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Fran Lu

A cafe in southwestern China’s Yunnan province has invented a unique coffee that incorporates a local speciality, penny bun mushrooms.
Every year between June and September, Yunnan enters its annual wild mushroom season and becomes one of the top destinations for Chinese foodies.
Of the wild mushrooms, the most tasty and expensive are termite mushrooms, penny bun mushrooms and matsutake mushrooms.
In August, a cafe in Yunnan released a new product that blends Yunnan’s two specialities, coffee and penny bun mushrooms.

The two new products, penny bun mushroom and cheese americano and penny bun mushroom oat milk latte, are priced at just 23 yuan (US$3) per cup.
A member of staff at the cafe said they sold 50 to 70 cups of penny bun mushroom coffee a day. Many people came specially for the caffeine treats.
It is not the first time the cafe blended mushrooms with coffee. They previously released a black truffle coffee.
Although wild mushrooms can be found all over Yunnan in summer, mushroom coffee is not so ubiquitous.

Many cafe owners in Kunming said the cost of researching and developing such products is prohibitive.
A trend has developed among cafes nationwide to release products combining coffee with specialities, such as fermented bean curd latte and iced oyster americano.
Even Starbucks China released a pork latte in 2024 to celebrate the Lunar New Year. It was priced at 68 yuan (US$10) a cup.
The staff member with the Yunnan cafe said they were still unsure whether to continue the penny bun mushroom coffee next year, as it depends greatly on the mushroom’s price.
The price of penny bun mushrooms in August is 40 to 80 yuan (US$6 to US$12) per kilo, according to yunnan.cn.
One of the most expensive mushrooms that also belongs to the bolete category is Jian Shou Qing, priced at 170 to 200 yuan (US$24 to US$30) per kilo.

It is a highly hallucinogenic mushroom that needs to be cooked thoroughly or it can cause nausea, shock and even death.
Locals believe that Jian Shou Qing needs to be fried in hot oil for minutes before being fried together with other ingredients to remove its poison while keeping its fresh flavour.
As the news of the mushroom coffee spread, many locals expressed their disapproval of the product.
“The mushrooms are too precious and delicious to be made into coffee,” one person said.
“It is a waste of good food,” said another.
However, a third person showed support: “I tried the mushroom coffee. It was quite delicious.”


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Detractors describe specially blended caffeine drink as ‘a waste of good food’ while others say it is simply ‘delicious’


Detractors describe specially blended caffeine drink as ‘a waste of good food’ while others say it is simply ‘delicious’.


Coffee

Starbucks

China’s Yunnan cafe launches unique latte made from prized mushrooms for US$3 a cup

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Detractors describe specially blended caffeine drink as ‘a waste of good food’ while others say it is simply ‘delicious’

Detractors describe specially blended caffeine drink as ‘a waste of good food’ while others say it is simply ‘delicious’