Waiter, There’s a Mushroom in My Coffee!

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One of our newest coffees is one of our most unique. It’s Ming Tsai's Maitake Coffee for Health from a roaster called Rao. It features a wonderful added ingredient, maitake mushroom. Because we’re now in the middle of cold and flu season, it’s a great time to consider trying this coffee.


As you know, coffee brings us a carafe-ful of health benefits, because of antioxidants. Added to those benefits, our Maitake coffee pumps up the nutritional values even more.  Maitake means “dancing mushrooms” – so it’s kind of the Mohammad Ali of nutrients because it’s a real fighter against colds and flu. It’s used in Oriental medicine to beef up immunity. Used in medications, it helps fight cancer, HIV/AIDS, chronic fatigue syndrome, hepatitis, candida, hay fever, diabetes, high blood pressure, rheumatoid arthritis, high cholesterol, and some causes of infertility


Unlike a lot of fungi, maitake mushrooms don’t hide under logs and such, but grow right out in the open in sunny spots. Maybe that’s why they’re high in Vitamin D, one of the nutrient celebs right now. People are just not getting enough of this incredible nutrient, which is really more hormone than vitamin. Maitake also contain about half the amount of potassium per ounce as chicken, which is good news for your heart and blood pressure. You also get fiber, Vitamins C, B12 and B, magnesium, phosphorus and more from these dancing mushrooms.


But we were talking about immunity against colds and flu. You may have heard of Dr. Andrew Weil, who once said “Maitake has anticancer, antiviral, and immune-system enhancing effects and may also help control both high blood pressure and blood sugar levels.” He himself uses maitake as part of a tonic “to boost defenses against infections and cancer.” When it comes to colds and flu, it’s the kick in the pants to viruses that will get you up and dancing. Doctors still don’t have good meds to fight viruses - antibiotics only kill bacteria.


Ming Tsai’s Maitake Coffee uses maitakes grown with no chemical fertilizers and uses no chemical preservatives. This would be a good coffee to cold brew as heating might cause some nutrient loss. Regardless, do not brew hotter or longer than necessary.


Mushrooms in your coffee? It’s a good thing.