In 2019, Mushroom Coffee and Functional Foods Lead The Way
Can you imagine replacing your morning cup of coffee for a mushroom tea? Mushroom brew was an idea that was quite difficult for me to stomach. However, as a cold brew addict looking for a way to curb my straight coffee caffeine consumption, and an enthusiastic experimenter of new ‘health foods’, I decided to give mushroom coffee a try. I picked up a mushroom sample pack from Whole Foods, introducing myself to random words that sounded healthy but I had no real understanding behind (think ‘Chaga’, ‘Cordyceps’, ‘Lions Mane’ and many more!)
Surprisingly, the flavors weren’t as bitter or pungent as I expected. I liked the spicy hot chocolate, but I found the coffee a little blunt tasting — disappointingly, it didn’t have the smooth perfect balance of sour and bitter that cold brew has. But perhaps it’s not meant to taste the same, much like comparing vegetarian burgers with meat burgers. I would definitely give it another go at some point in the future. My favorite item was the hot chocolate and the chaga elixir that had a very mild, licorice taste to it. The experiment acquainted me with all the different types of mushrooms I didn’t know I had to know the names of — the aforementioned ‘Chaga’ grows on birch trees throughout the northern hemisphere, a mushroom that is apparently antioxidant rich and good for reducing inflammation.
According to Grand View Research, the mushroom market is expected to exceed $50B in the next 6 years. Aptly named the “Shroom Boom”, the main player in the drinkable mushroom field, Four Sigmatic, has recently begun selling in stores like Sephora starting in 2017. Four Sigmatic originated from Finland where a startup combined Finnish ancestral chaga tea recipes with the highest caffeine consuming country in the world. The shroom beverages are quirky and cute, with each type of mushroom/adaptogen mix targeted to a specific function eg: “Focus”, “Delight”, “Chill” and “Conquer”.
Why the name Four Sigmatic? The company claims that the mushrooms they use fall under the category of four sigmas away from ‘average foods’, and “when you compare how nutritious all foods are in the world, and you put these foods on a scale from average to good to bad, the further you get from your “average” food, the more rare it is, and more sigmas (σ) you have. Only 50 superfoods in the world qualify as “four sigmatic.” — Four Sigmatic.
My venture into the mushroom world got me thinking a lot more about functional foods — the edible items that have innate health benefits: think fermented products, east meets west medicinal fusions, probiotics, and adaptogenic herbs (non-toxic plants that claim to help adrenals and hormonal balance under stress). Four Sigmatic describes themselves as a specializing in superfoods, functional mushrooms and adaptogenic herbs.
There has been a growing interest in changing our diets in order to better support gut health and mental health, especially amongst wellness-conscious millennials. Just look at the success of Four Sigmatic as an example — and now, other brands interested in the progression of intersection between caffeination and nutrition include Verb Energy — started by Yale students, using alternative caffeine sources for a less jittery energy bar, Ripple — pea protein milk which has secured $110M+ in funding, Kitu- high protein coffee, and REBBL, a startup that raised $20 million in May 2018 for its line of bottled drinks featuring coconut elixir and health-promoting herbs.
According to CBInsights, since 2016, many niche ingredients are surfacing along the likes of Pea Protein, Seaweed, Matcha and yerba mate, Mushroom proteins, Moringa, Maca, and Monkfruit to name a few. Drawing from Nielson insights, 67% of Americans say they’ll be prioritizing healthy food purchases and functional beverages are the main entry point to functional ingredients. An article that discusses these food trends I found very interesting is this one by CBInsights where they outline the rapid changes being made to the CPG industry and how to navigate these changes.
I am a firm believer that “healthy” is an extremely relative term. Breakfast was holy and eggs were a cholesterol bomb only a while ago, and now intermittent fasting is gaining traction and eggs have found their way back into nutritionist’s good books. Health and wellness is so interesting because it is so controversial.
Do these work? I can’t come to a conclusion this early in the game, but I do know that every swing of the century there seems to be a large health revolution and mushrooms seem to be growing (no pun intended).
Would you try a mushroom mix?
Originally published at www.nicoleseah.net on February 13, 2019.
