02-04-2025
The Best Mushroom Coffee for an Alternative Buzz
Micro Ingredients Organic Instant 10 in 1 Mushroom Coffee Powder The fine brown powder that's packed tightly into this massive bag has a faint smell of burnt coffee, sort of like that last bit of sludge that's stuck to the bottom of a Bunn carafe after a long day at a diner. The taste is forgettable and inoffensive. A hat tip to Micro Ingredients is in order for its flawless execution of a product that's as mid as mid can possibly get: It barely tastes like coffee or mushrooms, yet it gestures toward both and offers the same end result for the user. I started with 2 teaspoons of the powder mixed into 8 ounces of hot water with the handheld blender the folks at MUD/WTR so graciously included in its own overengineered box (see below), and it took just a few seconds to realize this level of emulsion is overkill. You won't need more than a few turns of a common spoon to completely dissolve Micro Ingredients in your cup, and the lack of silty or gunky residue is greatly appreciated after a few sips. I gussied up subsequent cups with 4 ounces of steamed milk and 1 teaspoon of simple syrup for a slightly more gratifying sip, but it tastes fine on its own and would be a decent substitute for coffee on a camping trip or in some sort of emergency. The caffeine content is just a few clicks above a cup of decaf, which makes this a nice late-afternoon pick-me-up for folks who have to take it easy with the real stuff. Score 6.8/10 Key ingredients Instant Arabica coffee powder, chaga, reishi, lion's mane, cordyceps, turkey tail, shiitake, mesima, wood ear, oyster mushroom Caffeine Not stated
Max Fit Ten Mushrooms Coffee
The flavor of Ten Mushrooms is remarkably similar to that of Ryze (see below): smoky and savory with a sour finish and a dusty residue. A week with this did little to convince me that mushroom brew is the coffee of the future, but it didn't offend my sensibilities or my bowels in any notable way. If I were forced to choose between Ten Mushrooms and Ryze, I would choose the former due to its bullshit-free spin on a cottage industry that's filled with late-stage capitalist trapdoors and other forms of subscription-based chicanery.
As I write this, a 142-gram bag of Ten Mushrooms is about $10 cheaper than Ryze, and you can buy it instantly on Amazon without navigating several pages of subscriptions, pop-up discount offers, and other digital shakedowns. When the economy crashes and you still need to focus your chakras and conquer your ADHD with mushroom coffee, Jeff Bezos and Ten Mushrooms will be waiting for you with open arms. Score 6.3/10 Key ingredients Chaga, reishi, lion's mane, maitake, shiitake, cordyceps, turkey tail, king trumpet, willow bracket, agaricus blazei Caffeine 50 milligrams
