The Best Nootropic Coffee
Article by Stefan Burns - Updated March 2022. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter!
Your life will never be the same after trying out this secret nootropic coffee recipe because afterwards you’ll never go back to a regular cup of coffee.
In the United States of America where 146 billion cups of coffee are enjoyed per year, and worldwide where that number is MUCH larger, this coffee drink might even change the world.
One reason coffee is so popular is because each cup contains ~100 mg of caffeine. Caffeine is a mild stimulant that increases alertness and focus, wards off sleep, and boosts the metabolism. Caffeine is the most widely used nootropic worldwide and coffee makes it easily to consume a physiologically and psychologically relevant dose. So how do you improve upon the world’s most widely consumed nootropic beverage?
Well in my quest to make the perfect coffee, one that’s smooth, not too bitter, packed with micronutrients, and doesn’t create any anxiety or jitter I turned to herbalism, experimenting with many different recipes, and one day I blended together the ultimate cup of joe.
This super coffee is such a health and productivity hack that I honestly shouldn’t share it with anyone, but I’m feeling magnanimous so here goes.
The Dark Mocha Rises
One of the main drawbacks of coffee is that it can sometimes cause jitteryness and anxiety, especially when multiple cups are consumed and when plenty of extra sugar is added. Instead of creating a triumphant feeling of focus and productivity, you’re left feeling worn and emotionally snappy.
Bulletproof coffee was the first to address this issue by replacing sugar with a fat like butter or coconut oil, in the process taking the paleo community by storm. The blend of fat and coffee nicely enhances alertness and focus while boosting fat metabolism, providing all day energy without any blood sugar crashes. Why stop with one improvement when we can go one step further with what I call the dark mocha.
A typical mocha combines coffee with steamed milk and chocolate, delicious. A dark mocha is different.
Instead of mixing in cream and sugar, a dark mocha starts with a cup of black coffee and mixes in 100% pure cacao along some honey and a few synergistic herbal supplements.
Pure cacao powder contains a good blend of fat, fiber, and protein which together function better than butter or coconut oil in stabilizing blood sugar and without creating an oily coffee. Cacao also has a delicious flavor and melts easily into a warm cup of coffee. Add to that some honey to cut some of the bitterness, Ceylon cinnamon for flavor and for it’s insulin sensitizing effects, and chaga mushroom and cistanche for a wealth of health and longevity benefits, and you have the ultimate cup of coffee. Here’s the recipe.
Dark Mocha Recipe:
1 cup (8oz) black coffee
1 tbsp cacao powder
1 tsp honey
1/2 tsp ceylon cinnamon
1/8 tsp chaga mushroom powder
1/8 tsp cistanche powder
Instructions:
Brew a cup of black coffee using your favorite coffee beans and pour into a shaker bottle.
Add cacao honey, cinammon, chaga, and cistanche
Blend together for 1-2 minutes until the cacao and honey are fully dissolved. Drink from the bottle or pour into a mug.
Some of the cinnamon, chaga, and cistanche will slowly settle out over time, so give the coffee the occasional swirl or stir with a spoon to keep everything suspended.
The Health Benefits of a Nootropic Coffee
It’s common knowledge that many herbals exist which are great for health and wellness, and incorporating cacao, cinnamon, chaga, and cistanche into coffee (is it a coincidence they all start with the letter C?) makes it real easy to boost the beneficial energetic and cognitive effects of coffee and one’s overall health at the same time.
No messing around with pills or brewing a pot of tea to practice herbalism, simply turn on the coffee machine, scoop the different powders into the cup, and mix. This nootropic blend is so good that it can also help curb a coffee dependency, because a second, third, or fourth cup of coffee won’t be needed to keep alertness, focus, and productivity high. To better understand why this is, let’s learn about the health benefits of each herbal ingredient in the dark mocha.
Health Benefits of Cacao
Cacao is best known for it’s voluptuous flavor and mood-boosting effects, widely considered an aphrodisiac by many. Cacao contains procyanins which are strong anti-inflammatories and have been shown to increase longevity and be neuroprotective. Cacao flavonols reduce mental fatigue and improve cognition during sustained mental effort, also reducing anxiety and depression. Cacao is also good for the heart and cardiovascular system at large and has insulin-sensitizing effects.
The balanced combination of fat, fiber, and protein in cacao also makes it an excellent addition to coffee helping to stabilize it’s more jittery effects.
Health Benefits of Ceylon Cinnamon
Ceylon cinnamon has great flavor and is a well-known anti-diabetic herbal. Cinnamon reduces blood sugar spikes, improves glucose utilization in cells, and can reduce fasting blood glucose alongside cholesterol levels.
Using Ceylon cinnamon instead of cassia cinnamon is important because ceylon cinnamon contains much lower levels of coumarin, a compound that is toxic to the liver in high doses. To receive a concerning dose of coumarin more than an ounce (28 grams) of Ceylon cinnamon would have to be consumed, which is nowhere close to the 1/2 tsp amount recommended in the dark mocha recipe above.
