Does Mushroom Coffee Have Caffeine? Brand-by-Brand Numbers
Most mushroom coffee does have caffeine, usually 35 to 60 mg per serving, which is about half of a regular 8 oz cup of coffee at roughly 95 mg. The reason is simple. Most mushroom coffee is ordinary coffee with mushroom extract mixed in, so the caffeine comes from the coffee, and there is less of it because the mushroom powder takes up part of the scoop. Ryze lists 48 mg per serving. Four Sigmatic sells its original blend as half-caf at about 50 mg. Everyday Dose sits around 45 mg, and MUD\WTR, which is built on black tea and cacao rather than coffee, comes in near 35 mg. The mushrooms add none. Lion's mane, chaga, reishi and cordyceps contain no caffeine at all. So if a mushroom coffee feels gentler than your usual mug, the smaller caffeine dose is the most likely explanation, and the mushrooms probably have little to do with it.
If a smaller dose is what you are after, you can get it without the mushrooms. Our Half-Caf Colombia blends full-caf and Swiss Water decaf beans 50/50, and our Colombia Decaf takes it close to zero.
How much caffeine is in each mushroom coffee brand?
| Drink | Base | Caffeine per serving | Compared with 8 oz coffee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Regular brewed coffee | Coffee | About 95 mg | Baseline |
| Four Sigmatic Original | Coffee | About 50 mg | About half |
| Ryze | Coffee | 48 mg | About half |
| Everyday Dose | Coffee | About 45 mg | Just under half |
| MUD\WTR | Black tea and cacao | About 35 mg | About a third |
| Mushroom elixirs (no coffee or tea) | Mushroom extract | 0 mg | None |
| Decaf coffee | Decaffeinated coffee | 2 to 5 mg | Almost none |
Brands reformulate, and the same company often sells several products with different numbers, so treat the label on the bag in front of you as the final word. The pattern holds across the category, though. Mushroom coffee is a lower-caffeine coffee, not a caffeine-free one.
Do the mushrooms themselves contain caffeine?
No. None of the mushrooms used in these blends produce caffeine.
Caffeine is made by a short list of plants: coffee, tea, cacao, yerba mate, guarana and a few others. Fungi are not on it. Cordyceps is often sold as the "energy" mushroom, and that marketing leads a lot of people to assume it works like a stimulant. It does not contain one.
That matters when you read a label. If a product lists 50 mg of caffeine and 1,000 mg of a mushroom blend, all 50 mg came from the coffee or tea in the mix.
Why does mushroom coffee feel smoother than regular coffee?
Mostly because you are drinking half as much caffeine.
Jitters, a racing heart and the mid-morning crash all scale with dose. Cut the dose in half and most people feel a softer lift. That is a real and useful effect, and it is the same one you would get from simply drinking half a cup of your normal coffee.
Format plays a part as well. Many mushroom coffees are instant powders made up in a large mug of water, so the drink is weaker per sip than a strong drip coffee. And expectation does some work: a drink sold as calm tends to be experienced as calm. None of this means the drink is a bad choice. It means the caffeine is doing most of what you notice. We looked at the wider picture, including the downsides, in mushroom coffee side effects.
Is there a caffeine-free mushroom coffee?
Yes, but it is usually sold under a different name.
Products made only from mushroom extract, sometimes blended with cacao, chicory or roasted grains, are typically called elixirs, blends or coffee alternatives. Four Sigmatic, for example, sells mushroom elixirs with no coffee in them. Read the front of the pack carefully. "Low caffeine" and "caffeine-free" are different claims, and anything built on black or green tea still carries some.
If the reason you are looking at these is that you want to quit caffeine entirely, plan for the withdrawal. Going from a full cup to zero overnight is what causes the headaches, and tapering through a half-caf stage avoids most of it. The timeline is in how long a caffeine withdrawal headache lasts.
How else can you cut caffeine without giving up coffee?
Change the dose, the method or the beans. All three work, and none needs a new product category.
- Use less coffee. Caffeine scales directly with the amount of ground coffee. Drop from 20 g to 12 g and you lose about 40% of the caffeine.
- Pick a lower-caffeine method. A single espresso shot carries less than a large drip mug, and cold brew concentrate carries more. The numbers by method are in caffeine by brew method.
- Blend in decaf. A half-caf gets you the same taste with half the stimulant. Ours lands around 50 to 70 mg a cup.
- Switch to decaf after lunch. Decaf is not zero, but at 2 to 5 mg it is close. The honest number is in does decaf coffee have caffeine.
Does the CBD in our coffee change the caffeine?
No. The CBD is infused into the beans during roasting and does not touch the caffeine the bean already contains. A bag of our full-caf coffee carries the same caffeine as the same beans without CBD, and the half-caf and decaf numbers come from the decaf beans in them. The full comparison is in how much caffeine is in CBD coffee.
Keep Reading
- Mushroom Coffee Side Effects: What You Need to Know Before Switching
- Does Mushroom Coffee Actually Taste Like Dirt?
- How Much Caffeine Is in a Cup of Coffee, by Brew Method
- Does Decaf Coffee Have Caffeine? The Honest Number
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. This article is general information, not medical advice. If you are pregnant, breastfeeding, or taking medication, talk to your doctor about caffeine.
