Recipe: mushroom coffee protein shake for after training

Coffee and protein powder is a common combination and usually a gritty one, because both are powders that people throw into cold milk at the same time. Dissolve the coffee first and it is a different drink. This is a shake for after a session, or for a morning where breakfast is not happening, at about 48mg of caffeine and around 25g of protein depending on your powder.

Ingredients, one bottle

One scoop, 6g, of Mello Mushroom Coffee. Two tablespoons of hot water. One scoop of protein powder, vanilla or chocolate works best with coffee. 250ml of cold milk or water. Half a banana, or two tablespoons of rolled oats, for body. Ice. Optional: a teaspoon of cacao, a pinch of salt.

Method

Put the coffee scoop in the shaker with the two tablespoons of hot water and stir or shake to a smooth paste. Let it sit for thirty seconds so it is warm rather than hot, because very hot liquid can make some whey proteins clump. Add the protein powder, the banana or oats, the milk and the ice. Shake hard for twenty seconds, or blend if you are using banana and want it properly smooth.

Which protein blends best

Whey isolate dissolves the most cleanly and suits a shaker bottle. Whey concentrate is creamier and foams more. Plant proteins, pea and rice especially, are thicker and grainier, so they are better blended with banana or oats than shaken. Chocolate and vanilla both work with coffee; berry flavours do not.

Banana or oats

Banana makes it sweeter and smoother and adds about 50 calories. Oats make it thicker and more filling, closer to a meal, and add about 70. Use one or the other rather than both unless you are replacing a meal. If you want it thin and cold for straight after a session, skip both and use water rather than milk.

When the caffeine makes sense

Before an easy session or straight after one, not late in the evening. At about 48mg this is a third of a cafe double shot, so it is a gentle lift rather than a pre workout dose; our pre workout comparison explains where the two differ and why a real performance dose is a different tool. Caffeine after a hard evening session is the usual reason people sleep badly on training days.

Nutrition note

With water, whey isolate and no banana the bottle is roughly 130 calories and 25g of protein. With 250ml of full cream milk and half a banana it is around 320 calories with about 33g of protein. The coffee blend itself is about 15 calories and has no added sugar.

Making it ahead

It keeps in the fridge for a day in a sealed bottle, though it separates, so shake before drinking. Do not leave a milk based shake in a gym bag; make it at home and take it cold, or take the powders dry in the bottle and add liquid at the gym. Our travelling article has the same idea for trips.

What is in the blend

Arabica coffee, six mushrooms listed as one blend on the pack, coconut milk powder and MCT oil, with no added sugar. Cordyceps is the mushroom with the training reputation and its research is early and small; what the trials actually measured is on our Cordyceps research page, and we do not claim the blend improves performance.

The caveat

Anyone with a mushroom allergy should avoid both blends. The coffee contains coconut milk and MCT oil, so a coconut allergy means the matcha or neither, and protein powders carry their own allergens, usually dairy or soy. 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.