Recipe: iced mushroom latte, the one that does not go gritty
The reason most iced mushroom lattes are gritty is that the powder went straight into cold milk. Coffee and mushroom extract dissolve in hot water and sulk in cold. So this recipe has one extra step, a paste, and it is the whole difference between a smooth glass and a sandy one. Two minutes, no equipment beyond a spoon, about 48mg of caffeine a glass.
Ingredients, one glass
One scoop, 6g, of Mello Mushroom Coffee. Two tablespoons of hot water, just off the boil. 200ml of cold milk; full cream, oat or coconut all work, see the note below. A glass of ice, about eight cubes. Optional: a teaspoon of maple syrup or honey, or a few drops of vanilla.
Method
Put the scoop in a tall glass or a jar. Add the two tablespoons of hot water and stir hard for 20 seconds until it is a smooth, glossy paste with no dry pockets at the edges. This is the step that matters; if the paste has lumps, keep stirring. Add the sweetener now if you are using it, because it dissolves in the warm paste and not in cold milk. Fill the glass with ice. Pour the cold milk over and stir, or lid the jar and shake for ten seconds. Drink.
Which milk
Full cream milk gives the closest thing to a cafe iced latte. Oat milk is the best of the plant milks here, because it is naturally a little sweet and has enough body to carry the coffee; barista oat milks are best. Coconut milk from a carton doubles down on the coconut already in the blend and makes a very rich glass. Almond milk is thin and the coffee tastes stronger and slightly bitter in it; if almond is what you have, use 150ml rather than 200ml. Skim milk works but the glass is watery.
The batch version
For a week of iced lattes, put four scoops in a jar with 120ml of hot water and stir to a paste, add sweetener if using, then top with 600ml of cold milk, lid and shake. Keep in the fridge for up to three days. The powder settles, so shake before each pour, and pour a quarter of the jar over a glass of ice each morning. It takes thirty seconds and it is how most people who drink one daily actually make it. Our storage article has the fridge rules.
Variations
Iced mushroom mocha: add a teaspoon of cacao powder to the paste step. Vanilla: a few drops of vanilla extract in the paste. Salted: a tiny pinch of salt in the paste, which rounds the bitterness the way it does in caramel. Stronger: two scoops, which is about 96mg of caffeine, still under a cafe double shot. Matcha version: the same method with Mello Mushroom Matcha, using water at 75 degrees rather than boiling for the paste; the iced recipes article has that one in full.
Nutrition note
With water only, a serve of the coffee blend is about 15 calories. With 200ml of full cream milk the glass is about 130 calories; oat milk about 90; almond about 30. A teaspoon of maple syrup adds about 17. There is no added sugar in the blend itself.
Why it works
Coffee solubles and the mushroom extracts are water soluble at heat and only partly at cold. The paste step dissolves everything in a small amount of hot water, and the cold milk then dilutes a solution rather than trying to dissolve a powder. It is the same reason a barista makes an iced latte from a hot shot and not from cold espresso beans.
The caveat
Anyone with a mushroom allergy should avoid both 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. What the research does and does not show for each mushroom is on our research pages. Both pouches are 30 serves, ship free Australia wide and carry a 30 day money back guarantee.