Mushrooms/fungi and their amazing properties have been discussed for some time now and is getting increasing amounts of attention in both the press and scientific community. Here at Enerhealth Botanicals we have been researching and developing several novel approaches to the processing of various species of fungi, for both mycelium and fruiting bodies.
There are many ways to extract either mycelium or the fruiting bodies of all the varieties of mushrooms/fungi. Most of the mycelium extracts in the market today are water extractions which are then spray dried. Fruiting body extractions range from water to a dual extraction process using both water and alcohol at various stages in the process.
There is currently quite a bit of controversy on which medium, mycelium or fruiting body extracts, is more effective. We have been using mycelium extractions in the process for all of our whole bean coffees. Many believe that the fruiting body extracts are better others believe mycelium is better (it is certainly less expensive). Now we are gradually moving to infuse our coffees with both mycelium and fruiting bodies for most of our coffees and avoid all the confusion.
We have introduced two new coffees, Focus & Memory, Lions Mane which uses both mycelium and fruiting bodies, and Wellness & Immunity, Chaga, which is using only the ‘fruiting body’ aka the Conk. The fruiting bodies are extracted using water and alcohol. We came up with this process according to the organic chemistry of the long chain polysaccharides and have found this process to be highly effective. When freeze drying the liquid extracts we are able to obtain 100% solubility in water without losing efficacy.
This process from start to freeze dry finish is a highly superior product over what we are seeing in the market today. We will be introducing the pure mushroom freeze dried extracts in the 2nd or 3rd quarter of this year. In the meantime we are blending our coffee concentrates with different mushroom extracts to produce a very high quality freeze dried coffee product that will have an almost therapeutic dose of the mushroom or mushroom blend in every cup.
Currently we are releasing our whole bean coffees with the fruiting body extracts added along with the mycelium and 2-3 cups a day will give one a therapeutic dose. The whole bean coffees with the infused mushroom extracts are certified organic and we will be releasing more improved versions over the next several months.
Give them a try you will not be disappointed!