Delfi Tervispluss published Martin Hanson's honest, good-humoured experiment: a month without a single drop of caffeine. The first days were headache and fog; then came calm, better sleep, less anxiety, and a surprising ability to watch the trees outside the window. But time also slipped, deadlines drifted, sport was hard, and evenings ended at half past eight under a blanket in a chair.
Between those two worlds sits exactly the question that brings many people to us: how do you get focus and energy without anxiety and an evening crash?
Read Hanson's full story here → Experiment: sleepiness covers the whole day like wool. How Martin Hanson got through a month without coffee (or didn't)
What Hanson writes about functional coffee
At the end of the piece is a short chapter that matters to us. Hanson describes functional coffee as an answer to the very problem he wrestled with in the experiment — coffee as both friend and source of anxiety.
He explains that in functional coffees the acidity of classic Arabica beans is reduced (pH 6.0), while the caffeine content stays the same. Acid is what opens receptors faster, so lower acidity means a softer, more even effect. Mushroom extracts are added alongside the bean, most often from Lion's Mane, reishi (Ganoderma), shiitake, or chaga.
Unlike regular coffee, Hanson says, functional coffee does not only give energy — it also helps keep the nervous system in balance and turns down that overwound feeling. It suits people who want stable focus without anxiety and an afternoon slump. As a bonus, functional coffee also supports digestion.
Why this matters to us
This is exactly the philosophy Rå Hygge works with. Low-acid coffee meets adaptogenic mushrooms — Lion's Mane, Reishi, Tremella, and Chaga — and the result is a drink that does not send you hunting for a second cup at 4 p.m. or disappearing under a blanket in an armchair at 8:30 p.m.
Hanson's experiment shows neatly that your relationship with caffeine does not have to be all or nothing. There is a middle path, and it starts with what is in the cup.