The Ledger

The Ledger is the public record of what the human research actually says about every ingredient we use, and the stamp we gave it. Some of what's in the bag is settled and some of it is early, and we put both in on purpose. Most mushroom coffee brands ask you to trust a summary. We would rather show the working and let you price the evidence yourself.

Why we mix the two

Some ingredients have repeated human trials behind them. Others are still being studied, and we use them anyway. That is deliberate. Plenty of people want to try what the science is still working out, and they should be able to do that knowingly. What we won't do is dress an early ingredient up as settled fact and hope nobody checks.

The four stamps

Every ingredient carries one of four stamps, and the stamp goes on the front of the bag.

• BACKED means more than one research team ran a controlled human trial, and the results agree.
• EARLY means real human trials exist and the results so far are inconclusive. The research is still open, and the stamp tells you that before you buy instead of after.
• ANCIENT means centuries of documented daily use, and thin or absent modern trials.
• BUSTED means someone tested it properly and it did not hold up, or the study people cite does not say what they say it says. Nothing stamped BUSTED goes in a bag.

These are our stamps and our reading of the literature. They are not a certification, and no outside body issues them.

What's stamped right now

Lion's mane, Hericium erinaceus, stamped EARLY

Lion's mane is the most-studied mushroom in the category, and it grows with no cap and no stem. The hericenones, a compound family unique to it, were first isolated from its fruiting body in 1991. The erinacines are a separate family and they live only in the mycelium, which is why you will not see us claim them. Human trials exist. A 2019 Japanese study ran 12 weeks and reported better results on a memory test in its treatment group. The trials are small, and taken together they are still inconclusive. That is what EARLY means, and it is on the front of the bag so the call is yours.

Chaga, Inonotus obliquus, stamped ANCIENT

Chaga was ground and boiled as a daily winter drink across Siberia for centuries, and in 1955 it became one of the very few traditional fungi to earn an official state pharmacopoeia entry, as the Soviet extract Befungin. There are no controlled human trials we would stand behind. It is in the bag for flavour and for tradition, and the stamp says so.

What we will not say

We do not say our coffee treats, cures, prevents or heals anything, because it doesn't and because saying so would be illegal. We do not print a milligram dose before the certificate for that lot is back. We stamp claims and ingredients, never companies.

Corrections

If a stamp here is wrong, we want to know. Email hello@fruitingbody.io with the study and we will read it. Changes get logged on this page with the date.

Last reviewed: 3 September 2026.

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.