For years, Real Mushrooms has been one of the loudest voices challenging how mushroom supplements are marketed in North America.
The company built much of its reputation around a simple distinction: mushrooms are not mycelium, and mycelium grown on grain is certainly not the same thing as a mushroom.
Now Real Mushrooms is entering the mycelium market itself.
The company's newly launched product, Real Mycelium, marks a significant shift in the functional mushroom industry—not because Real Mushrooms has changed its position, but because CEO Skye Chilton believes the industry has largely misunderstood the conversation all along.
"We've never been against mycelium," Chilton explained during a recent appearance on the Mycopreneur Podcast. "We've been against grain-based mycelium products."
According to Chilton, the majority of mycelium supplements sold in North America are produced by growing fungal mycelium on grain substrates such as rice or oats. The resulting material is then dried and sold as a supplement, often marketed alongside mushroom products despite containing substantial amounts of grain.
Real Mycelium takes a different approach.
The Lion's Mane supplement is produced through liquid fermentation, a process that grows mycelium in a nutrient-rich liquid medium rather than on grain. Once cultivation is complete, the liquid is removed, leaving behind what Chilton describes as pure mycelium biomass.
The distinction matters because lion's mane contains a class of compounds called Erinacines that are produced in the mycelium but not in meaningful quantities within the mushroom's fruiting body. Researchers have increasingly investigated these compounds for their potential role in supporting cognitive health and nerve growth factor pathways.
Real Mushrooms says its new product delivers five milligrams of erinacine A per serving and is one of the first commercially available products to quantify the compound directly on the label.
"Now that we can actually measure it, we can optimize for it," Chilton said. "Consumers can see exactly what they're getting."
The launch arrives at a moment when the mushroom supplement industry is undergoing rapid transformation.
Functional mushroom gummies, beverages, and "full-spectrum" formulations have flooded major retailers, while debates around ingredient sourcing, extraction methods, and labeling transparency have intensified. Real Mushrooms has simultaneously renewed efforts through industry advocacy groups to push for clearer distinctions between mushroom and mycelium products in supplement labeling.
For Chilton, the release of Real Mycelium represents less of a departure from the company's philosophy than an extension of it.
"If you want some of the compounds that are unique to lion's mane mycelium," he said, "you're going to need actual mycelium."
The launch may also signal a broader maturation of the functional mushroom market.
For years, conversations around medicinal fungi often reduced products to a binary choice between fruiting bodies and mycelium. The emergence of standardized liquid-fermented mycelium products suggests a more nuanced future—one where different parts of the fungal organism are valued for different compounds and applications.
The company that helped popularize the fruiting-body movement is now arguing that pure mycelium deserves its own category—not because it is equivalent to mushrooms, but because in some cases it may offer something mushrooms cannot.