How Is Mushroom Coffee Made? From Coffee Bean to Finished Cup

There is usually another question behind this one

When someone asks how mushroom coffee is made, I find they are often really asking what exactly is in the cup. That makes sense because the category includes everything from roasted coffee to instant powders and coffee alternatives.

Urban Calm takes the roasted-coffee route. We start with specialty Colombian Arabica, develop the roast, and then incorporate our mushroom extracts into the finished coffee. The mushrooms are part of the product, but they do not replace the coffee.

It starts with the coffee

Before we even get to mushrooms, there is the coffee itself. Ours comes from Timana in Huila, Colombia. The coffee is specialty-grade Arabica, which means we are starting with beans we would be happy to roast and drink on their own.

That was important to me from the beginning. I did not want mushrooms to become an excuse for using average coffee. If anything, people are more cautious about taste when they hear the words mushroom coffee, so the coffee underneath needs to be worth drinking.

Then comes the roast

Roasting is where the coffee starts to develop the flavour profile people recognize in the cup. Urban Calm has four roast levels rather than one universal blend because a light-roast drinker and an espresso-roast drinker are not looking for the same experience.

Onward is light, Centered is medium, Dreamer is dark and Lioness is espresso roast. The mushroom pairing changes with each blend, but the roast still gives each coffee its own personality.

The mushroom ingredients are made separately

The mushrooms are not grown inside the coffee bean, and we are not roasting whole mushrooms together with green coffee. The coffee and mushroom ingredients have their own production processes before they come together in the finished blend.

Urban Calm uses organic 100% fruiting body mushroom extracts. An extract is made by processing mushroom material to pull soluble compounds into an extract ingredient, which is then dried into a form that can be used in foods and beverages. The exact extraction process can vary by ingredient and supplier.

Why fruiting body matters to us

The fruiting body is the part most people picture when they think of a mushroom. Mycelium is the network of fungal material that grows through its food source. They are both part of the fungal life cycle, but they are not the same material.

For Urban Calm, we chose fruiting body extracts and do not use mycelium-based mushroom ingredients. I think this is the kind of sourcing detail brands should make easy to find, especially in a category where labels can become complicated quickly.

How do the mushrooms get into the coffee without taking over the flavour?

This comes down to formulation. The goal is not to make the mushroom flavour as strong as possible. We want the extracts incorporated while the roast remains the main flavour experience.

That is also why one formula does not need to be forced across every roast. A light roast and a dark roast behave differently in the cup, so the coffee side needs to be part of the formulation conversation from the beginning.

What does third-party tested mean?

Our mushroom extracts are third-party tested. I think testing is useful because ingredients can vary based on where they come from and how they are grown and processed. At the same time, I do not think the phrase should be treated like magic.

Third-party testing tells you that an outside laboratory or testing organization performed an analysis. What it proves depends on what was actually tested. It does not, by itself, prove that a finished coffee produces a particular health outcome.

Brewed coffee and instant coffee are made differently

Many of the mushroom coffees people first discover online are instant. You add the powder to hot water, stir and drink. That is convenient, but it is a different coffee experience from brewing roasted coffee.

Urban Calm is available as whole bean, ground and K-Cups because I wanted the product to fit into normal coffee habits. If you already grind beans, use a drip brewer or press a button on a single-serve machine, you can keep doing that.

The finished cup should still feel simple

There are a lot of technical details behind both coffee and mushrooms, but the person making a cup in the morning should not need to manage all of them. The complicated work happens before the product gets to your kitchen.

At home, the test is much simpler. Does it brew the way you expect? Does it taste like good coffee? And is it something you would be happy to make again tomorrow? That is the standard we keep coming back to.

For a species-by-species look at the ingredients that go into the blends, continue with our guide to Lion's Mane, Reishi, Chaga and Cordyceps.

Keep learning

• What Is Mushroom Coffee?
• Fruiting Body vs. Mycelium
• What Third-Party Tested Actually Means
• The Women Behind Our Coffee
• Explore Urban Calm Mushroom Coffee