What Are Functional Mushrooms? A Beginner's Guide
What Are Functional Mushrooms?
By Chris Rea, COO of Mariko Grove · August 2026
Updated August 26, 2026
Functional mushrooms are mushroom species that have a long history of traditional, non-culinary use and are prepared today as extracts or powders rather than as a food you cook and eat. You'll find them in coffee blends, teas, hot cocoa mixes, and capsules. The name is a category label, not a claim about what any individual product does. It simply separates these mushrooms from the ones sitting next to the button mushrooms in the produce aisle.
If you've been reading up on mushroom coffee and keep running into the term, this guide walks through what actually makes a mushroom "functional," how that's different from a culinary mushroom, and a quick look at four species you'll see mentioned in this space: Lion's Mane, Chaga, Reishi, and Cordyceps. Only two of those, Lion's Mane and Chaga, are in Mariko Grove's coffee, and we'll be specific about that as we go.
Functional Mushrooms vs. Culinary Mushrooms
The short version: it's a difference in how they're used, not a difference in what counts as a "real" mushroom.
Culinary mushrooms are the ones grown and sold as food. Button, cremini, portobello, shiitake, oyster, maitake: these are cultivated for texture and flavor, meant to be sauteed, roasted, or simmered into a dish. You buy them at the grocery store next to the produce, and their whole purpose is to be eaten as a meal ingredient.
Functional mushrooms are typically dried and processed into a powder or extract instead of being cooked whole. Some, like Lion's Mane, are also edible and have a real culinary history. Others, like Chaga and Reishi, are tough, bitter, or woody in their raw state and were never really a food in the way a portobello is. What unites them as a category is that they're selected for use in beverages and supplements, most often through hot water or alcohol extraction, rather than for a dinner plate.
It's worth being precise here: this is a usage distinction, not a strict biological one. A few species (Lion's Mane again is the clearest example) can be both a culinary mushroom you cook fresh and a functional mushroom you find as a coffee extract, depending on which form you're buying.
A Quick Tour of Four Mushrooms You'll See in This Category
Lion's Mane, Chaga, Reishi, and Cordyceps are four of the most commonly discussed functional mushrooms. Here's a brief, factual look at each, followed by a section on which two are actually in Mariko Grove's blend.
Lion's Mane
Hericium erinaceus is an edible mushroom that grows on hardwood trees and is easy to recognize by its white, cascading strands. It has a genuine culinary history in East Asian cooking and is also known as yamabushitake in Japan, a name tied to the mountain monks said to favor it during long stretches of meditation. Lion's Mane is one of the two mushrooms in Mariko Grove's coffee, and it's commonly chosen to support cognitive function and focus.* For the full picture, see our Lion's Mane deep dive.
Chaga
Inonotus obliquus grows on birch trees in cold climates and looks nothing like a typical mushroom: it's a dark, hard, crusted mass rather than a cap and stem. It has a long history of being brewed as a warm drink across Siberia and Scandinavia, and Finns famously dried and ground it as a coffee substitute during World War II. Chaga is the second mushroom in Mariko Grove's blend, and it's commonly chosen to support antioxidant activity and daily wellness.* Read more in our Chaga deep dive, and see how the two compare directly in Lion's Mane vs Chaga.
Reishi
Reishi (Ganoderma lucidum) is not in Mariko Grove's coffee. We're covering it here purely as category education, since it's one of the mushrooms people often ask about alongside Lion's Mane and Chaga. Reishi has a glossy, varnished-looking cap that ranges from reddish-brown to nearly black, and it's too woody and bitter to cook as food, which is why it's traditionally prepared as a tea or tincture rather than eaten. In China it's called lingzhi, and it has been part of Traditional Chinese Medicine practice for centuries, prized in imperial courts and Taoist tradition as what's sometimes translated as the "herb of spiritual potency."1
Cordyceps
Cordyceps is also not in Mariko Grove's coffee, and we're including it here for the same reason: it's a name you'll run into often in this category, so it's worth knowing what it actually is. The traditional, wild form (historically Ophiocordyceps sinensis, sometimes still labeled Cordyceps sinensis) is a parasitic fungus that grows on caterpillar larvae in the alpine grasslands of Tibet, Bhutan, and Nepal, which is where its Chinese name, meaning roughly "winter worm, summer grass," comes from. It has been used in Tibetan medicine for centuries under the name yartsa gunbu.2 Because the wild fungus is rare and expensive to harvest, nearly all Cordyceps sold commercially today, in supplements or otherwise, comes from a different, cultivated species, Cordyceps militaris, grown on grain rather than on a caterpillar.3
Which Two Are Actually in Mariko Grove's Coffee
To be direct about it: Mariko Grove's blend uses Lion's Mane and Chaga. That's it. Reishi and Cordyceps are real, well-documented functional mushrooms and you'll see them in other products across this category, but they are not ingredients in our coffee. We mention them here because understanding the broader category helps when you're reading labels, not because they're part of what we make.
