Mushrooms have taken food and drink by storm over the past few years.
Whether it’s oyster mushrooms in meat alternatives, protein powder blended with mushrooms, mushroom-infused alcoholic drinks or a shot of lion’s mane in your takeaway latte, mushrooms are one of the defining food and drink trends of the 2020s.
The growth is remarkable. Google Trends data shows interest in ‘mushroom coffee’ has soared since 2022 and the global market for functional mushrooms is forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 10% over the next 10 years.
And it’s not just functional mushrooms that are capturing the imagination. In its 2024/25 Trend Book, Asda highlighted fresh mushrooms as a trending ingredient for the year ahead, driven by consumer interest in umami flavours.
The ‘shroom boom’ is, of course, also making plenty of media headlines (including some heated debate about the claimed health benefits of functional mushroom products), but what does mushrooms’ extraordinary success tell us about food trends more widely?
We believe there are five key lessons other sectors and ingredients can learn.
1. Keep it simple and accessible
Lion’s mane. Cordyceps. Reishi. Chaga. Mushroom names can be decidedly weird and wonderful.
While dedicated fans can navigate the fungi lexicon with ease, those new to the trend are likely to be intimidated. After all, YouGov research suggests nearly half of UK consumers haven’t even heard of functional mushroom use.
To make the trend accessible to mainstream shoppers, simplicity is therefore key. Many functional mushroom brands have recognised this. Instead of name-checking specific mushroom varieties, they have zeroed in on the more straightforward term ‘mushroom’ in their branding and packaging.
Mushroom coffee alternative brand MUD/WTR, for example, describes its product simply as a ‘spiced cocoa & mushroom beverage blend’.
2. Lead with consumer benefits
There’s no doubt many consumers want to know what’s in their food and drink. Even more, however, they want to know what’s in it for them.
Focusing on an ingredient’s benefits – whether it be health or taste – helps bring home why consumers should take a risk on an unfamiliar product.
Trip, best known for its CBD beverages, recently launched a drink containing lion’s mane mushrooms. Not that you’d find them mentioned on the front of pack. Instead, the product is described as a lightly sparkling ‘mindful blend’ in a blood orange and rosemary flavour.
Dirtea helps consumers understand the benefits of different functional mushrooms by describing lion’s mane as ‘the focus mushroom’, chaga as ‘the energy mushroom’ and cordyceps as ‘the performance mushroom’.
The same principle applies to fresh mushrooms. When the US Mushroom Council launched The Blended Burger Project, which encourages chefs and consumers to replace 25% of a burger’s meat content with mushrooms, it highlighted the extra juiciness, texture and umami-rich flavour created by mushrooms.
3. Offer familiarity, but with a twist
It’s no accident that mushroom coffee has been one of the breakout successes of the functional mushroom craze. It taps into coffee’s popularity and enables people to try unusual ingredients in a highly familiar format.
Consumers rarely make dramatic changes to their food and drink routines. The less known an ingredient, the more important it is to offer it in ways that can seamlessly slot into existing habits and regimes.
As many mushroom brands have realised, product messaging that highlights simple tweaks and swaps (“your coffee got an upgrade”) are a powerful way to remove barriers to trial and encourage consumers to give less familiar ingredients a chance.
4. Leverage the power of ‘natural’
At a time when consumers are concerned about ultra-processed foods, simple, natural ingredients like mushrooms have a distinct advantage.
Fable, which makes meat alternatives from shiitake mushroom, is an interesting case in point. It makes the most of mushroom’s natural credentials by describing its products as ‘real food, real mushrooms, just surprisingly, accidentally, fantastically, meaty’.
With research suggesting 61% of Brits are worried about ultra-processed foods and 33% plan to reduce their intake, the opportunity for natural, wholefood ingredients is only going to grow.
5. Don’t lose sight of taste
While unusual ingredients can create excitement, products only succeed if they pass the taste test. Many up-and-coming mushroom brands are therefore rightly heroing taste and flavour in their consumer-facing communications.
On its website, Spacegoods lists ‘genuinely delicious’ as one of key benefits, claiming ‘Unlike most mushroom powders, rainbow dust tastes just like a coffee, hot chocolate or milkshake’. Dirtea, meanwhile, describes its coffee and mushroom blend as a ‘delicious fusion of rich flavours and powerful benefits’.
Indeed, taste is so important that it can convince people to pay a premium for functional products even if they aren’t sold on the functional benefits themselves. As one customer review for a mushroom coffee brand puts it: “Not sure if it does what they say, but it is good coffee.”
Food trends may come and go, but one thing remains the same: people won’t buy products they don’t enjoy, no matter how on-trend their ingredients list might be.
