Let me be clear: I appreciate a rich, bold, no-fuss cup of coffee as much as anyone around. That said, as health editor at mindbodygreen, I’m always on the lookout for ways to infuse my daily well-being routine with extra perks. So when I began seeing more and more mushroom coffee products emerging, I was certainly intrigued—after all, plenty of nutritionists and functional medicine doctors recommend taking adaptogenic mushrooms for their scope of potential benefits.

To get a better sense of this mushroom moment, I chatted with experts and gave these products a try for myself.

What is mushroom coffee?

Let’s back up for a second: Mushroom coffee is a mounting trend in the modern health food world—however, it certainly isn’t a novel beverage. Mushrooms have been used in traditional medicinal practices and functional medicine approaches for centuries, says Ella Davar, R.D., CDN.

More recently, according to information from Four Sigmatic, mushrooms were used as a coffee substitute in Finland (where their founders are from), during World War II when coffee beans weren’t available.

Now, there are more and more packaged mushroom coffee products hitting the shelves, in a variety of forms. Some contain a balanced blend of beans and mushrooms, and others include additional functional components. A few opt for tea or other energizing ingredients, in lieu of actual coffee. The common denominator? They all contain some form of ground medicinal mushrooms or extracts to contribute a host of potential health benefits.

As mentioned earlier, certain mushrooms have been a part of traditional medicinal practices, such as Traditional Chinese Medicine, for many years.

“There are thousands of species of mushrooms, and their purported benefits range from supporting liver and heart health to enhancing energy and more,” allergist and immunologist Heather Moday, M.D., previously told mind body green.