Does Mushroom Coffee Have Caffeine?
Updated - Team Colipse
Mushroom coffee contains caffeine because most blends combine real coffee with caffeine-free mushroom powder. Most products provide about 40–80 mg per serving, compared with roughly 95–200 mg in standard drip coffee, although individual products range from about 45–90 mg or higher. The lower caffeine comes entirely from replacing part of the coffee with mushrooms; the mushrooms do not remove or alter caffeine. No clinical trial shows that medicinal mushrooms change caffeine’s effects or create “smoother” energy. Caffeine-sensitive drinkers can choose lower-caffeine blends, decaffeinated mushroom coffee containing roughly 1–5 mg per cup, or coffee-free chicory and dandelion blends. Switching abruptly from regular coffee to a lower-caffeine mushroom blend may cause mild withdrawal symptoms such as headaches, irritability, and reduced alertness for several days.
Does Mushroom Coffee Have Caffeine?
Yes, mushroom coffee does have caffeine when it contains real coffee. Coffee provides the caffeine, while mushroom powder contains none. A typical serving contains about 40 to 80 milligrams (mg) of caffeine, compared with roughly 95 to 200 mg in standard drip coffee.
Mushroom coffee made without coffee beans can contain no measurable caffeine. Caffeine-free blends use alternatives such as roasted chicory or dandelion root as the base. These products represent a minority of the category. Most mushroom coffee combines ground or instant coffee with dried, extracted mushroom powder.
RYZE, Four Sigmatic, Everyday Dose and Laird Superfood use real coffee in their standard blends. Bazan Coffee, Cafely and Everyday Dose also state that mushroom coffee contains caffeine but generally provides less than a full-strength cup. Check the product package for the caffeine content of a specific blend, although some mushroom coffee packaging does not list caffeine levels.
Where Does the Caffeine in Mushroom Coffee Come From?
The caffeine in mushroom coffee comes entirely from the coffee. Medicinal mushrooms contain no caffeine. Drying, extracting, and grinding lion's mane, chaga, reishi, cordyceps, or turkey tail does not add caffeine to the finished blend.
Mushroom coffee typically combines coffee with dried mushroom extracts. Manufacturers dehydrate and extract the fruiting bodies of medicinal mushrooms, then grind the extract into a fine powder. They commonly blend this powder with ground coffee beans at roughly a one-to-one ratio.
Healthline, UCLA Health, and Illinois Extension document this 50/50 formulation. Illinois Extension states that about half the grounds are coffee beans and half are dried, ground mushrooms. The mushroom half contributes no caffeine, so the finished product contains roughly half the caffeine of the same volume of regular coffee. Instant mushroom coffee follows the same principle by using instant coffee or coffee bean extract instead of coffee grounds.
Some blends also contain caffeine-free ingredients such as medium-chain triglyceride oil, coconut milk powder, collagen, or L-theanine. These ingredients can reduce the proportion of coffee further. The coffee-to-mushroom ratio determines the caffeine level, not the mushrooms themselves. Blends with a higher proportion of coffee contain caffeine levels closer to regular coffee.
How Much Caffeine Is in Mushroom Coffee?
Most mushroom coffee blends contain roughly 40 to 80 mg of caffeine per serving. Regular drip coffee typically contains about 95 mg per 8-fluid-ounce cup, although caffeine levels vary by product, serving size, and brewing method.
RYZE contains 48 mg of caffeine per serving. Everyday Dose contains 45 mg in its mild roast and 90 mg in its medium roast. Four Sigmatic provides about 50 mg per packet, while CUPPA provides approximately 70 mg per scoop. These differences make the product label more reliable than a category average.
Mushroom coffee made with a full-strength ground-coffee base can retain caffeine levels similar to regular coffee. Standard drip coffee provides about 95 mg of caffeine per 8-fluid-ounce cup, although individual brews can contain substantially more depending on the coffee, serving size, and preparation method. The United States Department of Agriculture lists about 95 mg for a typical 8-fluid-ounce brewed coffee, while AARP uses 96 mg for the same comparison.
