Support / FAQ

Functional mushrooms are a sub-set of species in the Fungi kingdom that can "functionally" help improve a human's health, wellness, performance, and/or recovery. In a very real sense, we here in the United States are only now catching up with ancient wisdom. For centuries, cultures across the globe have harnessed the power of functional mushrooms.

Functional mushrooms hold loads of benefits for all humans, and especially for athletes. For example, nearly all of the functional mushrooms that we use in our products are adaptogens, which help the body manage and adapt to stress. Nearly all functional mushrooms also have antioxidant properties, but the specific antioxidant compounds and potency will differ from one species of mushroom to another. Additionally, functional mushrooms support the immune system.

Each individual mushroom will also have unique properties. If you want to read more about the benefits of each mushroom that we use in our products, check out The Functional Mushroom Playbook.

No, our functional mushrooms don’t help you see the infinite energy in the cosmos. They are not hallucinogenic or intoxicating or psychedelic. Instead, they provide functional health benefits.

Check out our Functional Mushroom Playbook for more about how these functional mushrooms can help improve athletic performance and recovery.

All functional mushrooms contain a load of antioxidants, but Chaga has the highest levels of any superfood. It supports all-around health, but has a special knack for boosting endurance and mid-workout recovery, and helps athletes recover faster between training sessions and competitions. Ours is sustainably grown on birch trees in Alaska. Read more about Chaga here.

Known as the athlete's mushroom, Cordyceps is a functional mushroom that helps your body take in and use oxygen, fueling energy production on a cellular level. It provides a sustained energy boost—without the jitters or crashes associated with stimulants. It also supports reduced inflammation and quicker recovery. Read more about Cordyceps here.

Lion's Mane is a functional mushroom that helps sharpen cognitive function. During workouts and competitions, this means boosting strategic thinking and reaction times. During sleep, this translates to deeper and more restful REM sleep — and the vivid dreams that come along with it. Which, in turn, means more productive workout recovery and also a boost in strategic thinking and reaction times. Read more about Lion's Mane here.

Oyster mushrooms are a nutritional dynamo for athletes, high in fiber, beta-glucans, and essential vitamins and minerals. They're packed with antioxidants and anti-inflammatories, such as ergothioneine, that promote healthy cholesterol levels and help to reduce cellular damage and enhance overall health. Read more about Oyster mushrooms here.

Poria Sclerotia isn’t a fruiting body mushroom — think of it more like a truffle, waiting to emerge from underground, storing energy and goodness until the time is right. It is a powerhouse of benefits. Nutrient-dense and anti-inflammatory, it has been used to help fight fatigue and is something every athlete should include in their diet. Read more about Poria here.

The "queen of mushrooms," Reishi is an all-star player for de-stressing the nervous system and promoting whole-body relaxation and resilience, both of which will help with recovery from stress-filled workouts and training. This is in addition to its potent ability to combat inflammation and fortify the immune system. Read more about Reishi here.

A little food for thought: Shiitake is a functional mushroom known to be a powerful brain booster. It's chock full of beta-glucans and minerals, including high concentrations of B vitamins and folate (a.k.a. energy makers) that help to turn food into energy and sharpen mental clarity. Read more about Shiitake here.

Tremella can hold up to 500 times its weight in water. So when you're thinking about staying hydrated, this is a no-brainer. Because Tremella supports whole-body hydration, it also benefits the body's joints and fascia. Not only that, it is rich in antioxidants and will bolster the immune system. Read more about Tremella here.

Turkey Tail is a functional mushroom that acts as a prebiotic to support gut health. The gut is a so-called "second brain," helping you to maintain mood and a healthy response to stress. It also helps the immune system function, reinforcing the more than half of the body's immune cells that exist in the digestive system. Read more about Turkey Tail here.

We know from first-hand experience that functional mushrooms have huge potential to help athletes. But there hasn't been anywhere near enough advice or guidelines for how to do it. So we literally wrote the book on how athletes can use functional mushrooms to level up their game in sports performance and recovery. You can check out The Functional Mushroom Playbook here.

Yes! Nearly all of our mushrooms are certified organic.

Chaga is the one exception, however. Chaga is in high demand, and it grows slowly. Too frequently, it is over-harvested, affecting not only the longer-term viability of the mushroom itself, but also the entire forest ecosystem in which it grows. We have to be super vigilant about the source of the Chaga we use. So the Chaga we put in our products is about as good as you can get — safely wild-harvested from birch trees in Alaska in a highly controlled and sustainable manner. Read more about Chaga here.

