You wouldn’t think that a great cup of coffee could offer mushroom for improvement, but a new Australian start-up has found a way to make your daily cup of joe even better for you.

Holy Joe cold drip coffee is made using a special drip tower developed in-house, which slowly drips cold spring water through ground coffee beans for 12 hours. ‘Brewmaster’ and Holy Joe co-founder James Bullock says that this method results in a smoother and more complex brew that’s ready to drink straight out of the bottle.

“We wanted to introduce something to the market that could really get people excited about their coffee again,” says Bullock, who’s obviously never seen this author waiting for her extra-strong morning flat white. “We almost wanted to have people talking about their coffee in a similar way to a premium whisky – the flint glass bottle and labelling helps with that, too.”

But the real point of difference here lies in the product’s other ‘functional’ ingredients – Holy Joe coffee also features organically grown Australian medicinal mushroom extracts. The original brew comes with lion’s mane and turkey tail, while Holy Joe Decaf comes with native reishi. All three mushies offer anti-inflammatory benefits, and are associated with neural cell repair and free radical reduction in the body. And for those of you prepping for the next Covid wave (*sigh*), all three fungi are also believed to help boost the immune system.

It’s just what’s needed at this time of year, as we drag our collective exhausted carcasses towards the Christmas break – a good shot of caffeine that comes with an extra boost to help keep the dreaded lurgy at bay. Functional, indeed.

Holy Joe is available at selected stockists. You can find out more at holyjoecoffee.com.

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