TESCO Thinks You’re Ready for the ‘Shaggy King’ of Mushrooms as Lion’s Mane Hits UK Shelves

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Move over oyster. Slide aside shiitake. There’s a new shaggy contender coming for your sauté pan and TESCO is betting big British shoppers are finally ready to meet the mane event: Hericium erinaceus, better known as Lion’s Mane.

Once relegated to dusty health store shelves in powdered supplement form, the brain-boosting, mood-lifting mushroom is now making a bold entrance in its full fluffy glory to Tesco stores UK nationwide. Priced at £3.75 for 150g, it’s pitched as both a culinary upgrade and a functional powerhouse and yes, it looks like something you’d find growing on a Norse god’s beard.

Source: TESCO Fresh Lions Mane Mushroom

“We’re really excited to be able to offer the next big trend to our customers,” says Tesco mushroom buyer Bobbie Fletcher, adding, “Lion’s Mane has a mildly sweeter taste than normal mushrooms and a tender texture. It’s already popular in supplement form, we think it’s ready for the dinner plate.”

This isn’t just retail spin. According to NIQ data, functional mushroom supplements, primarily featuring Lion’s Mane, have grown over 1300% in volume in the past year. While most categories are crawling toward recovery, fungi are leaping.

And Tesco isn’t foraging alone. Long-time supplier Smithy Mushrooms, based in Ormskirk, Lancashire, is behind the retail rollout. Managing Director John Dorrian has seen firsthand how the mushroom market has mutated, thanks in large part to the plant-based boom. “Oyster mushrooms changed the game,” John Dorrian says. “They’re not a side dish anymore, they’re the star of the meal. Lion’s Mane has that same potential - tender, juicy, slightly savoury, and proudly grown here in the UK.”

Smithy Mushrooms recently doubled its production with a second growing site and even began manufacturing its own substrate and spawn to guarantee quality fungal vertical integration, if you will.

From a chef’s perspective, Lion’s Mane doesn’t just look good, it behaves. Tear it, slice it, crisp it. Some say it mimics crab or lobster in texture, making it a go-to for plant-based seafood lovers. Others just sauté it with butter, garlic, ginger and cream, like in Smithy’s in-house recipe, and slap it on bruschetta. Either way, it’s not trying to be meat, it’s just trying to be magnificent.

Source: PFN Ai Archives - Sauteed Lions Mane - Kebabs - Steak

So where does this trend sit in the grand timeline of mushroom mania?

We’ve moved from buttons and cups to shiitake and oyster. Enoki flirted with foodies. King trumpet had its moment. But Lion’s Mane brings more than novelty, bringing function and form. As adaptogens and nootropics move into the mainstream, the functional mushroom category is collapsing the wall between medicine cabinet and pantry shelf.

This is more than a novelty SKU. It’s a quiet supermarket-level signal that mainstream retailers are now offering both taste and story. And Tesco, historically a cautious innovator, just sent up the fungal flare.

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