Among the numerous negative trends brought about by the coronavirus pandemic, the boom in online shopping, as well as the increased concern for mental health, stand out as positive ones. This has particularly benefited the business of the Split-based company Mushroom Cups, which produces nothing less than coffee with mushrooms. Unlike regular coffee, mushroom extract contributes to a gradual awakening without sudden energy drops, and enriches coffee with numerous nutrients.
This is confirmed by Stipe Režić, the founder and director of the company, who started the story of organic coffees from the Peruvian highlands with the addition of chanterelle mushrooms from Croatian forests even before the pandemic, back in 2017, together with partners Toni Trivković, Ante Dagelić, and Morten Smalbye.
– Coffee with mushrooms has emerged as a super alternative for people who want to feel good without piling up cups of regular coffee that disrupts their digestion and triggers anxiety – explains Režić the advantages of this coffee, which is produced in a facility near Karlovac, but grows in distant Peru.
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—– Our coffee comes from an organic farm in the Peruvian highlands, and we purchase mushrooms from Croatian mushroom pickers and three different mushroom producers with organic certification. The coffee beans are processed after import and turned into instant coffee, while the mushrooms undergo a double extraction process that ensures the bioavailability of substances that the human stomach cannot break down on its own. Finally, we mix the instant coffee and mushroom extracts in predefined ratios and package them into single-use bags that ensure the freshness and durability of the ingredients – explains the director.
In their Split office, outside of production, their three employees are engaged in digital marketing and daily operations, while one employee is in the warehouse.
Improvement and Growth
This highly inspiring project was 85 percent funded by the European Fund for Innovation in Small Enterprises, while a year ago they raised an additional $22,000 in a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter.
Although it was initially difficult to create an instant version of coffee, through constant product improvement they have reached numerous European markets, and even the American market. Therefore, today their four types of coffee – for exercise, focus, recovery, and relaxation – can be found not only in their web shop but also on shelves in the USA. They say that the taste of mushrooms is not noticeable in the coffee.
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The export value, which accounts for 50 percent of their revenue, is constantly increasing, and their total revenue last year amounted to just over one million kuna.
– We have been exporting to the USA for almost two years. We use Amazon’s infrastructure for logistics, and it has been working well from day one. Just yesterday, a friend sent me a picture from San Francisco where he was shocked when he entered a random store on the way and saw our products displayed on the shelf. These are the things that make us very happy, and we hope that such encounters will become more frequent – Režić says sincerely, explaining that advertising costs in foreign markets are higher, but purchasing power is stronger, so the results are similar to those in the domestic market.
One Hundred Attempts
The struggle with competition in the market is inevitable, but their advantage is that they are the only ones in the market using wild, not cultivated mushrooms.
– Mushrooms that grow in a natural, forest environment have to fight against a harsh environment, which makes their chemical composition incomparably better – says Režić.
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—– The extraction process we use has been optimized for a full two years until we managed to hit the optimal ratio of exposing mushrooms to alcohol and heat so that the bioactive ingredients are released, not destroyed. Today it all looks great because we have settled into a routine, but at the beginning, there were a lot of problems.
I am quite sure that anyone normal would have given up after hundreds of unsuccessful attempts at extraction and product formulation. But we were fanatics in our desire to show what can be done with mushrooms, and in the end, it paid off – says Režić, a former Croatian basketball representative, who came up with the idea of starting a mushroom business due to his own and his father’s health problems, which they managed to overcome with the help of mushrooms.
Next is Tea
Although they have so far resisted increasing the prices of their products, the current crisis with energy and raw materials will soon force them to do so. Part of the price increase is offset by the elimination of free shipping, which has so far been available for almost all orders from their online store.
This step, in turn, pushes them towards further growth in foreign markets, as well as the introduction of some new products. For now, they have added mushrooms to cocoa, and soon they will offer customers with mushrooms – tea.
– We are currently working on mushroom-enhanced tea. Scientists from two faculties are helping us with the development, and we have achieved a lot, so I think the tea will be a hit – concludes the director.