Prepared mushroom coffee servings can vary substantially. Some mushroom coffee products contain roughly 40 to 80 mg per serving, while stronger products can reach 90 mg or more. A standard espresso shot contains about 63 mg of caffeine, but a mushroom-infused espresso product can differ based on its formulation. Check the package for the product's stated caffeine content when tracking exact milligrams.
How Much Caffeine Does Each Brand Have?
Published per-serving figures differ enough that the brand decides the answer, as the table below sets out. The table lists caffeine content as each brand or a reviewing publication states it, with regular and decaffeinated coffee included for reference.
| Product | Form | Stated caffeine per serving |
|---|---|---|
| Everyday Dose Mild Roast Coffee+ | Instant | 45 mg |
| RYZE Mushroom Coffee | Instant | 48 mg |
| Four Sigmatic Instant Mushroom Coffee with lion's mane | Instant | 50 mg |
| Shrooms Reishi Mushroom Coffee | Instant | 53 mg |
| Tiger 2 Mushroom Coffee, lion's mane and chaga | Ground | 60 mg |
| CUPPA Healthy Coffee | Instant | approximately 70 mg |
| Everyday Dose Medium Roast Coffee+ | Instant | 90 mg |
| Four Sigmatic Calm Decaf Ground Coffee | Ground, Swiss Water decaffeinated | decaffeinated, trace only |
| La Republica Decaf Organic Mushroom Coffee | Instant, water-processed decaffeinated | decaffeinated, trace only |
| Laird Superfood Decaf Perform | Ground, Swiss Water decaffeinated | decaffeinated, trace only |
| Regular drip coffee, 8 fluid ounces | Ground | about 95 mg |
| Decaffeinated ground coffee, 8 fluid ounces | Ground | 1 to 5 mg |
Two cautions accompany this table. Every mushroom coffee figure in it is brand-published or sourced from a publication's own comparison, and none was independently tested. No third-party laboratory certifies verified caffeine assays across these products.
Serving sizes also vary between rows. RYZE and Everyday Dose report their figures per tablespoon, and La Republica per teaspoon. The coffee reference rows measure 8 fluid ounces of prepared drink. Compare milligrams per cup you actually consume, not per scoop the brand chooses to specify.
Does Mushroom Coffee Have Less Caffeine Than Regular Coffee?
Usually, yes. Mushroom coffee contains roughly half the caffeine of regular coffee. Common instant mushroom coffee blends contain about 45 to 53 mg of caffeine per cup, compared with about 95 mg in a standard cup of drip coffee. Full-strength mushroom coffee blends can contain as much caffeine as regular coffee.
Illinois Extension states that mushroom coffee typically contains about 50% less caffeine because many blends use roughly 50% coffee grounds. Healthline reports the same general reduction but notes that caffeine levels vary by brand and may not appear on product packaging.
Everyday Dose medium roast contains 90 mg of caffeine, placing it within the range of ordinary coffee. Mushroom coffee also contains substantially more caffeine than decaffeinated coffee, which averages 1 to 5 mg per cup. Mushroom coffee is therefore not equivalent to decaf.
Replacing one 95 mg cup of regular coffee with a 48 mg mushroom coffee reduces daily caffeine intake by about 47 mg. The Food and Drug Administration advises most healthy adults to limit caffeine to 400 mg per day. This substitution reduces caffeine intake by about 12% of that daily limit.
Why Is Mushroom Coffee Lower in Caffeine?
Dilution explains the lower caffeine level entirely. Caffeine-free mushroom powder replaces part of the coffee, so less coffee reaches the cup. Nothing in the mushrooms removes, blocks or neutralises caffeine already present.
Two secondary factors move the number a little further, as listed below.
- Bean choice: Bean choice means most blends use Arabica beans rather than Robusta, and Arabica contains less caffeine than Robusta, which trims the figure before any dilution happens.
- Added non-coffee ingredients: Added non-coffee ingredients means several blends include medium-chain triglyceride oil, coconut milk powder and collagen, which displace still more of the coffee fraction.
