Mushroom tea has quickly become one of the newest trends in functional foods and beverages, providing a simple way to include mushrooms into one’s diet. Mushroom tea typically involves steeping hot water with various kinds of mushroom powders such as reishi, chaga, lion’s mane, maitake or cordyceps as an anti-ageing, immune system enhancing or cancer fighting substance to create a beverage for consumption. These functional food products may boast anti-ageing benefits as well as immune support or even cancer prevention features.

Mushrooms possess an umami flavor that can be quite intense and earthy, which makes their tea harder to enjoy. By mixing other ingredients with it, sweetening and softening the taste can make the drink more approachable – including ginger, lemon and honey for flavor mellowness and color addition. Some mushroom tea recipes even incorporate rooibos for additional taste and color!

How much mushroom tea you should drink will depend on many factors, including its type and your health goals and preferences. A moderate amount can be beneficial, though always check with a healthcare provider prior to beginning any new supplement regimes.

Reishi mushroom tea features an appealing bitter-woody taste that can be softened with ingredients such as marjoram, chamomile or peppermint to soften its taste. Meanwhile, chaga mushroom tea can often be mixed with other spices or sweeteners to counterbalance its earthy character.

Some types of mushroom tea come pre-packaged, with mushrooms and other ingredients already mixed into hot water for easier convenience for consumers. Other mushroom teas come loose-leaf format, which requires users to combine the dried mushrooms themselves into hot water before drinking. Some powdered varieties blend directly into it without needing additional components.

No matter what product you select, hot water temperature can have an enormous effect on how mushroom ingredients taste in tea. Too-hot temperatures will scorch mushrooms and leave an unpleasant bitter aftertaste; 85-90degC allows full extraction of mushroom compounds; specific water-soluble beta glucans release in warmer-to-hot waters while alcohol-soluble triterpenes remain preserved due to double extraction processes that maintain potency at multiple brewing temperatures.

Consuming chaga mushroom tea is generally safe; however, due to their tendency of stimulating the immune system, those suffering from autoimmune conditions such as Lupus or Multiple Sclerosis should avoid it. Furthermore, using blood thinners or insulin with Chaga can have negative side-effects on your blood pressure.