It’s going to be a fun(gi) year, folks. Functional mushrooms – varieties include lion’s mane, cordyceps, shiitake and reishi – are the super-ingredient du jour.
They have scientific-sounding adaptogenic properties: natural compounds that boost brain power and immunity, while helping the body deal with stress.
In fact they deliver such a kick, they might soon be supplanting your morning coffee.
‘They’re like, “Hey brain, let’s keep things chill and balanced today”,’ claims Moodeys, one of the many mushroom supplement brands popping up like the proverbials. (Another, Mother Made, has been launched by Kiwi model Jessica Clarke.)
These supplements distil functional mushrooms into tablet form.
This year even high-street stalwart Marks & Spencer unveiled ‘Yay mushrooms!’, a range infusing functional mushrooms into iced oat lattes as well as ‘AM and PM’ shots (in its Food-on-the-Move section: duo pack £3.20).
Does science support the hype? According to Kew Gardens botanist Professor Monique Simmonds OBE, lion’s mane has been shown in studies to improve brain health as it contains ‘compounds that affect the neurons of the brain’.
It is often linked to energy and focus, which is why it’s included in M&S’s AM shot.
Reishi mushrooms, meanwhile, contain calming properties, hence several brands selling reishi-laced drinks that help you wind down in the evening.
Reema Pillai, a nutritionist at London-based consultancy Dietitian Fit, says there is evidence of functional mushrooms’ strengths, citing among them increased immunity, cognitive function and energy levels.
She does caution, however, that ‘further human research is needed for these benefits to be better understood’.
It seems the jury’s still out – consumer magazine Which? even put functional mushrooms on its list of ‘the health products you don’t need’ last year, stating a lack of evidence that they work.
In the UK, however, it looks as if we are fully embracing the trend, with M&S’s mushroom oat latte now one of its bestselling drinks.
Holland & Barrett customers are similarly convinced; the retailer has observed a 133 per cent rise in mushroom-based purchases this year, with a big growth anticipated in the sale of gummies and powders.
One market-research company estimates that the global functional mushroom market will increase from £6.5 billion in 2020 to £15.7 billion in 2030.
Of course the health benefits of mushrooms are not a brand-new discovery.
In Asian countries, they have been used for their medicinal qualities for thousands of years.
Market-research company Mintel says there is an increasing interest in food and drink with ‘healthy ingredients based on “ancient wisdom” such as ayurveda and Chinese medicine’.
Luxury fashion and accessories brand Loewe has created an £85 mushroom-scented candle
Mintel found that 35 per cent of consumers were drawn to the concept of natural ingredients passed down through generations.
It was in Los Angeles last year that the M&S research team discovered just how huge the mushroom trend had become.
‘They were being used in ice cream, muffins, coffees – basically everything had mushrooms in it,’ says product development manager Claire Richardson.
But do you need to buy a special mushroom-infused drink when you could just pop them in a stir fry? It’s all about the potency, says Richardson.
You would need to consume an enormous amount of lion’s mane mushrooms, say, to get the same nutritional benefit you do from the powdered-down, popped-in-a-latte form. A few extra button mushrooms on toast? Nowhere near functional enough.
What if you do prefer eating, rather than drinking, your mushrooms? YOU’s food editor Eleanor Maidment – a big fan – loves ‘the rich savoury flavour of shiitakes’, which even pop up in crisp form (pictured below).
Lion’s mane, for its part, is becoming more widely available in its original form.
‘The texture is so tender, it is said to mimic scallops, and they can simply be panfried with butter and garlic, roasted or braised,’ she says, adding, ‘They do look a bit like a shagpile carpet. But don’t let that put you off.’
Where else are mushrooms sprouting up?
Gen Z is hoovering up mind-bending mushrooms, the most common among them liberty caps (Psilocybe semilanceata) and fly agaric (Amanita muscaria) on the basis that they’re less addictive and more ethical than other drugs.
Microdosing mushrooms, defined as taking tiny amounts that ‘do not impair normal functioning’, is particularly popular; last year Sky News reported that many parents are even taking them to cope with the stress of childrearing, while the Evening Standard last month described how mushroom oil has become the ‘sparkly and beautiful’ new drug of choice among middle-class adults.
A possibly more convincing argument comes from the scientists who are campaigning for their use in treating conditions from chronic pain to depression; but don’t expect magic-mushroom chocolate on supermarket shelves just yet – legally they are still a Class A drug.
Mushroom homeware is currently all the rage. Mushroom lamps are everywhere, from John Lewis and Next to Anthropologie (where you can buy a doorstop sprouting golden effigies of toadstools). Daylesford’s £195 mushroom tablecloth was ‘inspired by native fungi foraged from the ancient woodlands near its Cotswolds farm’.
There are £80 bookends at Oka, ‘carved to look like two halves of a mushroom’. George at Asda is selling mushroom-print towels (from £8) and a wicker laundry basket shaped like a giant mushroom (£40).
Then there’s Loewe, with its £85 luxury scented candle smelling of portobello mushroom.
Mushrooms have been a big thing in beauty for some time (see Origins’s Dr Weil Mega-Mushroom range).
Claiming anti-ageing and anti-inflammatory powers, they’re now showing up in creams, masks and serums – try adding Pai Tri-Mushroom Super-Soothing Booster drops (above, £19) to your moisturiser using the tiny pipette.
And may the fungi force be with you!