Brands describe the resulting dose as deliberate rather than incidental. Cafely's write-up of RYZE makes that case explicitly: a mid-level dose gives mild stimulation without overstimulation. Take that marketing language carefully, though — a lower dose is a smaller amount of the same molecule, not a different or gentler form of it.
The caffeine in mushroom coffee is chemically identical to the caffeine in any other coffee, and no brand extracts or modifies it. Blends that keep more coffee in the mix are correspondingly stronger, so one brand can sell a 45 mg product and a 90 mg product side by side.
Do the Mushrooms Change How Caffeine Affects You?
No, no clinical trial has demonstrated that mushrooms alter caffeine's effects. Brands claim mushrooms create smoother, crash-free energy, but no clinical trial has evaluated energy, alertness, or fatigue in people consuming a finished mushroom coffee blend. The smoothing claim relies on theoretical mechanisms and testimonials rather than finished-product trials.
Caffeine pharmacology explains the established effects. Fredholm, Battig, Holmen, Nehlig and Zvartau described the mechanism in Pharmacological Reviews in 1999, volume 51, issue 1, pages 83 to 133. At ordinary human doses, caffeine acts as a non-selective antagonist at A1 and A2A adenosine receptors. Blocking these receptors accounts for caffeine's primary effects at these doses.
Adenosine accumulates during waking hours and promotes sleepiness. Caffeine blocks adenosine receptors and suppresses tiredness rather than providing fuel, and caffeine itself provides no calories. A smaller caffeine dose therefore generally produces a smaller effect and can provide a straightforward explanation for a gentler cup.
The mushroom dose also limits claims about acute effects. A serving typically provides 250 to 500 mg of total mushroom blend across four to six species, leaving approximately 40 to 125 mg per species when distributed across the blend. Trials on individual species commonly use 1 to 3 grams of one extract per day, substantially more than these per-species amounts. No clinical trial has evaluated a finished mushroom coffee blend in humans on energy, alertness, or fatigue, and Harvard Health, UCLA Health, Cleveland Clinic and Healthline have each discussed the limited clinical evidence for mushroom coffee.
Is There Caffeine-Free Mushroom Coffee?
Yes, caffeine-free mushroom coffee exists in two different forms. Several brands sell decaffeinated mushroom coffee made from decaffeinated beans, which leaves trace caffeine rather than none. Others build a coffee-free blend on roasted chicory or dandelion root, which contains no caffeine at all.
The list below describes each of the two routes.
- Decaffeinated mushroom coffee: Decaffeinated mushroom coffee means a blend built on beans that have had most of their caffeine removed before roasting, which leaves trace caffeine rather than none. Four Sigmatic's Calm Decaf pairs reishi and chaga with organic Peruvian Arabica decaffeinated by the Swiss Water process, a chemical-free method using water, time and temperature. Laird Superfood uses the same process for its Decaf Perform blend with chaga, lion's mane, maitake and cordyceps, and La Republica sells a water-processed instant decaf with seven mushroom extracts. In the European Union, Directive 1999/4/EC caps decaffeinated roasted coffee at 0.1% anhydrous caffeine on dry matter, meaning 99.9% removal, while coffee extracts carry a 0.3% ceiling. In the United States the widely quoted 97% removal figure is an industry norm rather than a Food and Drug Administration rule; the FDA's own regulation on this subject, 21 CFR 173.255, caps methylene chloride residue at 10 parts per million in decaffeinated roasted coffee. In practice a cup of decaf carries 1 to 5 mg.
- Coffee-free mushroom coffee: Coffee-free mushroom coffee means a blend built without any coffee bean at all, replacing it with roasted chicory, roasted dandelion root or cacao. Fermensch builds its blend from roasted chicory, roasted dandelion root and cacao, with five mushroom extracts, and discloses the honest caveat that cacao contributes a negligible trace, roughly 1.5% of the caffeine in a normal cup.
