A Cook’s Guide to Functional Mushrooms: Traditional Ingredients for Everyday Drinks and Recipes
Reading time: 8 minutes
If you’ve walked through our store in Dromana recently, you might have noticed a small but growing section of mushroom powders sitting alongside the matcha, the superfoods, and our in-house Functional Beverages. These aren’t the button mushrooms or portobellos you’d toss in a pan, they’re a different category of mushroom that’s been used in food and wellness traditions for thousands of years, and they’re having a quiet moment in Australian kitchens.
If you’re curious about lion’s mane, chaga, turkey tail, tremella, reishi or any of the others, this guide is for you. We’ll walk through what they actually are, where they come from, how they’ve been used historically, and the simple practical ways to fold them into your everyday cooking and drink-making.
Before we start, an important note: Nothing in this post is intended as health advice, and we don’t make claims that any mushroom will treat, prevent or cure anything. If you have a specific health condition, please speak with a qualified healthcare practitioner before introducing new ingredients into your diet.
With that said — let’s get into it.
What we mean by “functional mushrooms”
“Functional mushrooms” is a category name used to describe a group of mushroom species that have been used in food and traditional wellness practices, predominantly across East Asia, Northern Europe and Siberia, for centuries. They’re distinct from the everyday culinary mushrooms most people are familiar with (button, portobello, oyster, swiss brown) in three ways:
• They’re rarely eaten as a whole vegetable. Most are too woody, bitter, or fibrous to be enjoyed whole. They’re typically dried and then ground into powder, steeped as a tea, or used as an extract.
• They have long, well-documented histories in traditional food and wellness systems. Lion’s mane and reishi appear in classical Chinese herbal texts. Chaga has been used by communities across Siberia and Northern Europe since at least the 12th century. Turkey tail is referenced in traditional Japanese and Chinese practices.
• They’re being studied by modern scientists. Research into the compounds these mushrooms contain, particularly beta-glucans, polysaccharides, and various secondary metabolites, is ongoing. The science is still developing, and findings vary, but the curiosity is genuine.
The mushrooms in our range
Here’s a closer look at the ones we work with most often, including those that appear in our in-house Functional Beverages.
We stock all eight as individual powders - lion’s mane, chaga, turkey tail, tremella, reishi, cordyceps, shiitake and maitake, and you can buy any of them in any quantity, from as little as a teaspoon up to a kilogram. That makes trying functional mushrooms genuinely low-risk: pick one that interests you, take home just enough for a week, see how you find it, and go from there. The brand we stock is Dr Noel’s Mushrooms, an range produced to a very high standard, it’s the line we use exclusively ourselves and the one we’re happy to recommend.
Lion’s mane (Hericium erinaceus)
A snowy white, cascading mushroom that grows on hardwood trees in temperate forests across the Northern Hemisphere, including parts of North America, Europe and Asia. Its appearance is striking, it looks more like a sea moss than a mushroom.
Traditional context: Lion’s mane has been used in food and wellness practices across China, Japan and Korea for centuries. In Buddhist monastic kitchens, it’s prized for its mild, slightly seafood-like flavour (some describe it as crab- or lobster-adjacent when cooked fresh) and has been incorporated into broths, congee and stir-fries.
Traditionally used to support: digestive wellbeing and mental clarity. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, lion’s mane was considered beneficial to the digestive system and to the five organs, and it was particularly valued in Buddhist monastic communities for supporting the steady focus and calm needed for long days of study and meditation. Modern researchers have taken an interest in its hericenone and erinacine compounds, though this remains an area of ongoing study.
How we use it: Lion’s mane appears in our Awaken Elixir - Matcha Latte Blend and our Elevate Elixir - Organic Adaptogenic Hot Chocolate, where its mild, slightly nutty flavour blends seamlessly into both matcha and cacao bases.
In your kitchen: Lion’s mane powder dissolves easily into hot drinks (1/2 to 1 teaspoon per cup). It’s also great in savoury broths, sprinkled into porridge, or stirred through yoghurt.
