Mushroom Energy Drinks: My Honest Take After a Stretch of Buying Them

A while back I bought a twelve pack variety case of Odyssey, the sparkling mushroom energy drinks with lion’s mane and cordyceps on the label, and worked my way through the whole thing. I never bought a second case, and on this site that number is the review, so this post owes you the honest accounting of both halves: why the case emptied quickly, and why it was not replaced.

Here it is up front: they are fine. Pleasant, well made, and as far as I could tell they did nothing that the caffeine does not already explain. Most of what is written on the can is beside the point.

What you are actually drinking

An Odyssey is a lightly sweet, properly carbonated energy drink with 85 milligrams of caffeine, which is a strong cup of coffee rather than the paint stripper end of the energy aisle. It tastes clean rather than medicinal, which is not nothing, most things in this category taste like melted gummy bears.

It also contains mushroom extracts, lion’s mane and cordyceps, and this is where I am supposed to tell you about focus and clarity and ancient wisdom. I am not going to, because I cannot separate any of that from the one ingredient in the can with centuries of unambiguous evidence behind it, which is the caffeine.

The mushroom question, answered honestly

Lion’s mane and cordyceps have real research interest and a long history of use, and the research that exists is mostly early, small, or done at doses and durations a canned drink does not resemble. That is not me being dismissive, it is just where the science sits. Anyone telling you confidently that the mushrooms in a soft drink are doing something measurable to their brain has skipped ahead of the evidence.

What I can tell you is how the drink felt to use: a pleasant, level lift, no jitters, no crash. Which is also exactly how moderate caffeine without a sugar bomb attached feels. The simplest explanation of a mushroom energy drink is that it is a well dosed, low sugar caffeine product with good branding, and the simplest explanation is usually the right one.

If you want the best mushroom energy drink, in other words, I think you are mostly shopping for the best tasting moderate caffeine drink, and this one earns that on flavor alone.

Where it fit, and where it stopped fitting

The cans worked for me as the afternoon option, the slot where a full coffee is a mistake I will pay for at midnight. A moderate dose at 2 p.m. is a different proposition from one at 8 a.m., and having something in the fridge for that slot beat brewing half a pot I would not finish.

So why no second case? The honest answer is duller than price, though these are not cheap. I did not notice anything. No sharper focus, no clearer afternoon, nothing I could point at and put down to the mushrooms rather than the 85 milligrams of caffeine. They were just ok. Meh, if I am being blunt about it.

I would still say try them if you are curious, because people report very different things from this category and I am one person with one case. But I am not going to invent an effect I did not feel, and my mornings already belong to coffee with fat in it anyway.

The pick, and why there isn’t one

The case I bought is not sold any more. Odyssey has moved the lineup over to a functional energy line at 222 milligrams a can, which is a different drink from the 85 milligram elixir this whole post is about. I could link those cans. I am not going to, because you would reasonably assume they were the thing I drank, and they are roughly two and a half times the caffeine.

So this one ships with nothing to sell. Given that the verdict was “they were fine and I never bought a second case,” that feels about right.

Quick questions

Do the mushrooms do anything?
The honest answer is that nobody can tell you from a can sized dose, and I could not feel anything I would swear was not the caffeine. Drink it for the taste and the caffeine dose, and let the mushrooms be a maybe.

How much caffeine?
85 milligrams, from green tea, which puts it at a strong cup of coffee rather than the double-Monster range. That is exactly what made it useful in the afternoon.

Why didn’t you buy a second case?
I did not notice them doing anything. They tasted good and delivered a normal amount of caffeine, and beyond that nothing registered. That is not a scandal, it just is not a reason to keep buying them at this price.

Is it better than coffee?
It is different from coffee. Coffee is cheaper and I like the ritual. This is colder, fizzier, and easier to dose in the afternoon. “Better” is doing no work in that sentence.

Caffeine tolerance is personal, and if you are pregnant, sensitive to stimulants, or on medication that interacts with caffeine, the mushroom branding does not change what is in the can. Read labels and ask your doctor, not a wellness blog.