Put down that basic Earl Grey; it’s time for a new ritual. With all the various types of mushroom tea out there, finding a cup of holistic benefits has never been easier. 

Functional mushrooms in the form of tea can offer potential benefits for your immune system, stress levels, and mental clarity.

If you’ve heard about shroom tea and you’re curious, we’ve got you. The world of fungi is broad, and the jargon can be a lot. But tea time is for taking a relaxing moment to yourself, and mushroom tea was made for this.

What is mushroom tea?

If your mind went to thinking about psychedelic mushrooms the first time you heard the phrase “mushroom tea,” you’re not alone. 

But we’re not talking about funky fungi here. Mushroom tea is a herbal tea made from whole, dried mushrooms or mushroom powder steeped in hot water. Each type of mushroom tea blend offers its own unique flavor profile and potential health benefits.

The most common types of shrooms used in this beverage are adaptogenic mushroom varieties like shiitake, cordyceps, and maitake.

These shrooms are considered adaptogens because they contain biochemical compounds, like beta-glucans, which have been demonstrated to show positive medicinal effects on blood pressure, immune response, and inflammation. 

While continued research is necessary to back the benefits, medicinal mushroom tea is considered a superfood supplement.

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Mushroom tea versus traditional tea benefits

According to Healthline, traditional varieties like green tea contain antioxidants, reduce stress, and improve heart health. In contrast, mushroom tea has the potential to boost immunity, decrease inflammation, and improve mental clarity — all with less caffeine.

Because mushroom teas are often made with little to no tea leaves, you can avoid even the slightest of jolts and jitters.

Of course, it ultimately depends on what mushroom you’re sipping. Blends with maitake or shiitake can leverage the immune-supportive properties of these fungi.

Specifically, reishi mushrooms are commonly used in Chinese medicine and have been regarded in limited research for their immune support. Reishi will give your tea a woody taste with a hint of bitterness.

Chaga mushroom tea is made with a fungus known to be high in anticancerous elements, while you may add lion’s mane mushrooms for their cognitive-function benefits, helping to improve focus, memory, and nervous system functions (1).

A mushroom tea with cordyceps will feature the rare fungus known for its energy-boosting and cholesterol-level-reducing impacts. Not as sweet as Chaga, cordyceps will add a deep, rich flavor to your tea.

Our favorite types of mushroom teas

How do you know which tea to look for? You’ll want to check for the quality of ingredients, type of mushroom used, brewing method, flavor profile, and of course, one that fits your budget. 

Remember to look for varieties that feature 100% fruiting bodies, so you know you’re getting the most nutritious, wholesome product.

1. Four Sigmatic

Although Four Sigmatic entered the scene as a Chaga-coffee company based on a Finnish World War II beverage, the company has quickly grown to include a full range of adaptogenic beverages, including mushroom teas.

Taste

There’s an array of options for tea from Four Sigmatic, but they all have one thing in common — deliciousness. The 10 Mushroom Blend is a powdered supplement that turns into bold-tasting mushroom tea with simple hot water steeping. However, it’s the warming, spiced notes of the reishi/turkey tail chai latte that really gets us going. 

Quality

As the industry’s biggest player, we’d be disappointed if Four Sigmatic used anything less than 100% fruiting body shrooms. We’re happy to report that they do, and then some. The Finnish company only uses organic, log-grown mushrooms, with a dual extraction process that reaps the most possible benefits. Plus, the company uses added superfood herbs and roots in its instant blends, such as Schisandra and Rhodiola.

Price

Four Sigmatic’s prices range from $16 to $30 for a 20-serving box of teas.

2. Traditional Medicinals

If you’re new to the world of mushroom tea and nervous about spending big bucks on something you’re not sure of, Traditional Medicinals is a great place to start. Although the company doesn’t offer a huge range of shroom teas, they focus on their core offering, a rooibos and reishi mushroom tea blend.

Taste

This was the very first mushroom tea I started with, and it’s a safe bet with pronounced yet unpretentious flavors. The reishi has a modest earthy flavor, the rooibos is slightly nutty, while bright notes from citrus peel uplift the overall character of this tea.

Quality

Traditional Medicinals partners with expert herbalists and chemists to ensure that all of their products are made with prime ingredients, free of trace contaminants, and as potent as possible. The reishi mushrooms in these teabags are 100% fruiting body from a dry, 10:1 aqueous extract, and the supporting ingredients are entirely organic.

Price

One 16-bag box runs $5.99.

3. Tamim Teas

A brand as big as Four Sigmatic might have the scale to justify sourcing mushrooms from all over the world, but smaller-scaled Tamim delivers 100% American-grown shrooms packed into every tea bag. And yes! We’re talking about true tea rather than mushroom extract for your own mixing.

