How Mushrooms Became the Social Media Star of 2025

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Once just a squishy afterthought on a pizza or a supporting act in a stir-fry, mushrooms have gone from background noise to full-blown digital celebrity. And not just any mushrooms, we’re talking about the exotic, the shaggy, the shelf-stable, the biohacked.

Welcome to the golden age of fungi, where Lion’s Mane has more TikTok fans than some pop stars, #lionsmane with 189 million+ views and rising. Shiitake’s smokey flex? Viral. Chaga and Reishi coffee rituals? On everyone’s story. Fungi are feeding both the algorithm and the gut biome and social media just can’t get enough.

Source: PFN News Archives - Lions Mane - Shitake - Oyster - Coral - Porcini

So what is it with the social media sporestorm. There’s a reason mushrooms have colonised your feed. They’re weird, wonderful, and just photogenic enough to make even beige look sexy. Cross-sections of Lion’s Mane look like fractal coral. Time-lapse clips of mycelium growing? Add in the health hacks which include brain boosting, mood lifting, immune supporting including B12, and suddenly a sautéed shroom becomes your therapist, nutritionist, and content strategy rolled into one.

Creators like freshcap, forrestgalante, paulstamets, and learntogrow1 are leading the charge, showing off everything from mushroom "steaks" to DIY tinctures brewed in cabin-core kitchens. Meanwhile, platforms like YouTube and Instagram are awash with recipe tutorials, wellness explainers, and grow-it-yourself kits promising a mycelial revolution from the countertop to the cloud.

And it's not just home cooks. Chefs like dereksarno, Martha Stewart and Aussie FROOM Founder, Jenifer Joseph, are giving mushrooms the mainstage, plating up Lion’s Mane as a seafood stand-in or fermenting oyster mushrooms into next-level umami bombs.

Functional, Fabulous, and Financially FermentingThe mushroom boom isn’t just aesthetic—it’s economic. Brands like Four Sigmatic, MotherMade, and Mynd Mushrooms are tapping into the adaptogenic gold rush, blending functional fungi into coffees, smoothies, capsules, and skincare. Even Costco’s pushing mushroom coffee now.

In ANZ and Canada, look for local players like Froom, Shroom Bros and Good Sh*t (yep, real name) blending traditional mushrooms. Lion’s Mane or Cordyceps into easy to prepare dishes or fizzy functional drinks targeting the Gen Z burnout brigade.

TikTok and Insta metrics don’t lie. Here’s what PFN’s scroll through the mushroomy metaverse reveals:

• #lionsmane – 189M+ views

• #mushroomrecipes – 350M+ views

• #functionalfood – trending in wellness micro-influencer circles

• Pinterest searches for ‘medicinal mushrooms’ up over 300% year on year.

PFN Ai Archives Social media graphical depiction

This movement reveals a deeper truth and this is, today’s eaters want their food to mean something. Mushrooms check all the boxes being earthy, sustainable, mystically ancient, yet surprisingly modern. They’re adaptable (plant-based but protein-rich), evocative (hello forestcore), and subtly subversive (they grow in the dark and feed on decay, how punk is that?).

And with global food systems under pressure, decentralised protein sources like gourmet and functional mushrooms may just be the smartest spore in the room.

So whether you’re sipping Lion’s Mane in your latte or frying shiitake in tamari for TikTok fame, one thing’s clear, mushrooms are having a moment. And it’s a moment we didn’t know we were starving for.

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