Chaga (Inonotus obliquus)
Unlike most mushrooms, chaga doesn’t look like a mushroom at all. It grows as a hard, blackened, charcoal-like mass on the trunks of birch trees in cold-climate forests across Russia, Siberia, Northern Europe, Canada and Alaska. Its outer surface is cracked and ash-coloured; the inside is a rich rust-brown.
Traditional context: Chaga has been used in food and folk wellness traditions across Russia, Finland, the Baltic states and Indigenous communities of Northern Canada for centuries. It’s most commonly prepared as a long-simmered tea — sometimes described in Russian as чага чай — which has a smooth, earthy, slightly vanilla flavour.
Traditionally used to support: vitality and resilience through the long, dark winters of the north. Indigenous and folk communities across Siberia, Finland and Northern Canada have consumed chaga tea daily for centuries, valuing it as a warming, fortifying tonic. It’s also notable for being extraordinarily rich in antioxidant compounds, including melanin and betulinic acid drawn from its birch host, among the highest of any commonly consumed food.
How we use it: Chaga is a featured ingredient in our Elevate Elixir, where its deep earthy notes complement the cacao base beautifully.
In your kitchen: Chaga is very versatile, sprinkle some in stir fries, soups or sauces or add half a teaspoon to your hot chocolate or chai.
Turkey tail (Trametes versicolor)
A small, fan-shaped mushroom that grows in overlapping rings on fallen logs and stumps in temperate forests worldwide, including parts of Australia. The common name comes from its concentric, multi-coloured banding that genuinely does resemble the spread tail of a wild turkey.
Traditional context: Turkey tail has been used in food and traditional Chinese and Japanese wellness practices for centuries, where it’s known as yun zhi (China) or kawaratake (Japan). It’s typically prepared as a long-simmered decoction.
Traditionally used to support: vital energy and general resilience. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, turkey tail (yun zhi) has long been used to support vital energy and to clear what TCM calls ‘dampness’ from the body. In Japan, two of its polysaccharides, PSK and PSP, have been studied extensively and used in conventional Japanese medical practice since the 1970s, which makes turkey tail one of the most thoroughly researched of all traditionally used mushrooms.
How we use it: Turkey tail appears in our Elevate Elixir, where it adds depth and a subtle woody note.
In your kitchen: Turkey tail has a mild, slightly earthy flavour. Powdered turkey tail can be added to broths, soups and hot drinks. It’s also commonly brewed as a tea, often blended with other mushrooms or herbs.
Tremella (Tremella fuciformis)
Also known as snow fungus, silver ear or the beauty mushroom, tremella is a translucent, gelatinous mushroom native to subtropical regions across Asia, Australia, the Pacific and Central America. When dried it looks like crinkled white tissue paper; rehydrated, it has a soft, jelly-like texture.
Traditional context: Tremella has been a celebrated ingredient in Chinese cuisine for centuries, particularly in sweet desserts and tonic soups. In Tang Dynasty China it was reputedly prized as a beauty food, Yang Guifei, one of the Four Beauties of ancient China, is said to have used it.
Traditionally used to support: skin radiance, moisture and ‘yin’, a TCM concept loosely related to coolness, hydration and softness. Tremella’s centuries-old reputation as a beauty food has attracted modern interest in its unique polysaccharides, which hold moisture in a way similar to hyaluronic acid, though research into how that translates beyond the laboratory is still developing.
How we use it: Tremella is in our Awaken Elixir, where it adds a subtle silky texture to the matcha latte base.
In your kitchen: Tremella powder dissolves into hot drinks, smoothies or porridge easily and adds a gentle, almost vanilla like creaminess.
Reishi (Ganoderma lucidum/lingzhi)
A glossy, red-brown, kidney-shaped mushroom that grows on hardwood trees. Reishi is known by many names: lingzhi in China, yeongji in Korea, and reishi in Japan.
Traditional context: Reishi appears in classical Chinese herbal texts going back over 2,000 years. It’s traditionally prepared as a decoction (a long, slow simmer), often combined with other herbs.
