In the past several years, a plethora (plague?) of "healthy coffee" companies appeared on the market. They bear names such as "Gano Excel", "Organo Gold", "Vidacup", "SereniGy", and so on. And they claim to bring you coffee, but with some magical healthy ingredient added to make you healthier, like ganoderma mushrooms and/or some other magical herbs. Sounds enticing, but here's what they don't want you to know.
1) Lousy coffee beans are used to make flavored coffee.
Traditionally, there are good coffee beans... and bad coffee beans. People would buy the good ones for a premium. So what do they do with the not so good ones?
They make flavored coffee with them. The added flavor (and smell) made the bad coffee more palatable.
Coffee geeks would never desecrate good coffee with flavors, even good flavors.
2) How are flavored coffees made any way?
Modern flavored coffee is made by adding flavored oil to whole roasted beans, before they are grounded. Generally, 3% flavor oil (i.e. 3 pounds of flavor oil for 100 pound of beans) is added. Then the whole thing is sent through a mixer so the oil coats the beans (which can mess up your grinders)
Flavor oil on coffee. Hmmm... So how did they get Lingzhi flavor onto coffee, if it's generally water extracted? (see 4)
3) Generally there are only 4 camps of flavored coffee (no mushrooms)
Coffee dated back hundreds of years from Africa when the inhabitants of present-day Yemen drank coffee flavored with nuts. Later, fruits, chocolate, and such flavors are added. Foodeditorials wrote:
No mushrooms. Ever wonder why?
4) Lingzhi is BITTER (i.e. does NOT go with coffee)
From Wikipedia:
And if you didn't taste any Lingzhi, perhaps you're not getting enough of this magical ingredient.
5) How did they add Lingzhi to coffee any way?
Lingzhi extract are usually derived from water extract from slices (fresh or dried), then dried to powder.
But flavored coffee is derived from... flavor OIL and coffee beans.
That does not mix, as you can't make oil from lingzhi.
So how was lingzhi added to coffee?
The logical explanation is... powder extract... added to GROUND coffee / instant coffee.
6) Do you get enough Lingzhi from a cup or two of this coffee?
Did you ever ask how much Lingzhi is there is one cup of coffee?
Organo Gold claimed there are 250 mg, equivalent to one pill's worth. (Is there proof? Nope, just their internal claim. Is there any lab results or audit? Nope. if you can't taste it, how do you know it's there? When Waiora short-changed their own product, they never admitted it except in court...
Given that a pill of Organo Gold gano (easily found on eBay) costs half as much as their coffee (also found on eBay) ...
But 250 mg of what? Extract? Of what concentration? What potency?
And how much lingzhi are you supposed to take per day any way?
KRGV TV in Texas asked their regional medical center, and one pharmacist there came up with 1200 mg.
That's 5 cups you have to drink per day to have a effect, without overdosing and cause side effects. ASSUMING it really contains 250 mg per cup.
Do you drink 5 cups of bitter coffee every day?
Bonus) Lingzhi / Reishi mushroom is NOT ganoderma lucidem
Asian lingzhi is NOT ganoderma lucidem, even though it looks virtually identical. It's actually a different specie designated ganoderma sichuanese, named for Sichuan, China, back in 1983. Ganoderma lucidem is actually a specie found in Europe. Similar ganoderma had been found all over Asia, but they get other names.
So if your healthy coffee peddler claims it's ganoderma lucidem, he had been reading the wrong parts of Wikipedia or bad PR material.
Conclusion
So-called healthy coffee industry is a "meatball sundae". People who genuinely want the benefits of ganoderma should just buy the pills (and save 50% ) and buy good coffee to enjoy separately. Not only you don't get enough of the magic ingredient to affect your health, you're ruining coffee.
P.S. And you may be helping an industry full of infighting and backstabbing.
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1) Lousy coffee beans are used to make flavored coffee.
Traditionally, there are good coffee beans... and bad coffee beans. People would buy the good ones for a premium. So what do they do with the not so good ones?
