What Shane Heath learned from debt, kin and mushrooms

A chipped mug sat on a design desk in Venice while Shane Heath trained jiu jitsu at night and painted in spare hours. Inside a 32 ounce hydro flask rode a dark mix of cacao, spiced chai and powdered mushrooms that coworkers kept asking to try. That flask became MUDWTR in May 2018.

Shane Heath grew up in Santa Cruz, California, and by his late twenties he was taking in around one thousand milligrams of caffeine each day across five or six drinks. He carried respect for the aroma and ceremony of coffee while noticing restless nerves, broken sleep and less space for creative work at tech startups. He was 15,000 dollars in debt when he ordered jars and labels, built a website and started blending in California.

What followed moved from a commercial kitchen to a co packer, from one cacao blend with masala chai and fungi to matcha and turmeric blends and later protein, all described as USDA Certified Organic with mushrooms grown in California and blending and packing in the United States. A small remote crew of 32 now runs the firm.

Root to Bottle reads this story as a plant story first. Cacao from the tropics, tea leaf from shaded gardens, turmeric rhizome from warm soils, and fungi with long records in Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine and European folk herbalism all meet in one morning cup. Tradition points to uses worth studying, while current trials and lot paperwork show what can be said today in careful language about appearance of calm focus or supports for routine.

We are grateful you sat with us for this talk, Shane. You brought the early blend in a 32 ounce hydro flask through workdays, jiu jitsu training and painting, while coworkers kept asking about the mug. What truly filled that flask, and how did decaf coffee turn into cacao, chai and mushrooms?

Thanks for having me. I made that drink for myself at first. It came out of my own search for ingredients I trusted to meet a personal need. I enjoy coffee. The aroma, the taste and above all, I cherish the morning ceremony. I was likely having five or six cups of coffee or another caffeinated drink daily and I paused to review my routines and saw that coffee was not truly supplying energy.

I adore the ceremony of coffee, yet I wanted mornings to offer more than a carrier for strong caffeine doses. First I doctored decaf with added bits. Then I centered the recipe on cacao and masala chai, with mushrooms used as adaptogens plus spices, among them lion’s mane and cordyceps. I toted it in a 32 ounce hydro flask through workdays, training and painting sessions, and folks kept asking about the mug and whether I would share some.

Your mother worked in IT for one of North Americas largest mushroom growers. How did that shape where your mushrooms now come from, and what does grown in California show on paper?

My mother has been around mushrooms in her work since before my birth. She handled IT for one of the largest mushroom producers in North America, so fungi felt ordinary at home well before current interest. I never trained as a mycologist, yet I learned whom to call with questions. The company states that each strain is selected after review of shown efficacy, and I describe lion’s mane linked with focus, cordyceps linked with energy and reishi linked with immunity as my shorthand for the group. Those months with the flask counted because the blend faced daily life, not theory. It needed to stir well, taste pleasant and travel.

Mom has been in the mushroom field since before I arrived, so fungi were familiar in our kitchen long ahead of fashion. That background left me with a point of entry and regard for cultivators. Today we state that our mushrooms are cultivated in California. That place forms part of the label narrative, and it raises expectations around supervision, harvest logs and care prior to drying and grinding.

What the origin establishes rests on documents for each lot. Cultivated in California names location. By itself it does not disclose fruiting body versus mycelium share, extract ratio, standardization or assay outcomes. Those details call for a third party certificate of analysis, showing identity, heavy metals and microbial counts matched to lot and batch. I encourage shoppers to study the Supplement Facts panel and the other ingredients listing, then request the lot sheet. Geography matters, then laboratory review confirms what departed the farm and entered fill.

You avoid synthetic pesticides, herbicides and seed oils in blends that are USDA Certified Organic. For a careful buyer studying the panel, what does that rejection alter in the field and in the blending room?

We put it directly. Our formulas are USDA Certified Organic and made without synthetic pesticides and herbicides and without seed oils. That reflects a cultivation and recipe decision that begins on farms and appears during blending and packing in the US. Organic rules limit what growers may spray and call for files and inspections, so the seal rests on records.

Inside the blending room the rule keeps recipes plain. No seed oils for carriers, no synthetic pesticide residues permitted within the standard. Coconut and creamer parts are picked to keep blends plant based and to preserve body without such oils. For someone at home, review is straightforward. Find the organic seal, scan the other ingredients listing for oils and carriers, and check fill weight with serving number. A tin marked 30 servings ought to deliver 30 servings, with steady character tin after tin.