Can Caffeine-Sensitive People Drink Mushroom Coffee?
Many can tolerate it, because mushroom coffee's smaller caffeine dose accommodates sensitive drinkers better than a full-strength brew. Caffeine sensitivity fluctuates widely with genetics, so a personal threshold can fall far below the FDA's 400 mg daily ceiling. Anyone reacting adversely to 45 mg from mushroom coffee will respond the same way to 45 mg from any other source.
Several sensitive groups need to calculate the exact milligram count rather than trust the category. Healthline identifies the highest-risk groups for caffeine as individuals who are pregnant or lactating, children, and people with underlying heart conditions, each of whom should restrict intake. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists advises pregnant individuals to remain under 200 mg a day, in Committee Opinion Number 462, and two servings of a 90 mg blend would nearly exhaust that allowance.
Caffeine also functions as a diuretic. AARP's reporting quotes Matthew Landry of the University of California Irvine on why that matters: sensitive older adults who already drink too little water risk compounding dehydration.
Beyond caffeine, the mushroom extract introduces its own cautions that a sensitive consumer should evaluate separately. Memorial Sloan Kettering's herb database lists reishi as able to elevate bleeding risk alongside anticoagulant and antiplatelet drugs, and highlights interference with immunosuppressants. AARP quotes registered dietitian Mindy Haar on the oxalate concentration in mushroom coffee, which threatens anyone with kidney problems, and Illinois Extension warns that lion's mane interacts with certain diabetes medications and blood thinners. No regulator establishes any daily intake limit for lion's mane, reishi, chaga, cordyceps or turkey tail, so the caffeine ceiling remains the only official guideline attached to a cup.
Where to Buy Verified-Caffeine Mushroom Coffee?
You can buy regular mushroom coffee from Colipse Coffee. Colipse states its caffeine content on the label rather than leaving it off, and roasts real specialty-grade Arabica to order instead of shipping instant powder. Checking the label against the numbers above is the fastest way to compare any blend on the shelf.
Will Switching to Mushroom Coffee Cause Caffeine Withdrawal?
Switching to mushroom coffee can cause mild caffeine withdrawal when caffeine intake drops from about 95 mg to about 48 mg per cup. Habitual caffeine consumers may experience headaches, lower alertness, or irritability for several days. Smaller caffeine reductions generally produce milder withdrawal symptoms.
A 2010 study in Neuropsychopharmacology examined how caffeine withdrawal affects alertness. Rogers, Hohoff, Heatherley, Mullings, Maxfield, Evershed, Deckert, and Nutt published the randomised, double-blind, parallel-groups trial in volume 35, pages 1973–1983.
The trial included 162 non-consumers or low caffeine consumers and 217 medium or high consumers. Participants rated anxiety, alertness, and headache after receiving 100 mg of caffeine or placebo and again 90 minutes after receiving another 150 mg or placebo. Caffeine did not increase alertness above baseline in non-consumers and low consumers. In habitual consumers, caffeine abstinence reduced alertness, while caffeine restored it to the level reported by non-consumers.
The authors interpreted this pattern as reversal of caffeine withdrawal rather than a net increase in alertness. Switching to a lower-caffeine mushroom coffee can therefore reduce caffeine dependence while maintaining part of the familiar stimulant effect.
Reduce caffeine gradually to limit withdrawal symptoms. Mixing regular and decaffeinated coffee can create a half-caf drink and make the reduction easier to manage. Caffeine withdrawal symptoms commonly improve within several days. Digestive changes from mushroom ingredients may occur separately, with reported adjustment periods often lasting about 3 to 7 days.
Does Cutting Caffeine Change Mushroom Coffee's Other Benefits?
Cutting caffeine changes mushroom coffee's stimulant effects, not the potential effects of its mushroom ingredients. A 2023 pilot study of 41 healthy adults found that a single 1.8-gram Lion's Mane dose improved performance on one cognitive test after 60 minutes. This result involved Lion's Mane rather than caffeine and forms part of the broader evidence on mushroom coffee benefits.