They make flavored coffee with them. The added flavor (and smell) made the bad coffee more palatable.
Coffee geeks would never desecrate good coffee with flavors, even good flavors.
2) How are flavored coffees made any way?
Modern flavored coffee is made by adding flavored oil to whole roasted beans, before they are grounded. Generally, 3% flavor oil (i.e. 3 pounds of flavor oil for 100 pound of beans) is added. Then the whole thing is sent through a mixer so the oil coats the beans (which can mess up your grinders)
Flavor oil on coffee. Hmmm... So how did they get Lingzhi flavor onto coffee, if it's generally water extracted? (see 4)
3) Generally there are only 4 camps of flavored coffee (no mushrooms)
Coffee dated back hundreds of years from Africa when the inhabitants of present-day Yemen drank coffee flavored with nuts. Later, fruits, chocolate, and such flavors are added. Foodeditorials wrote:
Generally speaking, there are four categories of this type of coffee. The first category includes flavors based upon spices such as clove, cinnamon, anise, and cardamom. Next, there are also some coffee flavors that are based upon fruits such as coconut or raspberry. Chocolate based flavors are the next type with the most common being chocolate mint. Lastly, some flavors are based upon nuts like vanilla, hazelnut or macadamia nuts. Crème coffees also have their share of followers; these include flavors such as Irish Creme or French Vanilla coffee.To recap, that's spice, fruits, chocolate, and nuts. For hundreds of years, these are the four main categories of flavored coffee.
No mushrooms. Ever wonder why?
4) Lingzhi is BITTER (i.e. does NOT go with coffee)
From Wikipedia:
Due to its bitter taste, Lingzhi is traditionally prepared as a hot water extract product.Adding Lingzhi to coffee can only make the coffee taste WORSE, not better.
And if you didn't taste any Lingzhi, perhaps you're not getting enough of this magical ingredient.
5) How did they add Lingzhi to coffee any way?
Lingzhi extract are usually derived from water extract from slices (fresh or dried), then dried to powder.
But flavored coffee is derived from... flavor OIL and coffee beans.
That does not mix, as you can't make oil from lingzhi.
So how was lingzhi added to coffee?
The logical explanation is... powder extract... added to GROUND coffee / instant coffee.
6) Do you get enough Lingzhi from a cup or two of this coffee?
Did you ever ask how much Lingzhi is there is one cup of coffee?
Organo Gold claimed there are 250 mg, equivalent to one pill's worth. (Is there proof? Nope, just their internal claim. Is there any lab results or audit? Nope. if you can't taste it, how do you know it's there? When Waiora short-changed their own product, they never admitted it except in court...
Given that a pill of Organo Gold gano (easily found on eBay) costs half as much as their coffee (also found on eBay) ...
But 250 mg of what? Extract? Of what concentration? What potency?
And how much lingzhi are you supposed to take per day any way?
KRGV TV in Texas asked their regional medical center, and one pharmacist there came up with 1200 mg.
That's 5 cups you have to drink per day to have a effect, without overdosing and cause side effects. ASSUMING it really contains 250 mg per cup.
Do you drink 5 cups of bitter coffee every day?
Bonus) Lingzhi / Reishi mushroom is NOT ganoderma lucidem
Asian lingzhi is NOT ganoderma lucidem, even though it looks virtually identical. It's actually a different specie designated ganoderma sichuanese, named for Sichuan, China, back in 1983. Ganoderma lucidem is actually a specie found in Europe. Similar ganoderma had been found all over Asia, but they get other names.
So if your healthy coffee peddler claims it's ganoderma lucidem, he had been reading the wrong parts of Wikipedia or bad PR material.
Conclusion
So-called healthy coffee industry is a "meatball sundae". People who genuinely want the benefits of ganoderma should just buy the pills (and save 50% ) and buy good coffee to enjoy separately. Not only you don't get enough of the magic ingredient to affect your health, you're ruining coffee.
P.S. And you may be helping an industry full of infighting and backstabbing.
