Mushroom coffee is an increasingly trendy drink made by combining ground medicinal mushrooms (such as chaga, cordyceps and lion’s mane) with ground coffee beans to produce an instant or pod form coffee beverage with low caffeine content – ideal for those sensitive to stimulants as well as offering various health benefits like increased immunity and decreased anxiety levels.

Reishi mushrooms are well-known adaptogens, helping your body manage stress and regulating immune function. Reishi may even help stimulate white blood cells that target cancerous cells and cancer-associated proteins. Studies indicate chaga possesses antimicrobial, antioxidant and anticancer properties while reishi may support cardiovascular health, lower cholesterol levels and regulate cortisol, the primary stress hormone.

Reishi mushroom coffee can be found at vitamin stores (such as Four Sigmatic’s 100-gram jars for $50) and select specialty grocery shops, and at wellness cafes where beverages such as chaga-ccinos or lion’s mane lattes cost about $7 each.

Danli Luo, a doctoral student in human centered design and engineering from the University of Washington, saw an opportunity in using used coffee grounds as raw material for 3D printing. She combined them with brown rice flour, Reishi mushroom spores, xanthan gum (a food binder commonly found in ice cream and salad dressing), fungus growths that form mycelial skins to bind loose materials together into lightweight water-resistant composite materials that act like plastic alternatives.