Traditionally used to support: calm, balance, sleep and longevity. Often called the ‘mushroom of immortality’ in classical Chinese texts, reishi was historically reserved for emperors and scholars and considered one of the most prized herbs in the Chinese pharmacopoeia. In Traditional Chinese Medicine it’s used as a ‘shen’ (spirit) tonic, associated with a settled mind and emotional steadiness.
In your kitchen: Reishi is famously bitter, so it’s typically used in long-simmered preparations rather than quick steeps. A small amount of reishi powder can be added to coffee, hot chocolate or chai, the bitterness rounds out beautifully with cacao or strong tea.
Cordyceps (Cordyceps militaris)
Cordyceps has one of the most extraordinary lifecycles in the natural world. In the wild, it’s a parasitic fungus — it infects the larvae or pupae of insects (typically moths and caterpillars), slowly colonises them underground over winter, then pushes a slender, vivid orange fruiting body up through the soil in spring. The closely related Ophiocordyceps sinensis, found on the Tibetan plateau, takes its Tibetan name yartsa gunbu - ‘summer grass, winter worm’, from exactly this lifecycle.
The species you’ll find in our store and most other Australian retailers is Cordyceps militaris, the more widely cultivated cousin. Commercially, it’s grown on sterile grain-based substrates rather than on live insects, so what reaches your kitchen is purely the fruiting body, vivid orange in colour, with no insect involvement.
Traditional context: Cordyceps has a long history of use in traditional Tibetan and Chinese wellness practices, where it’s been incorporated into tonic foods.
Traditionally used to support: stamina, endurance and energy. In traditional Tibetan and Chinese practice, cordyceps was used as a tonic for ‘lung and kidney’ vitality, concepts in those traditions associated with breath, endurance and life force. It came to wider attention in 1993, when Chinese long-distance runners credited a cordyceps-based tonic for record-breaking performances, a story that sparked broader modern interest, though the science is still developing.
In your kitchen: Cordyceps has a mild, slightly sweet, savoury flavour. Powder dissolves into hot drinks easily. It also works in broths, marinades and as a finishing dust over savoury dishes.
Shiitake (Lentinula edodes)
A meaty, savoury brown-capped mushroom native to East Asian forests, where it grows on fallen hardwood, particularly the shii tree, a Japanese oak that gives the mushroom its name (‘shii’ + ‘take’, meaning mushroom). It has been cultivated in China for at least 1,000 years and is now grown worldwide.
Traditional context: Shiitake straddles two worlds. It’s a beloved everyday culinary mushroom across Japan, China and Korea, used fresh, dried and rehydrated in soups, stir-fries, noodles and braises, and it also appears in classical Chinese herbal texts as a tonic food.
Traditionally used to support: vitality and general resilience. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, shiitake has long been classed as a ‘qi tonic’, associated with the body’s overall vigour and resistance to fatigue. It also became the first mushroom to attract serious modern research interest, when Japanese scientists isolated its compound lentinan (a beta-glucan) in the late 1960s, work that helped kick off the broader scientific study of functional mushrooms.
In your kitchen: Shiitake is the most versatile of the lot in the kitchen. Fresh or rehydrated, it’s wonderful in stir-fries, broths, risottos, dumplings and rice dishes. Shiitake powder dissolves easily into soups, sauces and broths, adding a deep umami savouriness that works especially well in vegetarian cooking.
Maitake (Grifola frondosa)
A large, frilly cluster of overlapping fan-shaped caps that grows at the base of hardwood trees, particularly oaks, across Japan, north-east China and eastern North America. Its Japanese name, maitake, translates as ‘dancing mushroom’, said to come from the joy foragers felt on finding one, as maitake was once so valuable in Japan it was reputedly traded for its weight in silver. In English it’s often called ‘hen of the woods’ for its layered, plumage-like shape.
Traditional context: Maitake has been a prized food and tonic mushroom in Japanese and Chinese tradition for centuries. Like shiitake, it occupies the comfortable middle ground between everyday food and traditional medicine, and is commonly used in soups, stir-fries and tempura.