Taste

As an herbal tea company through and through, Tamim uses edible mushrooms in conjunction with dried herbs to create unique flavor profiles that you won’t find in many other shroom beverages. The Maitake Mushroom Bloom, for example, pairs spicy ginger with bright pops of goji. Unique flavors like this are all over the menu, but what you’ll never get is a hyper-bitter or unsettlingly earthy flavor.

Quality 

These caffeine-free blends are made with high-quality herbs and mushrooms sourced from small-scale family farms that are certified organic. Tamim is about as close as you can get to farm-to-table fungi over the internet, with full-bodied flavors from well-dried, well-grown shrooms.

Price

Prices start at $4 for sample sizes, with 2.8-ounce (32-cup) servings costing around $18. Best of all, you can order in bulk 1-pound bags for $70-$180 (for the full blend).

4. Harney & Sons

Harney & Sons is a well-known US-based, owned and operated tea company that has been making quality teas since 1983. They offer over 300 varieties of high-quality teas, carry Fair Trade Certified teas, and sell three types of mushroom tea – Chaga, Chaga Wonder, and Chaga Chai.

Taste

This family-based company sells 50 tea sachets of simply ground Chaga mushrooms with vanillin. It’ll definitely taste earthy and have a hint of bitterness in a 12-ounce cup of tea that maintains the original integrity of the fungus. Another option is their more flavored variety, Chaga Wonder, a mix of Chaga, herbaceous hemp, and equatorial coconut to help sweeten the terraceous taste. The third blend is Chaga Chai, a classic pairing of warming spices with the deep flavors of mushrooms.

Quality

Harney & Son’s three mushroom teams average a 4.6 rating on its website, which appears to have excellent customer experience. Unfortunately, they don’t disclose whether its teas are 100% fruiting bodies, but they do mention they’re made from wild-grown Canadian Chaga.

Price

Range from $21 to 49.

5. Dirtea

Dirtea’s branding is simple and straightforward, as is the company’s dedication to quality mushroom tea. While relatively new, Dirtea goes to the root of mushroom tea origin — China — to source mushrooms for its products. You can order this tea individually or by subscription.

Taste

Because Dirtea’s mushroom tea powders are not mixed with additional ingredients, flavors, or multiple varieties of fungi, you only get the true concentrated taste of the shroom you’ve ordered. That means you’ll find a slight bitterness in cordyceps, while Chaga runs a tad sweeter and reishi earthier.

Quality

Dual-extracted, 3rd party-tested, and Organic Food Federation-certified. Is there a box these mushroom teas don’t check? The company purports to source its fungi from Fujian, China, a province renowned for high-quality mushroom growth.

Price

Dirtea doesn’t run cheap, unfortunately. Thirty servings run about $50, and since the company is UK-based, shipping is an added cost to consider.

6. Moon Juice

Unlike other companies on this list, Moon Juice has a broader focus than just mushroom teas. The company offers a range of products with a full spectrum of adaptogenic additives to add a few more ingredients to your wellness routine rather than pure shroom tea.

Taste

The Moon Juice line has just one product that is made purely from mushrooms, and that’s the Chaga instant powder. It can be turned into tea in a jiff, with a dark, loamy flavor, and much more robust than any old chamomile. Another product line, Power Dust, works in the slightly bitter taste of Aryuvedic ashwagandha and ginseng for a complete flavor profile.

Quality

Moon Juice uses organic products and is dedicated to sustainability initiatives in its sourcing. The company touts 100% traceable ingredients measured for potency and monitored for concentrations of heavy metals, pesticides, or residual solvents.

Price

The Dust Line ranges from $27 to $34 for 1.3 ounces, while Chaga powder goes for $43.

It’s tea time!

Why did the mushroom order a cup of tea at the café? Because he wanted to “steep” in the moment! Now, you can too. The benefits of this beverage will help you feel relaxed and nourished, no matter when you take your daily cuppa. Whether you’re replacing a cup of coffee or just want to increase your overall health, the side effects of mushroom tea are minimal compared to caffeine. There’s a reason why Eastern medicine, from Japan and China to India, has brewed elixirs of mushroom black tea for centuries. Try one, a few, or maybe all of them to get all the wonderful flavors and health benefits that medicinal mushrooms offer.

References

1.) Arata, Satoru, Jun Watanabe, Masako Maeda, Masato Yamamoto, Hideto Matsuhashi, Mamiko Mochizuki, Nobuyuki Kagami, Kazuho Honda, and Masahiro Inagaki. 2016. “Continuous Intake of the Chaga Mushroom (Inonotus Obliquus) Aqueous Extract Suppresses Cancer Progression and Maintains Body Temperature in Mice.” Heliyon 2 (5): e00111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2016.e00111.