Mushroom Coffee May Combat Inflammation and Fatigue, but Is It Hallucinatory?

Mushrooms are captivating fungi. They lend flavors to meals, provide trippy experiences, and even inspire video games like The Last of Us, based on a real mushroom species known as Cordyceps. Now, people are enjoying the benefits of mushroom coffee.

Learn more about why some people add mushrooms to their daily cup of java and how it tastes. It might inspire you to change your morning routine to improve your health and enjoy another kind of plant-based diet.

Mushroom coffee is made of dried and ground mushrooms, which manufacturers occasionally blend into coffee grounds. The grounds work in any coffee maker. As long as they brew with hot water, you’ll enjoy a morning cup of coffee.

People often associate mushrooms with psychedelic experiences. The mushrooms causing those hallucinations are psilocybe mushrooms and trigger those experiences with their natural psilocybin compound, as stated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

Regular mushroom coffee doesn’t contain psilocybin because it’s not a legal drug. Although a handful of cities and states legalized it for medicinal purposes — starting with Denver in 2019, per The Associated Press — it’s still a Schedule I drug, as noted by the American Bar Association.

Mushroom coffee won’t cause hallucinations because it doesn’t contain psilocybin. It’s not possible for businesses to manufacture and sell illegal drugs. Instead, the coffee provides numerous health benefits that could improve your overall well-being.

There are many benefits of mushroom coffee if you drink it regularly. Whether you enjoy a cup of iced coffee because it contains more caffeine, as noted by Joe’s Garage Coffee, or a mug of steaming java, giving mushroom coffee a try could improve your health.

The bioactive compounds in common varieties like lion’s mane or reishi boost cognitive functioning when ground into a supplement form, as found in research from the International Journal of Molecular Sciences.

Researchers have also found that Cordyceps coffee fights cancer, reduces the chances of developing diabetes, and demonstrates antiviral properties, per Preventative Nutrition and Food Science. Per research from Preventative Cardiology, you could benefit from these health-boosting effects while the coffee grounds strengthen your heart and increase your potential lifespan.

The primary precaution for people interested in the benefits of mushroom coffee is knowing what’s in your preferred products. Researchers with Nutrients noted this challenge as they tried to pinpoint how much lion’s mane was necessary for a cup of coffee for people to experience the evidentiary health benefits.

No laws regulate mushroom coffee ingredients, so you won’t know exactly how much of each product’s mushroom grounds you’re getting in each sip. You’ll also need to discuss potential health concerns with your doctor, as some plant compounds can interact with prescription medicine.

It’s also crucial to learn the risks of each mushroom variety in your coffee. Reishi, for example, is safe to consume but can increase the risk of bleeding for individuals with bleeding disorders. Those risks don’t disappear just because the mushrooms are in your coffee cup instead of on a salad.

As long as you stick with the serving size recommendation on your mushroom coffee product, you’ll get the health benefits of adding the ground mushrooms to your diet. They’re safe to consume after considering these risks and making the best decision for your health.

Talk with your doctor if you’d like to experience the benefits of mushroom coffee. It could be a healthy addition to your daily diet if you select mushroom blends that don’t have specie-specific risks for your health history.