Key Takeaways
- About 56% of the 144 drinkers who described their own results say mushroom coffee helped, most often with focus or a calmer morning without the crash
- About 23% had a bad reaction, and about 6 in 10 of those involve the stomach
- About 4 in 10 people who said why they started were trying to get away from something regular coffee did to them, like jitters, a crash or reflux
- The taste splits people: about 43% dislike it, about 38% like it and about 18% only drink it with creamer or sweetener
- When people give up on a brand, only about 4% go back to plain coffee. More of them switch brands (about 18%) or add mushroom powder to their own coffee (about 17%)
About 12,000 people a month ask Google whether mushroom coffee is good for them. Fair question. Most of what comes up is brand blogs and taste tests, so I wanted to hear from people who've drunk it for weeks or years. What made them give up regular coffee in the first place?
Short answer? About half of the drinkers who describe their own results say it helped, and about 1 in 4 had a bad reaction. But I learned more from why they switched, because many of them weren't looking for mushrooms at all, they just wanted their coffee to stop doing something to them.
We analyzed 4,700+ comments from 397 discussions about mushroom coffee. Of 144 drinkers describing their own results, about 56% said it helped and about 23% had a bad reaction, mostly stomach trouble. Of 72 people who said where they ended up, only about 4% went back to plain coffee.
About this study
- Corpus
- 4,789 public comments from 397 hand-picked discussions about mushroom coffee in 141 communities. We analyzed about 950 of them, taken at random from keyword searches for each theme, and sorted them into themes by hand. About 440 said something we could count. Brands, subscriptions, grit and caffeine were also counted across all 4,789 comments
- Communities
- Mushroom coffee and functional mushroom groups, supplement and biohacking forums, coffee and caffeine-quitting communities, and brand fan groups. Also gut health groups for reflux, gastritis, IBS, SIBO, colitis and bladder pain. Plus ADHD, anxiety, PCOS, menopause and long COVID groups, and a few parenting, store, product tester and scam-warning communities
- Themes coded
- Why people switch from coffee, whether they felt anything, taste and caffeine, price and subscriptions, and where they end up
- Analysis
- We sorted each comment into themes by hand, and one comment can fit more than one theme. So the percentages in each section only describe that section and do not add up to 100. Treat them as rough guides rather than exact measurements.
- Quotes
- Word for word, with only broken characters fixed. The wording, spelling and typos are the commenter's own.
About 6 in 10 of these comments come from threads posted in 2025 and 2026. The busiest place by far was a forum just for mushroom coffee, with about 900 of the comments, so the fans are well represented here.
A few things got thrown out along the way. "Ryze" is also a character in a video game, so a search for the brand pulled in gamers. And "mushroom coffee" pulled in a coffee table book about mushrooms, a crochet project and some celebrity gossip about a different drink brand. None of those are counted. One brand's name also kept showing up in glowing comments that read like ads, so I left every comment like that out.
Our study of AG1 looked at another wellness drink people buy on trust. This one asks something else: what were people trying to get away from when they swapped their coffee?
The research question
Why do people switch from regular coffee to mushroom coffee, does it do what they hoped, and what makes the habit stick or fall apart? Short version? Many were running from jitters, crashes or reflux, and about half say it helped. The taste, the grit and the subscriptions decide a lot of who stays, and the people who leave mostly keep the mushrooms in some other form.
1. Why people switch
Seven reasons people tried it, ranked by how often people mention them66 people said what got them to try mushroom coffee, and the biggest single route is someone they know. But if you add up everyone who was trying to get away from something regular coffee did to them, that group is bigger, at about 4 in 10.
The coffee group describes it in very physical terms. They shake, they crash at 3pm, or a cup sets off their reflux, and many of them love coffee and didn't want to quit.
"Regular coffee gave me bad acid reflux so I tried Ryze."
"Normal coffee makes me shake like crazy and crash."
"My problem is that coffee rips me apart so I need a full on substitute and tea doest nothing for me."
Then there's the friend route, and it often starts with a free bag. Several people had no plan to buy it until somebody at work or at home handed them some.
