next day feeling good, even better that before, not the fake kind you get spending time in a regular nightclub where you feel awful the morning after,' Simon shared.
They have plans to take the Dirtea Reset Club on the road in New York and Los Angeles, 'It's a way to bring together a community,' Andrew said, noting that bringing people together into the Dirtea community is an essential part of the company's mission.
Simon cites a study, also referenced in the 2023 U.S. Surgeon General's report 'Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation,' that found loneliness and social isolation can have the same negative health effects as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day, and its mortality impact is even greater than that associated with obesity and physical inactivity.
'Building community is our North Star and we want to give back to our community as much as they are giving to us as subscribers,' Simon continued.
Dirtea thrives on its subscription business – what it calls the Dirtea Tribe. And to keep it building, the goal is to be more than just a wellness brand, but to make Dirtea a part of an individual's daily wellness ritual.
'Were not trying to be a wellness brand or a supplement. We're building a next generation of daily rituals that are powered by mushrooms, backed by science and designed for a culture running on empty,' Andrew explained. 'The reason why a brand like Dirtea can exist today is because everyone is running on empty. We've normalized burnout. We wake up with caffeine. We wind down with wine. We sleep with pills. It's a vicious cycle.'
They see Dirtea as the way to break that vicious cycle and turn it into a virtuous circle for health and wellbeing. 'We're not here to biohack you. We're here to help you feel more like your best self,' he continued.
Dirtea is backed by some heavy hitters. Roxie Nafousi, self-development coach and author of the best-selling Manifest: 7 Steps to Building Your Best Life, is an investor and brand ambassador, as is famed adventurer and television personality Bear Grylss.
Grylss is an outspoken Christian, so I believe him when he says: 'I was a total convert. I had never felt that focus. I can genuinely hand on heart say that over the last year I've never felt so alive, so focused, happy and calm. But above all, I love what we stand for, bringing good health and natural healing to the masses.'
Plus, Dirtea has partnerships with Stella McCartney, Barry's Bootcamp and Atis cosmetics brand, and the brothers have Benedict Cumberbatch, Idris Elba and Charlotte Tilbury, to name a few, on speed dial.
'We spent our careers building cultural moments and movements,' Andrew said, and the brothers brought that expertise to Dirtea. 'We're one of the leading wellness brands in the U.K. We've built a huge brand here now we're expanding globally and the U.S. market is, without a doubt, the biggest opportunity for us.
'Now with Vitamin Shoppe as our launch partner, we are ready to build the Dirtea movement online digitally and direct-to-consumer and soon we'll be the hallmark mushroom brand at Vitamin Shoppe,' he concluded.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
21 minutes ago
- Yahoo
US crude exports hit four-year low in July on low domestic supplies
By Arathy Somasekhar HOUSTON (Reuters) -U.S. crude oil exports eased in July to the lowest levels in nearly four years on low domestic supplies and as Asian and European buyers found cheaper alternatives, undermining U.S. President Donald Trump's push for more foreign countries to purchase U.S. energy supplies. The decline in exports from the top global producer underscores the extent to which oil flows are dictated by price and the economics of shipping, even as the Trump administration recently has pushed countries to commit to more U.S. oil purchases as part of trade negotiations. U.S. crude exports tumbled to about 3.1 million barrels per day (bpd) in July, the lowest since October 2021, when the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged demand, according to data from ship tracking firm Kpler. Exports averaged 3.2 million bpd over the last five weeks, compared with 3.6 million bpd in June, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The decline came as the spread between European and U.S. benchmark crude futures narrowed, making it less economically attractive to ship barrels across the Atlantic. "Markets are driven by economics, and companies are driven by profits, and so companies are going to continue to purchase what is the cheapest or the best feedstock for them," said Matt Smith, lead oil analyst at Kpler. "There's a very, very incremental impact (from trade agreements on U.S. crude exports), but it's not going to move the needle," Smith added. WTI's discount to Brent in May and June, when oil delivered in July is traded, averaged about $3 a barrel, well above the $4 discount that typically encourages foreign countries to buy U.S. oil. "There's just not the incentive there to be pushing those barrels out. They're more needed at home than they are abroad," said Smith. Exports of U.S. crude to Asia fell to 862,000 bpd in July, the lowest since January 2019, and well below the three-month average of 1.1 million