| Mushroom | Scientific name | What it is | In Mariko Grove's blend? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lion's Mane | Hericium erinaceus | White, cascading, edible culinary mushroom | Yes |
| Chaga | Inonotus obliquus | Dark, hard growth on birch trees | Yes |
| Reishi | Ganoderma lucidum | Glossy, woody cap, brewed as tea | No |
| Cordyceps | Ophiocordyceps sinensis (wild) / Cordyceps militaris (cultivated) | Parasitic fungus (wild) or grain-cultivated fungus (commercial) | No |
Why just two? Lion's Mane and Chaga cover different ground, one associated with focus, one with antioxidant activity and a genuine coffee heritage, and together they keep the ingredient list short and the sourcing something we can actually stand behind. You can read the fuller reasoning on our Our Mushrooms page.
How to Evaluate a Functional Mushroom Product
Once you know a product contains functional mushrooms, the next question is whether it's a good one. Labels vary a lot from brand to brand, and the details that matter (which species, which part of the mushroom, how it's extracted, whether it's been tested) aren't always front and center. The short checklist: named species, disclosed amounts per serving, clear sourcing, and a tested coffee base. If testing is the piece you care most about, our COA explainer covers what a Certificate of Analysis is and what it tells you, specific to our coffee base.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are functional mushrooms?
Functional mushrooms are mushroom species with a long history of traditional, non-culinary use that are prepared today as extracts or powders for beverages and supplements, rather than cooked and eaten as a food. Lion's Mane, Chaga, Reishi, and Cordyceps are four commonly discussed examples.
What's the difference between functional mushrooms and culinary mushrooms?
Culinary mushrooms, like button, portobello, and shiitake, are grown to be cooked and eaten as food. Functional mushrooms are typically dried and extracted into powders or tinctures for use in coffee, tea, and supplements instead. Some species, like Lion's Mane, fall into both categories depending on the form you're buying.
Which functional mushrooms are in Mariko Grove's coffee?
Lion's Mane and Chaga. Those are the only two mushrooms in our blend. We don't include Reishi, Cordyceps, or any other functional mushroom.
Are Reishi and Cordyceps in Mariko Grove's blend?
No. Reishi and Cordyceps are both well-known functional mushrooms, but neither is an ingredient in Mariko Grove's coffee. We cover them in this guide as general category education, not as products we sell or mushrooms in our blend.
Does mushroom coffee taste like mushrooms?
Generally no, and that includes Lion's Mane and Chaga specifically. Both are close to flavor-neutral once extracted and blended into a medium-roast coffee. Our full answer on taste goes into more detail.
The Bottom Line
"Functional mushroom" is a useful category label, not a guarantee of what's in your cup. It groups together mushrooms as different as a soft white culinary species and a hard, birch-grown fungus, united only by the fact that they're prepared as extracts rather than cooked as food. Lion's Mane, Chaga, Reishi, and Cordyceps are four of the names you'll see most, but only Lion's Mane and Chaga are in Mariko Grove's blend. When you're reading a label, that specificity, exactly which mushrooms, in what form, is worth more than the category name on its own.
Ready to see the two we actually use? Both our ground mushroom coffee and instant mushroom coffee are built on a medium-roast Arabica base with Lion's Mane and Chaga, nothing else. You can also compare both formats in our mushroom coffee collection.
About the Author
Chris Rea is the COO of Mariko Grove, overseeing operations, sourcing, and shipping logistics. He ensures every batch of mushroom coffee is handled with care from warehouse to doorstep.
Sources
- "Ganoderma lucidum (Lingzhi or Reishi)." Herbal Medicine: Biomolecular and Clinical Aspects, 2nd edition, NCBI Bookshelf. NCBI
- Panda, A.K., and Swain, K.C. (2011). "Traditional uses and medicinal potential of Cordyceps sinensis of Sikkim." Journal of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine, 2(1), 9-13. PubMed Central
- "Cordyceps industry in China." Mycology, 2018. PubMed Central
*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.
