Matcha or mushroom coffee: which should you choose?

Matcha in brief

Matcha tea, the whole leaf as a powder.

Matcha is not an ordinary tea. Instead of steeping the leaves and then throwing them away, they are ground into a very fine powder and drunk whole, whisked into water. So you are consuming the leaf itself, with everything it contains.

In a few years matcha has become a very fashionable drink, from café lattes to pastries. Its effects are the most common question: we go through them below, along with what the research actually says.

Mushroom coffee in brief

Mushroom coffee, the coffee flavour, only gentler.

Mushroom coffee starts from a different idea: keep the taste and the ritual of coffee, but cut the caffeine sharply and add functional mushrooms and adaptogenic plants long used in Asian traditions.

Our Brainstoorm is a good example. Each 6 g cup contains 6,040 mg of active ingredients: lion's mane, cordyceps and chaga at 1,000 mg each, 3,000 mg of maca, chicory and ashwagandha. Caffeine is limited to 20 mg of microencapsulated NewCaff® caffeine. And there is no mushroom taste at all: you are drinking coffee, rounded and lightly roasted.

The Chocolate-Hazelnut version, with 6,225 mg of active ingredients per 8 g serving, adds rhodiola and cocoa, with the same amount of caffeine. Both can be made hot or cold, with water or with milk.

New to the idea? Our article on what mushroom coffee is explains it all from the start.

The effects of matcha

Matcha and its effects: what we actually know.

Online, matcha is credited with practically every virtue. The reality is more interesting and more modest.

The caffeine and L-theanine pairing. That is its real peculiarity. Matcha contains caffeine, but also L-theanine, an amino acid almost unique to tea and especially abundant in shade-grown leaves. Several studies have looked at the effect of this pairing on attention, with encouraging results. That explains the reputation for energy that feels “calmer” than coffee's.

Catechins. Like green tea, matcha is rich in catechins, among them EGCG, polyphenols widely studied in the lab for their antioxidant properties. Because you drink the whole leaf, you take in more of them than with a classic infusion.

The ritual. It is often forgotten, but preparing matcha with a whisk takes a few minutes and forces a pause. That moment plays its part in how you feel afterwards.

Matcha or green tea? It is the same plant, but not the same drink. Green tea is steeped and the leaves are discarded; matcha is drunk whole. The result: a denser drink, richer in caffeine, theanine and catechins for the same volume, and with a far more pronounced taste. Leaves destined for matcha are also shaded before harvest, which raises their theanine and chlorophyll content — hence that deep green.

What matcha is not: a fat burner, a medicine or a detox cure. Research on those claims remains inconclusive in humans.

The caffeine question

Matcha and coffee: how much caffeine?

This is usually the real question behind “matcha or coffee”. And the answer is surprising: matcha is not a caffeine-free drink. Depending on how much powder you use and its quality, a bowl of matcha can hold as much caffeine as a small coffee, sometimes more.

EFSA values are averages: the real content varies with the bean, the leaf, the brewing method and the cup size.

So if you are after gentle energy because caffeine makes you jittery, matcha is not necessarily the best answer: L-theanine softens it, but the caffeine is there. Mushroom coffee, at 20 mg a cup, changes the picture far more. Conversely, if you tolerate caffeine well and enjoy the taste of tea, matcha is an excellent choice.

The comparison

Matcha or mushroom coffee: the face-off.

Here are the two drinks side by side, point by point, with regular coffee as the benchmark.

The two drinks can also coexist within the same day. We will come back to that.

Preparation and taste

Two rituals, two gestures.

Matcha takes a little technique, mushroom coffee almost none. Here is how to get both right.

With Brainstoorm it is simpler: a 6 g serving into a cup of hot water or milk, stir and it is done. For the iced version, dissolve the serving in a little hot water, then add cold milk and ice.

On taste, this is usually where opinions part ways. Matcha has a grassy flavour you either love or cannot stand at all, and mid-quality matcha can be distinctly bitter. Mushroom coffee, on the other hand, reassures coffee lovers: from the first sip they are on familiar ground.

Genuine Brainstoorm customer reviews from Trustpilot, quoted verbatim, translated from French.

Matcha coffee and latte

Matcha coffee, latte, iced: the recipes.

“Matcha coffee” most often means a matcha latte or a mix of matcha and espresso, sometimes called “dirty matcha”. Here are four simple ideas, on the matcha side and the mushroom side.

More drink ideas? Our article on mushroom and adaptogenic plant drinks and their recipes offers several, from lattes to smoothies.

Side effects

Matcha: side effects worth knowing.

Matcha is well tolerated by most adults, at one to two bowls a day. A few precautions are still worth knowing, precisely because the whole leaf is consumed.

A word on quality: because the leaf is consumed whole, everything it absorbed while growing ends up in the bowl. Favour matcha with traceable origins and lab analyses. For mushrooms, we set out the precautions in our article on the risks of mushrooms and adaptogenic plants.

Which to choose?

Matcha or mushroom coffee: to each their own.

There is no absolute winner. There are different profiles. Here is how to decide based on your habits.

And why not both? Many of our customers alternate: Brainstoorm in the morning for the coffee flavour, matcha in the early afternoon for a change. What matters is keeping an eye on your total caffeine across the day.

Choosing well

Five criteria for a good purchase.

Whether it is matcha or mushroom coffee, quality varies enormously from product to product. Here is what to look at before buying.

1. The colour of the matcha : a deep green points to freshness and well-shaded leaves. A dull or yellowish green often signals a more bitter product.
2. Traceability : origin, grower and analyses should be available, for matcha as for mushrooms.
3. The dose of active ingredients : with mushroom coffee, look for the dose in milligrams per cup for each mushroom, not just a list. Brainstoorm states 1,000 mg of lion's mane, cordyceps and chaga.
4. The stated caffeine : a clear content per cup, so you know what you are drinking.
5. The guarantee : so you can try without risk. With us, 60 days money-back guarantee, with or without a subscription, and free delivery above a minimum order that depends on your country.

You will often come across two categories of matcha. So-called “ceremonial” grade, from the first harvests, is meant to be drunk on its own, whisked into water: it is milder, dearer and more fragile. “Culinary” grade, more pronounced, suits lattes, baking and smoothies, where milk and sugar soften its bitterness. These labels are not regulated: rely instead on colour, origin and analyses.

On mushroom coffees we have also published a full guide, six criteria for choosing well.

Sources

1. Owen G. N. et al. (2008). The combined effects of L-theanine and caffeine on cognitive performance and mood. Nutritional Neuroscience, 11(4).
2. Dietz C., Dekker M., Piqueras-Fiszman B. (2017). An intervention study on the effect of matcha tea, in drink and snack bar formats, on mood and cognitive performance. Food Research International, 99.
3. Docherty S. et al. (2023). The acute and chronic effects of lion's mane mushroom supplementation on cognitive function, stress and mood in young adults: a double-blind, parallel groups, pilot study. Nutrients, 15(22).
4. EFSA, NDA Panel (2015). Scientific opinion on the safety of caffeine. EFSA Journal, 13(5).

Keep reading

Where to go next.

Want to go deeper? Discover our other guides or browse our mushroom coffee collection.