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Hot chocolate: universally loved. Mushroom hot chocolate: weird and polarizing. It makes sense—mushrooms are kind of earthy and, uh, dirt-like? But they just so happen to be the health trend du jour, so naturally, people are mixing mushroom powders into tonics, lattes and, you guessed it, hot chocolate.
Back when I was putting together this list of coffee alternatives, I tried a chaga mushroom coffee substitute from the brand Four Sigmatic, and they threw in a few packets of their Mushroom Hot Cacao too. I was skeptical and to be honest, imagined it would taste like a cup of Swiss Mix sprinkled with dirt instead of tiny marshmallows. Well, I was wrong. Mixed with 3.5oz of hot water, it looks and smells pretty damn similar to a slightly water instant hot cocoa, minus the expected clumps of dirt. It tastes like the real thing too, without a trace of mushroom-y, earth-y flavor. I was shook.
Double up on the packet-to-liquid ratio and the hot cacao gets darker, more intense, and tastes like the kind of drink you'd pay five bucks for at a hipster coffee shop. It tastes richer if you use milk (or, y'know, "nut milk") or even coffee in place of water to make a complex mocha-y drink.
The main ingredient in Four Sigmatic's mix is cacao powder, which is cocoa in its less-processed form, plus coconut palm sugar and a little stevia extract to sweeten it up. The mushroom component is reishi extract, a medicinal fungus that Bon Appétit's Healthyish says will help maintain my youthful skin (#blessed), reduce my stress levels (unlikely, TBH) and let me sleep better. As soon as I burn out on this flavor, I'll try the ginger-laced version, which has cordyceps mushrooms (for energy and, um, sexual stamina) and the mocha version with chaga mushrooms (antioxidants, shiny hair, all that good stuff.).
If I were really on the market for a health supplement, I would probably drink this stuff once a day, as directed, and wait to see a difference. But, realistically, I'm into it because it tastes like hot chocolate but doesn't give me a crippling sugar crash.
BUY IT: Four Sigmatic Mushroom Hot Cacao Mix, pack of 10 for $16 on Amazon
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