A mushroom tincture is a liquid extract made from functional mushrooms. It's created by soaking mushrooms in a solvent to extract their active compounds. The resulting tincture is a concentrated and bioavailable form of the beneficial compounds inside the mushrooms. Tinctures tend to be absorbed more quickly by the body than other formats, leading to faster effects.

The solvent used will affect taste: Tinctures that use an alcohol solvent will taste more like alcohol. Added to the already-bitter taste that some functional mushrooms have, it will taste too sharp or stringent for some people. By contrast, Umbo tinctures are made using a glycerin solvent, which means they will taste slightly sweet.

There are many ways to use tinctures. They can be added to beverages like coffee or smoothies, making it easy to incorporate into an athlete's diet. Let your imagination run wild!

But because Umbo tinctures are made using a glycerin solvent, they will taste slightly sweet. So our favorite way to use them is just to put them straight into our mouths and swallow. Simple, right?

A highly-bioavailable functional mushroom powder, sometimes in combination with other synergistic natural ingredients, is packed into our capsule shells. (We prefer vegan capsules!) You can swallow them, washing them down with some water or another liquid, as you would any other capsule.

Capsules are easy to take and transport, so they tend to fit well into daily routines. And they provide a specific, measured dose of the functional mushrooms, so you know how much you’re taking and can be consistent over time.

Actually, no! While our bar is packed with 2,500 milligrams of functional mushrooms, we combine them with the rich flavors of pure honey, the salty crunch of nuts, and toasty sunflower kernels. We think it all adds up to satisfying texture — and the best tasting energy bar in the world. So good, in fact, that you'll forgive us for saying it's Umbo-licious!

Our bars are tasty, portable, and a great choice pretty much any time you need a boost of energy. They key is to choose a bar you crave, not one you just tolerate.

Our bars have 2,500 milligrams of highly-bioavailable functional mushrooms in them, which makes them a great choice in advance of any physically demanding workout, as an all-natural energy boost, an answer to a craving for sweet and salty, or a tasty way to ensure you (or your kids) get their daily dose of mushrooms.

Visit our Contact Us page.

Our support team is based in Denver, Colorado. We're here to help via email on business days (Monday through Friday), from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm Mountain time.

Please email our support team at support@getumbo.com with any questions related to your order, our products, or anything else about functional mushrooms, for that matter. We’re here to help!

We aim to respond to all emails within one business day, though sometimes it may take a little longer. Please bear with us.

Consistency over time equals results — especially when it comes to functional mushrooms. We hope you'll commit to giving these mushrooms time to make you happy. And we want you to be happy! If you're not, though, just let us know and we'll get you a full refund.

All orders are processed within 24 hours, on non-holiday business days, Monday-Friday. Our standard US-domestic shipping time is between 3 and 5 business days.

We include free shipping on our subscriptions (plus 15% off). So how about considering that subscription option?

Shipping costs for non-subscription orders will vary by destination. Please refer to the calculated shipping costs at checkout.

Check your email for your account management link. You would have received this when you started your subscription. If you can't access your account to change your subscriptoion, email us at support@getumbo.com and we'll help you make the changes you need.

Umbo was founded by a trio of very accomplished individuals:

"Suga" Rashad Evans is a former professional MMA fighter. He won the UFC light heavyweight belt and was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame in 2019. Today, in addition to founding Umbo, you can see him on air as an analyst on the UFC broadcasting team.

Jake Plummer (a.k.a. "The Snake") is a former professional American football player. He played ten years in the NFL as a quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals and the Denver Broncos, and was elected to the Pro Bowl in 2005. To ensure Umbo had access to a reliable and high-quality source of mushrooms, he founded a Denver-based mushroom farm called MycoLove Farms. He also runs the non-profit The Jake Plummer Foundation.

Del Jolly is an advocate for everything nature can do to help people heal. He was an early member of the Charlotte's Web CBD brand, is an active member of Decriminalize Nature, and is a co-founder of Unlimited Sciences, a non-profit that partners with Johns Hopkins University and other renowned scientists to responsibly research the uses and effects of psychedelics to treat health issues like depression and PTSD.

Soon after starting Umbo, the founders realized that we needed to have access to a reliable and high-quality source of mushrooms. So Jake Plummer took it upon himself to fix the problem, founding a Denver-based mushroom farm called Mycolove Farm. Their mushrooms are great — and their dedication to craft is second to none.

If you want to see what the mushroom farm looks like, check out the interview Jake did with the guys from Pardon My Take. If you want to see, taste, feel the difference for yourself, check out our Charge and Recharge tinctures, which were created by Jake and made on his farm.