Drinks with all the fun of the fungi

Eco-friendly to grow, and packed with flavour and reputed health benefits for body and mind, mushrooms are cropping up in everything from face creams and eco-leather to cocktails and hot drinks. 

Mushroom coffee has been booming on TikTok. Touted as a more healthy caffeine hit, it’s made by blending coffee with reishi, lion’s mane, chaga and cordyceps – so-called nootropic mushroom varieties often used in traditional medicine and meditation to boost mood and cognitive function (but without the psychedelic trip). The Dirtea range includes mushroom coffee, cacao and powders that can be stirred into hot water and drinks – I was a sceptic but a dose of Lion’s Mane “focus” powder did result in an unusually productive work streak (all from £39.99).

Dirtea, from £39.99

Collider, £29 for 12 cans, drinkcollider.com

Non-alc aperitifs and beers spiked with mushrooms are also on the rise. The new adaptogenic beer brand Collider (£29 for 12 cans) includes a lager and pale ale enhanced with adaptogens including lion’s mane. Katy Perry’s alcohol-free range De Soi includes Champignon Dreams ($20 for four cans), a sparkling aperitif that blends fruity berry notes with a dose of reishi mushroom “to ease you into the evening”.

Mushrooms are also being used to bring a whole new spectrum of flavours to cocktails. The Espresso Martini at Dante West Village and Beverly Hills is garnished with a grating of mushroom chocolates by Alice, a functional chocolatier. The Old Fashioned at Altair in Soho, NYC, is infused with an earthy blend of dried porcini, chanterelle and shiitake mushrooms, and served over an ice block with a tiny mushroom sealed within. 

At sushi master Endo Kazutoshi’s new London restaurant Kioku by Endo, the signature cocktail Kinoko marries Japanese whisky with oak-smoked shiitake, embellished with koji syrup, hazelnut bitters and sake. The Mizuwari cocktail at London pop-up Prelude is garnished with a Smurf-sized meringue mushroom dipped in dried porcini powder. 

Huitlacoche, a type of fungus that grows on Mexican corn, brings a new dimension to the Margarita at Superbueno in New York’s East Village. “The earthy and ashy mushroom flavour plays really well with the smokiness of the mezcal,” says co-owner Ignacio “Nacho” Jimenez. At Mexico City’s award-winning Rayo bar, they lace their Boulevardier with Charanda Sol Tarasco Hongos, an artisan sugarcane spirit that’s infused with cordyceps.

A mushroom called Trumpet of Death sounds like the last thing you’d want to put in a drink – but it’s the secret to the Vintage cocktail at The Peninsula’s Little Blue bar in London. The blend of Deutz Brut, spice, almond and mushrooms is designed to evoke the truffly notes of a cellar-aged champagne. Whether you like it high-class or down and dirty, it seems, it’s fungi all the way. 

@alicelascelles