bpd, Kpler data showed. China, the world's top oil consumer, took no barrels for the fifth straight month as trade tensions continued between the two countries, while shipments to South Korea, the second largest buyer of U.S. crude in 2024, nearly halved in July, and those to India fell 46%. Meanwhile, exports to Europe fell 14% to 1.6 million bpd from June. Inventories of oil at the key storage hub in Cushing, Oklahoma, hovered just above operational levels, amid lower Canadian oil flows due to a wildfire and last year's Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. That kept more domestic barrels in the U.S., traders and analysts said. Prices for WTI Midland at Cushing were about 40 cents higher than prices for it along the Gulf coast, said Jeremy Irwin, global crude lead at Energy Aspects. Higher U.S. refining activity also encouraged some barrels to stay locally, Irwin said. Exports of Canadian crude from the U.S. Gulf Coast also eased 31% to 78,000 bpd in July, as U.S. refiners snapped up the barrels to replace lower Venezuelan and Mexican imports. SHORT-LIVED REBOUND SEEN Exports to Asia of U.S. crude are expected to step up in the fourth quarter as Middle East oil prices strengthened, making it more economic to ship oil to Asia from the U.S., trade sources said last week. Energy Aspects forecast about a 400,000-bpd increase to August from July in U.S. Gulf Coast exports. While Washington's push for countries to commit to energy purchases as part of trade deals may help inch exports higher in the short term, traders and analysts remained skeptical of any longer-term boost to exports from the agreements. South Korea said it would purchase $100 billion worth of liquefied natural gas or other energy products, while the European Union pledged to buy $250 billion of U.S. energy supplies per year. Pakistan is set to import its first-ever cargo of U.S. crude in October, while India's biggest refiner Indian Oil Corp bought 4.5 million barrels of U.S. crude this week as Trump threatens tariff hikes on the country for its purchases of Russian oil. Purchases from trade deals would likely only push up U.S. exports for two or three months, said Jeremy Irwin, global crude lead at Energy Aspects. Further, rising OPEC+ supplies especially into the end of the year are set to increase options for European and Asian refiners, and could weigh on export demand for light sweet U.S. crude. The group agreed on Sunday to raise oil production by 547,000 bpd for September, marking a full and early reversal of its largest tranche of output cuts. Sign in to access your portfolio
Travel Weekly
33 minutes ago
- Travel Weekly
Amsterdam lays out plan to limit river cruising
In an attempt to manage the influx of tourists, the city of Amsterdam aims to cap river cruise calls at 1,150 ships per year, according to the city's tourism plan. In 2024, Amsterdam had 1,950 river ship calls, the city said in its plan. River cruise lines will receive an annual reduction quota for next year, which will be based on bookings from the previous year. The European River Cruise Association (also known as IG RiverCruise), which represents European river cruise lines, has set up a working group with the city to exchange thoughts and data related to overtourism. "River cruising could be a solution and is not part of the problem," said Robbert Verbeek, an association board member and group CFO of river cruise operator Scylla. He added that river cruise operators see themselves as "managed tourism suppliers." Verbeek described the tourism generated by river cruises as "temporary and also manageable." River cruises that dock in Amsterdam typically do not spend much time there, as the city is just one stop on what is often a weeklong itinerary. "It's pretty impossible for them to cut other types of tourism, because they have no control over those types of tourism," Verbeek said. "There are types of tourism which can be managed, like cruises, but also bus excursions. There are also types of tourism which cannot be managed, like … booking Airbnb, for instance. These forms are very unmanageable, and maybe we can come to some kind of situation where they also try to create a grip on those types of tourism." River cruise passengers make up 2% of annual visitors to Amsterdam, generating about $257 million in direct spending, according to the European River Cruise Association. The association hopes to find a middle ground with city officials, such as docking in the city only during approved time periods. "We can perfectly manage that," Verbeek said. Amsterdam is also cracking down on ocean cruises. The city aims to phase out cruising at its city center cruise terminal by 2035. The city will limit the number of ocean cruise ships allowed to dock to 100 per year starting in 2026. River and ocean ships both use the Amsterdam city terminal. Amsterdam also wants to curb bachelor parties, convert hotels into residences and offices, and distribute tourism more evenly across the city.
Wall Street Journal
42 minutes ago
- Wall Street Journal
Novo Nordisk, TSMC, Glencore: Stocks Around the World in Focus
Novo Nordisk said sales of its blockbuster Wegovy weight-loss drug soared last quarter. (Hollie Adams/Reuters)