"I didn't want to buy it because I knew I would not like the taste, but then I found out my coworker was using it and gave me some to try"
"my mom swears by it so she sent me a couple of bags a year ago."
The ads work too. Even people who complain about them say that's why they bought it.
"I bought it after seeing all the cringy ads."
"I tried Ryze after seeing a million FB ads (with a million "positive" reviews)."
A lot of your buyers want a gentler coffee more than they want mushrooms. So sell that. Copy that names the shakes, the 3pm crash and the reflux speaks to that group directly. And since a free bag from a friend is the biggest way in, a refer-a-friend sample might do more than another round of ads.
2. Did it do anything?
Four outcomes, ranked by how often people mention themFor this section I took two random samples of comments where people talk about their own mushroom coffee, and 144 of them said how it went. I counted each person once and left out the handful that read like ads.
So what do the happy drinkers notice? A clearer head or better focus comes up most (in about 42% of them), then a gentler stomach (about 35%). About 3 in 10 mention calmer energy without the jitters or the crash, and about as many just say they have more energy. A few mention sleep, appetite or mood.
"I tried it for a few weeks, and it really does help with the crash, I felt much more balanced throughout the day compared to regular coffee"
"Update from yesterday, 1tablespoon in my regular morning normal coffee instead of an espresso shot and WOW. Very focused and very clear headed."
"No more acid reflux or stomach pains."
A lot of drinkers aren't sure what's doing the work, though. Most of these blends have less caffeine than a cup of coffee, and some people wonder out loud whether that's the whole story.
"The energy felt a little less intense than normal coffee, although I'm not sure if that was the mushrooms or just the lower caffeine content."
"The Mushroom Coffee seemed to genuinely give me energy for like 3 months. Then nothing."
Some of these are rough. The bad reactions are mostly about the stomach (about 6 in 10 of them), and about a third mention mood, anxiety or feeling on edge. Several people stopped, felt fine within days, tried again and got sick again.
"Was on ryze for a month or so, then one night had violent diarrhea and fever, so I got off it, and was literally just fine after that."
"No exaggeration, it's like roto-rooter for your intestines."
"Everyday Dose made me feel irritable and anxious."
And the people who felt nothing tend to say how long they gave it.
"I drank Ryze for 3 months and it did absolutely nothing for me."
"I drank every day dose for about six months and did not notice any difference compared to normal coffee"
"pretty much. paid a premium to feel less basic about my morning routine"
3. Dirt, sludge and half the caffeine
Three taste verdicts, ranked by how often people mention them120 people said what they think of the taste, and they split close to down the middle. Honestly, it's close.
The haters get creative. "Dirt" is the word that comes up most, and a few comparisons are much worse than that.
"ryze tastes like someone added a teaspoon of instant coffee to a bag full of mold"
"It tastes like discipline."
"I tried Four Sigmatic. It tastes like bitter disappointment."
But plenty of people like it, and some got used to it after a few cups. Creamer, oat milk, honey or sweetener come up in about 310 comments, so for a lot of drinkers the recipe is the product.
"The mushrooms do give it an earthiness but I think it's very pleasant."
"At first I really didn't like the taste but after a few tries I developed a taste for it."
Then there's the texture. About 55 comments describe grit, sludge or powder sitting at the bottom of the cup, and some people switched brands just to get away from it.
"if you don't drink it quickly it will settle - and your last sip will be more of a chew."
"Doesn't matter how much I mix it with boiling water - by the time I finish my cup, there's a thick sludge at the bottom."
The caffeine catches people out too. About 30 comments mention withdrawal or caffeine headaches, mostly from people who swapped every cup on day one. And a few say a bag runs out much faster than the label suggests, once you drink as much as you need.
"My initial withdrawal period sucked, but now I don't notice a difference in my energy levels, and I'm not constantly jonesing for more caffeine."
"You need like 3 cups a day for the benefits to work and the normal bag has like 30 servings in it."
