'Shroom boom

Specialty food makers are championing the umami flavor and functionality of fungus in new food and beverage products.

Pan's Mushroom Jerky
 

“Mushrooms themselves seem to be popping up in chocolate bars, mushroom lattes, things like that,” Ms. Purcell said.

Mushroom kombucha
 

Featured at the Winter Fancy Food Show, Pan’s Mushroom Jerky is made with shiitake mushroom stems, avocado oil, coconut sugar and spices. Woodsy shiitake mushrooms are blended into an Umami variety of organic beef patties from Tribali Foods. From Yuguo Farms comes a range of shiitake mushroom chips in original, spicy and wasabi flavors.

 

Reishi, chaga, cordyceps and lion’s mane are bubbling up in better-for-you beverages. Health-Ade Kombucha recently added a reishi-chocolate variety, featuring a combination of cacao and reishi mushrooms, and Four Sigmatic offers an array of coffee, tea and cacao mixes featuring mushrooms, including a new mushroom matcha drink mix with lion's mane and ginger.