Mushroom coffee vs cold brew: caffeine, acidity, time and cost compared
Cold brew and mushroom coffee attract the same buyer: someone who likes coffee but not the sharp, jittery version of it. They get to a smoother cup by opposite routes. Cold brew uses time and cold water to leave the harsh compounds behind while keeping the caffeine. Mushroom coffee uses a lower dose and a blend to change what is in the cup in the first place. This is the plain comparison.
What cold brew is
Coarse ground coffee steeped in cold or room temperature water for 12 to 24 hours, then filtered. The slow, cold extraction pulls out less of the acids and bitter compounds and more of the sweet, chocolatey ones, which is why cold brew tastes smooth. The concentrate is usually diluted one to one with water or milk. It is sold ready made in bottles and cans, and made at home in a jar or a dedicated brewer.
Caffeine
This is where the two part ways. Cold brew is strong. A 250ml serve of diluted cold brew is typically 150 to 250mg of caffeine, and a can from a supermarket fridge can be more. A cup of Mello is about 48mg. So a cold brew is three to five times the caffeine of a mushroom coffee. If smooth and strong is what you want, cold brew delivers it. If smooth and mild is what you want, it does not, and a lot of people who switched to cold brew for the smoothness find the caffeine load is the same problem they had before. Our caffeine guide lays the numbers out.
Acidity
Cold brew is genuinely lower in perceived acidity than hot brewed coffee, which is its main selling point. A mushroom coffee like Mello is a medium dark roast with coconut milk powder blended in, which gives a similarly rounded cup by a different route. Both are easier to drink black on an empty stomach than an espresso. Neither is a health product because of it; our gut comfort article explains what that phrase does and does not mean.
Time and effort
Cold brew takes half a day and a filter. Once made, a jar keeps for about a week in the fridge, so the effort is front loaded. Mushroom coffee takes a kettle and a minute, and an iced version takes a shaker bottle. If you want a cold coffee on a Tuesday morning and did not make cold brew on Monday night, mushroom coffee is the one that exists.
Cost per cup
Bottled cold brew in Australia runs $4 to $7 a serve. Homemade from supermarket beans is about $0.80 to $1.50 a cup once you account for the heavy dose of grounds it needs, which is roughly double a hot brew. Mello is about $1.67 a cup one off and $1.33 on a three pack. So homemade cold brew and mushroom coffee are in the same band; bottled cold brew is the expensive option. Our cost per cup article has the method for comparing anything.
Making an iced mushroom coffee that stands in for cold brew
Dissolve a serve in two tablespoons of hot water, stir to a paste, then fill the glass with ice and cold milk or water and stir again. For a stronger cold brew feel, make a batch: four serves in 200ml of hot water, cool, keep in a sealed jar for up to three days, and pour a quarter over ice each morning. It will not have cold brew's syrupy body, because it is not a concentrate, but it is smooth, cold, and a fraction of the caffeine.
Storage and shelf life
Cold brew concentrate lasts about a week in the fridge, and its flavour flattens noticeably after day four. Bottled cold brew has a best before of weeks to months unopened and a few days once opened. Mushroom coffee is a dry powder that keeps for months in a cupboard, and the made up batch above keeps three days. If you travel, run out of fridge space, or forget to prepare, the powder is the more forgiving product. Our storage article covers the details.
Which one, honestly
Choose cold brew if you want a strong, smooth coffee and you are happy with 150mg or more of caffeine in the morning. Choose mushroom coffee if the strength is the problem and you want the smooth part without it, or if you want the six mushroom blend for its own sake. Some people keep both: cold brew on a weekend morning with nowhere to be, mushroom coffee on a work day when the afternoon crash costs something. There is no rule that says one coffee has to do every job.
The mushroom part, stated plainly
Mello contains six mushrooms listed as one blend on the pack. The human research on them is early and small, none of it used a coffee, and we do not claim the blend does anything in particular. What each has been studied for is on our research pages. The reason to choose Mello over cold brew is the caffeine number and the taste; the mushrooms are a reason to choose Mello over other mild coffees.
The caveat
Anyone with a mushroom allergy should avoid both Mello blends. The coffee contains coconut milk and MCT oil; a coconut allergy means the matcha or neither. Anyone pregnant, breastfeeding, on medication or managing a medical condition should check with a GP or pharmacist before adding a mushroom extract. Both pouches are 30 serves, ship free Australia wide and carry a 30 day money back guarantee.