Health Benefits of Chaga Mushroom
Chaga Mushroom is typically found growing on birch trees and is best known for it’s immune system boosting and anti-cancer properties. Chaga mushroom fortifies the cardiovascular system, helps with digestive upset, increases work capacity, and is a potent antioxidant with gene-protecting properties. Chaga is well tolerated in large doses and therefore has a strong safety profile.
Chaga is also a general immune system enhancer which possesses anti-tumor properties. Chaga has been used for thousands of years in traditional Chinese medicine and is now used the world over.
Health Benefits of Cistanche
Cistanche is a plant found growing in arid deserts that contains a wealth of plant compounds such as glycosides, lignans, polysaccharides that boost health across the board. Cistanche fortifies the kidneys and renal system at large, increases learning and memorization ability, protects against neurodegenerative diseases, improves immunity, increases longevity, is an endocrine adaptogen (often boosting testosterone levels), and helps with chronic fatigue syndrome. Cistanche has a strong safety profile and has been used for thousands of years, first in traditional Chinese medicine and now worldwide.
Cistanche also strengthens the cardiovascular system and improves endurance, prevents bone loss, and has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects in general. Cistanche is one of the ultimate herbs for increasing general longevity and vitality, and it goes great with coffee.
Note - I’ve used cistanche (at greater doses than what’s in this recipe) to boost my free testosterone levels over 50+%. Learn more about the Cistanche and Cholesterol Protocol.
The Best Super Coffee
The combination of coffee, cacao, cinnamon, chaga, and cistanche is a match made in heaven. All are dark brown and ready to please your palate, together enhancing your energy, mental cognition, and health in a way few supplements can match. If you want to make the dark mocha 100% plant-based and vegan, substitute the honey for a sweetener like agave syrup.
If you’re consuming more than 300 mg of caffeine per day, switching to a dark mocha will help in reducing daily coffee consumption simply because more cups of coffee won’t be needed. The synergistic effects of the cacao, cinnamon, chaga, and cistanche make one dark mocha all that’s needed to maintain all-day focus and cognitive performance.
Alternatively if you are struggling with your high consumption of coffee and running into negative symptoms as a results, I recommend undergoing a coffee tolerance reset in order to resensitize to the beneficial effects of coffee. Lucky for you I’ve written the complete guide below, check it out!
Nootropic Coffee Ingredients
The ingredients needed to blend together a dark mocha are sold from Mountain Rose Herbs and Nootropics Depot.
Organic Raw Cacao Powder
Mountain Rose Herbs grinds raw whole beans harvested from the tropical plant Theobroma cacao to produce their raw cacao powder. It is not roasted as is typically done.
Standard dose is 2 - 5 grams.
Organic Ceylon Cinnamon Powder
Ceylon cinnamon is true cinnamon and is preferable to use compared to cassia cinnamon because it contains dramatically lower levels of coumarin as discussed earlier.
Standard dose is 0.5 - 2 grams.
Organic Chaga Mushroom Powder
The Mountain Rose Herbs chaga powder is milled from the entire sclerotia. As a whole milled powder it contains the full spectrum of beneficial health compounds found in chaga such as beta-glucans and triterpenes.
Standard dose is 0.5 - 3 grams once daily.
Cistanche is not available from Mountain Rose herbs and instead can be purchased from Nootropics Depot, as can a more finely milled chaga powder.
Cistanche Tubulosa Powder
The cistanche product sold by Nootropics Depot is highly standardized, containing a minimum of 50% echinacosides and 10% acetoside, overall delivering more echinacosides and acetoside per gram than most other cistanche products.
Standard dose is 200 mg once daily.
Chaga 1:1 Mushroom Extract Powder
The chaga mushroom powder sold by Nootropics Depot is very finely milled which makes it excellent for stirring directly into a drink like coffee without creating any unpleasant clumps or graininess.
Standard dose is 500 mg once daily.
Beta-Glugan (β-Glucan) minimum content: 8%
Contains Triterpenoids
References:
Malcom Stuart, et al. The Encyclopedia of Herbs and Herbalism. Crescent Books, New York.
Latif R. Health benefits of cocoa: Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolic Care. 2013;16(6):669-674.
Ranasinghe P, Pigera S, Premakumara GS, Galappaththy P, Constantine GR, Katulanda P. Medicinal properties of ‘true’ cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum): a systematic review. BMC Complement Altern Med. 2013;13(1):275.
Shashkina MYa, Shashkin PN, Sergeev AV. Chemical and medicobiological properties of chaga (Review). Pharm Chem J. 2006;40(10):560-568.
Li Z, Lin H, Gu L, Gao J, Tzeng CM. Herba cistanche (Rou cong-rong): one of the best pharmaceutical gifts of traditional chinese medicine. Front Pharmacol. 2016;7.
Disclosure: Wild Free Organic is a member of various affiliate programs and if a purchase is made through one of our affiliate links a small commission is received. This does not affect your purchase price. Visit our disclosure page for more information.