The first two weeks seem to decide a lot. A short note on how to mix it so it doesn't settle would help, and so would a recipe with creamer for people who hate the taste. And advice to swap one cup at a time could save new drinkers the caffeine headaches.
4. Price, subscriptions and trust
Six complaints about the companies, ranked by how often people mention them42 people in the samples complained about a brand itself rather than the drink. One warning first. I searched for subscription threads on purpose, so this list probably makes them look bigger than they are. Still, they show up everywhere. About 145 comments in 54 different threads complain about a subscription, and about 30 people say they went to their bank or card company to stop the charges.
Ryze is named in about 490 comments, far more than Everyday Dose (about 240) or MUD\WTR (about 150), and it gets most of the subscription anger. People say they picked a one-time order, got charged again a month later, and then found only a chatbot when they tried to cancel.
"The text response is ANOTHER AI chatbot."
"Yes it's scammy I don't care that it says it on the page, it is such fine print and it is not obvious enough."
"Never received anymore but checked my Amazon account and they have been charging my card for 8 months."
The second complaint comes from the more careful buyers. They want to know how much of each mushroom is in a scoop, and labels that list one total for a "proprietary blend" make them suspicious. About 65 comments also argue about which part of the mushroom a brand uses.
"half of them have these gorgeous labels with like 10 mushrooms listed and when you zoom in its just "2000mg proprietary blend" for the entire thing. that could mean almost anything"
Not everyone had trouble. Some people paused or cancelled without any fuss, and a few say the price evens out once they stop buying coffee out.
"We drank Mud Wtr for about a year and could pause/push out the next order pretty easily."
"$60 felt like alot to me too but when i stopped buying starbucks every morning it actually saved me money weirdly enough."
And the ads follow people around.
"I had never heard of this product before clicking on this thread, and not one minute later I got an ad for it on YouTube..."
5. Where people end up
Six places people end up, ranked by how often people mention them72 people said what they did after trying it, whether they kept going or not.
I didn't expect this. Only 3 of the 72 went back to plain coffee, and this is the list I'd show a mushroom coffee brand first. When people leave a brand, they mostly keep the idea. They try another brand, or they buy a jar of mushroom powder and stir it into the coffee they already liked.
"I didn't feel any better and I didn't care for the taste very much so I switched to Everyday Dose."
"I make a regular espresso mocha every morning and I put a mushroom fruiting body supplement in it and I can't tell it's in there."
"at first I was going to use it as a replacement coffee drink but then I tasted it...now I just use it in my regular coffee lol"
The people who stay usually talk about the afternoon, more than the morning.
"I just wasn't hitting that 3pm wall anymore."
"Mayb someday I ll be able to give up coffee completely, but to be honest after this I dont see the point in quitting like I used to"
Your biggest rival may be a plain bag of mushroom powder next to someone's own coffee. If drinkers leave over taste and grit, a version that mixes into the coffee they already make could keep them buying from you.
And a few people simply decided they didn't need the mushrooms at all.
"I switched to decaf only and I'm doing better. Good decaf tho not weird mushroom brew."
What I'd do with this if I sold mushroom coffee
If a small mushroom coffee brand asked me where to start, I'd say sections 1 and 5 together. People come to you running from their coffee, and when they leave you, they keep the mushrooms. So I'd sell the calmer morning and the gentler stomach first. And I'd offer a mix-in version for the people who love their own coffee too much to give it up.
Then I'd fix the first two weeks, with a cup-by-cup switch plan so nobody gets a caffeine headache on day three. I'd add a recipe for people who hate the taste, and a one-time order that really is one time. The subscription complaints are loud enough that a clear "no auto-ship" option might work as a selling point by itself.
If you want to test that wording with your own customers first, this piece on using customer language in DTC marketing may help. And our study of why people quit melatonin looks at another everyday supplement people drop over side effects.
What I can't answer is the caffeine question. Most of the happy drinkers describe calmer energy and fewer crashes, and that's exactly what you'd expect from a drink with about half the caffeine. Maybe the mushrooms add something on top, and maybe they don't. I honestly don't know. These comments can't separate the two, and several of the drinkers say they can't either.