Traditionally used to support: vitality, balance and resilience. In Traditional Chinese Medicine and Japanese kampo, maitake was used as a qi tonic, associated with overall vigour and steady energy. Modern Japanese researchers have given particular attention to its beta-glucans, especially a fraction known as Maitake D-fraction, studied since the 1980s though, as with all functional mushrooms, the science is still developing.
In your kitchen: Maitake has a rich, earthy, slightly peppery flavour and a meaty texture. Fresh maitake is wonderful sautéed in butter and finished with salt, or torn into pieces and roasted until crispy at the edges. Maitake powder adds depth to soups, broths and gravies.
How to actually use them at home
The barrier most people hit with functional mushrooms isn’t curiosity, it’s practical. How do you actually fit them into your day?
Here’s what we’ve found works for our customers and for us personally.
Start with one mushroom, not a stack. Picking one species, getting familiar with its flavour and how your body responds, and using it consistently for a few weeks is more useful than rotating between five different powders.
Start with a small dose. Half a teaspoon of mushroom powder in a hot drink is plenty when you’re starting out. You can always add more once you know what you’re working with.
Anchor it to an existing ritual. Most people who stick with mushrooms long-term don’t add a “new” step to their day, they fold mushrooms into something they already do. Morning coffee or matcha. Evening hot chocolate or chai. A weekend pot of bone broth. Our entire Functional Beverages range is built around exactly this idea, drinks you’d want regardless of the mushrooms, with the mushrooms simply present.
Heat helps. Most functional mushroom compounds extract better with heat, so brewing or simmering in hot water (or hot milk, or hot chocolate) is more effective than stirring powder into a cold smoothie.
A simple recipe to start with
If you’ve never used functional mushrooms before, this is the easiest place to begin.
Slow Cacao with Adaptogens
Serves 1
• 1 cup hot milk of your choice (whole, oat, almond)
• 1 to 2 teaspoons Elevate Elixir (or 1 teaspoon raw cacao + 1/2 teaspoon mushroom powder of your choice)
• A pinch of sea salt
• Optional: 1/2 teaspoon maple syrup or honey
• Optional: a small grating of fresh ginger, a pinch of cinnamon, or a pinch of vanilla
Warm the milk gently in a small saucepan — don’t boil. Whisk in the Elevate Elixir (or cacao + mushroom powder) and salt until smooth and frothy. Sweeten if you like. Pour into your favourite mug and drink slowly, somewhere quiet, with no phone.
That’s it. That’s the ritual.
A note on quality
Functional mushrooms are only as good as their sourcing. Three things to look for:
1. Dual extraction or fruiting body sourcing. Many cheaper mushroom products are made from mycelium grown on grain, which means the final powder is mostly grain starch with very little actual mushroom. Look for products that specify “fruiting body” or “dual extracted” on the label.
2. Organic certification where possible. Functional mushrooms absorb compounds from their growing environment, so organic certification matters more here than for most other ingredients.
3. Trusted suppliers. Ask the retailer (us, or anyone else) where the mushrooms come from and what processing methods are used. A retailer who can’t answer that question is one to be cautious of.
We source the mushrooms in our products from suppliers we’ve vetted personally, and we’re always happy to share specifics. If you’d like detailed sourcing information for any product, just email NIcola@foundationbulkfoodstore.com.au and we’ll send it over.
In summary
Functional mushrooms have been used in food and wellness traditions for centuries, and they’re worth getting curious about, provided you go in with realistic expectations and good sourcing. They’re foods, not magic. They taste interesting, they pair beautifully with cacao and matcha and earthy spices, and they reward consistency rather than dramatic results.
If you’d like to start somewhere, our Awaken Elixir and Elevate Elixir are the lowest-friction entry points, pre-blended, balanced, and built around traditional ingredients we trust.
Pop into the shop in Dromana, or order online for delivery anywhere in Australia. As always, if you have specific questions, just ask — we read every email personally.
This article is for general informational purposes only. It is not medical or nutritional advice. The mushrooms discussed are described in the context of their traditional culinary uses. They are not therapeutic goods and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. If you have a specific health condition or take prescription medication, please consult a qualified healthcare practitioner before introducing new ingredients into your diet.
