From capsules and tinctures to coffee, cacao, and daily rituals: functional mushrooms are everywhere. Even on shelves where you wouldn’t have expected to find them five years ago. And honestly? We love that. It shows that mushrooms are becoming more mainstream, that natural support is finding its place in everyday life, and that people are becoming more conscious about energy, focus, and balance.
Precisely because mushrooms are moving out of the niche and becoming part of the “everyday,” we receive the same question in our inbox more and more often: “How do I know if a mushroom product is truly good?” And the bigger the offering becomes, the more important that question really is.
Sometimes you see a jar and think: this looks premium. But a beautiful design and a clean label say very little about what’s actually inside. With so much choice, we completely understand that it’s easy to lose sight of the forest for the mushrooms. And that’s exactly where we want to help.
What really matters in a good mushroom extract
The numbers, terms, and methods behind mushroom extracts that’s what it’s all about. A topic we get genuinely excited about, even if it may sound a bit technical to some. That’s why we explain it in clear, everyday language. Because once you understand this, you can see through a label in secods and know what really matters.
Quality is about more than just “good mushrooms.” Origin and raw material form the foundation, but extraction ratios, extraction methods, and measurable values ultimately determine what you’re taking in.
Briefly touching on that foundation, because it’s often overlooked: origin, cultivation method, harvest timing, and drying already determine a large part of quality. Extraction can do a lot, but it can’t magically turn a mediocre base into a premium product. We’ll share more about this in a separate newsletter soon: our sourcing story and the journey behind Foodsporen — where we’ve looked, what we’ve learned, and what we screen out long before something ever ends up in our jars or bottles.
Numbers on the label: helpful, but misleading without context
Labels often show numbers that seem very convincing. Understandably so — numbers feel objective. But with mushroom products, numbers are usually indicators, not proof. Without context, they can actually lead you in the wrong direction.
Take extraction ratios, for example. You’ll often see 8:1, 10:1, or 12:1. In simple terms, this says something about concentration. An 8:1 ratio means starting with 8 grams of mushroom material and ending with 1 gram of extract. Useful to know — but it doesn’t tell you which compounds were extracted, or how that extraction was done.
Mushrooms don’t consist of a single compound, but of a complex matrix. That matrix contains different groups of compounds, each behaving differently. A water extract, for instance, is effective at extracting water-soluble components such as certain polysaccharides. But not all compounds dissolve well in water. That’s why alcohol is often used as well.
By combining water and alcohol, you get a dual extraction: broader than using a single method alone. At Foodsporen, we take it one step further and work with triple extraction. This means combining water extraction and alcohol extraction with a third step: ultrasonic sound frequency.
One step further in extraction
Ultrasonic sound may sound futuristic, but the principle is simple. Microscopic vibrations in the liquid help structures open up more easily, allowing compounds to be released into the solvent more efficiently. Think of the difference between a teabag sitting still in water and one that’s gently moved, you extract more, and faster. While traditional water and alcohol extractions typically yield around 70–80% of the active compounds, ultrasonic extraction allows us to capture nearly the full spectrum present in the mushroom. The result is an extract that is not only broad in composition, but also consistent from batch to batch.
So don’t look only at the extraction ratio, but also at how an extract is made. This is the first layer: what extraction and concentration do and do not tell you.
In the next newsletter, we’ll look at another number that is just as often misunderstood: polysaccharides. And why “more” doesn’t automatically mean “better.”
As always, we’ll close with a bit of Fungi Wisdom:
“Nature reveals herself fully only to those who do not rush her.”
Mush love, 🍄
Team Foodsporen