A customer glossary
The words people actually useIf you write product pages, emails or ads for mushroom coffee, these are the words your buyers use.
| Term | What people mean | Signal |
|---|---|---|
| Lion's mane | The mushroom people link to focus and a clear head. Often the one they look for on the label first. | benefit |
| Chaga, reishi, cordyceps | Other mushrooms in most blends. Drinkers link reishi to calm and sleep and cordyceps to energy, and a few blame cordyceps for feeling anxious or tired. | category |
| Fruiting body | The part of the mushroom you can see. Careful buyers want this on the label. | trigger |
| Mycelium | The root-like part, often grown on grain. Many buyers treat it as a cheap filler. | objection |
| Proprietary blend | A label that gives one total instead of each mushroom's dose. Read as hiding something. | objection |
| L-theanine | An add-in drinkers credit for taking the edge off caffeine. Some pick a brand just because it has it. | benefit |
| The crash | The afternoon slump after coffee, often "the 3pm wall". Many switch to avoid it. | complaint |
| Jitters | The shaky, anxious feeling from regular coffee. One of the main reasons people switch. | complaint |
| Dirt | The word haters use most for the taste. "Earthy" is the kinder version. | complaint |
| Sludge | The gritty layer at the bottom of the cup. A common reason to switch brands. | complaint |
| Auto-ship | The repeat order many drinkers say they never signed up for. | objection |
| EDD | Everyday Dose, a brand many people switch to from Ryze. | brand |
Frequently asked questions
Is mushroom coffee good for you?
These comments can't answer that as a medical question, but they show how drinkers feel about it. Of 144 people who described their own results, about 56% said it helped, most often with focus, a calmer morning without the crash, or a gentler stomach. About 23% had a bad reaction, mostly stomach trouble, and about 15% felt nothing beyond the caffeine. If you have a health condition or take medication, ask a doctor first.
Does mushroom coffee have caffeine?
Most of the popular blends do, because they're made with real coffee. Drinkers often describe it as about half the caffeine of a normal cup. Some people who switched straight over say they got withdrawal headaches for the first week or two. There are also blends with no coffee in them, usually made with cacao, chicory or tea.
What does mushroom coffee taste like?
It splits people almost down the middle. Of 120 people who gave a verdict, about 43% disliked it, often calling it earthy or saying it tastes like dirt, and about 38% liked it. Another 18% only drink it with creamer, sweetener or cocoa. Grit or sludge at the bottom of the cup is also a common complaint.
Why do people stop drinking mushroom coffee?
Of 72 people who said where they ended up, about 25% stopped, mostly after a stomach upset or another bad reaction. Others moved to a different mushroom coffee brand (about 18%) or went back to their own coffee and added mushroom powder, extracts or capsules to it (about 17%). Only about 4% went back to plain coffee with nothing added.
Why do people complain about mushroom coffee subscriptions?
Most say they picked a one-time order and were put on auto-ship anyway, or couldn't find a way to cancel. About half of the complaints about the companies in our sample were about subscriptions, and about 145 comments across 54 different discussions raise it. Ryze gets most of these complaints in the comments we looked at, and about 30 people say they had to ask their bank or card company to stop the charges.
Want this for your own brand or clients?
This study is a public sample of how I work. For a brand or an agency client, the research starts from your question, and you get the exact words, doubts and reasons behind the product, with what to change in your ads and pages.
This report analyzes consumer language and perceptions and is not medical advice. We make no claim about the safety or efficacy of mushroom coffee or of any mushroom, for focus, energy, digestion, mood, weight or any other use. What people say about their results, side effects, stomach problems, mood changes, allergic reactions and dealings with brands are personal accounts we have not checked, and we report them as what people said rather than as fact. Brand counts show how often a name comes up, not whether its products are good or bad. Percentages only describe their own section. Treat them as rough guides from these comments rather than a count of everyone who drinks mushroom coffee, and don't compare them across sections. If you are pregnant or breastfeeding, have a stomach, liver or heart condition, have a mushroom allergy, or take medication, talk to a doctor before trying it.