In May of 2018 you ordered jars and labels and started MUDWTR while in debt and working full time. What did that choice compel you to learn about sourcing first, ahead of branding?

When I founded MUDWTR, I owed 15,000 dollars and held a full time post. So in May of 2018, I started MUDWTR to invite people to reconsider coffee. At the beginning I stirred small runs in a commercial kitchen, then shifted to a co packer as orders rose. Our opening line was plain. I am not mad at coffee, just disappointed, so I created something better. That modesty guided buying. Our goods act in several ways as a lead domino or a Trojan horse. The cup opens the door, but the chain behind it must bear weight.

You call the products a lead domino or a Trojan horse for healthy minds through healthy habits. With more than 130 million servings of the rise line sold by 2023, how do you hold that habit story to extraction and testing rather than hype?

Our goods act in several ways as a lead domino or a Trojan horse. Our wording is create healthy minds through healthy habits. The beverage opens the morning in another way, with lower caffeine and a stable ceremony, and later hours follow suit. By 2023 we had moved over 130 million servings of the flagship rise Cacao blend, and in 2022 we moved around 1.4 million units to roughly 443,000 customers across the prior 12 months.

Growth makes origin tracking harder, not simpler. First runs were stirred by me in a commercial kitchen. Afterward we transferred to a co packer, with blending and packing in the US. Hence I stress plain details. Extract ratio reports how much crude stock formed an extract. Standardised reports which marker is kept steady. A certificate of analysis links identity, heavy metals and microbes to a lot. I hold a belief that to stand out, you have to find a way to zig where other people are zagging. For us, zigging means records and restraint.

Our formulas act in many ways like a first domino or a quiet Trojan horse.

Shane Heath

By 2023 the rise blends were in more than 500 Target stores, you had opened the gather cafe in Santa Monica and grown to Canada and the UK. What did retail and a cafe teach you about lot constancy from tin to cup?

Stores alter the task. By 2023 our rise Cacao and rise Matcha stood in above 500 Target outlets across the country, we launched our first cafe MUDWTR gather in Santa Monica, California, and we grew abroad into Canada and the UK. A tin on retail shelving and a drink poured over a counter must align, or confidence falls.

In September 2018 we took a 25,000 dollar first check from Paul DeJoe and I left my day post for full time work. That shift supported steadier runs and fuller files. Sameness means identical growers, identical specs, identical fill weight and identical third party assays by lot and batch, plus handling that endures lorries, shelving and a crowded bar. You cannot seek to be liked by everyone or you will be loved by no one. We kept taste earthy and branding blunt, and invested effort in repeatability rather than softening the goods.

Your main cacao blend stands beside a 100 percent organic matcha with naturally present L theanine and a zero caffeine turmeric with mushrooms and mycelium. How should a buyer interpret those three labels distinctly by origin and process?

Begin with source and method. Our matcha mix is 100 percent organic, crafted with spices and mushrooms, carrying only a fraction of coffee caffeine, along with naturally occurring L theanine. Matcha comes from shade raised tea, stone ground, so garden source, picking and grinding register in hue and feel. The cacao mix combines cacao with masala chai and fungi, among them chaga, reishi, lion’s mane and cordyceps with turmeric, so one tin reflects several origins.

The turmeric mix carries zero caffeine, with turmeric, spices, mushrooms and mycelium. Mycelium and fruiting body mark separate phases of the organism, and shoppers often mix them up. Fermentation, drying and extraction shape what becomes powder or oil ahead of tin fill or encapsulation. Study the panel for which portion was employed and whether extract ratio or standardization appears. When absent, inquire. A label begins the path, it does not close it.

You often talk about fixing your fix and rising from the mud to where we are now. For a home that keeps a small shelf for years, what merits the price here, and what link in the chain stays unclear and wants better proof?

Fix Your Fix frames how we discuss caffeine. I carry the CYP1A2 variant, which means I clear caffeine at a slower pace and feel its effects more strongly. That reflects my own biology, not guidance about yours. Would I prefer to prompt wakefulness without reliance over pursuing sharp caffeine highs. Would I prefer to guard sleep and recovery over praising hustle and overwork. Would I prefer to question caffeine norms over accepting but first, coffee habits. Started from the mud now we here simply notes an honest start in debt and growth tin by tin.

Value lies in what can be checked. Organic farm files, California fungi origin, US blending and packing, and laboratory results tied to lots. What stays murky through much of the sector is the middle passage. Precise farms per lot, fruiting body proportion, extraction solvents with ratios, and complete heavy metal panels seldom appear on packs. Resolution would be plain. List growers, release methods, and display the certificate. We acknowledge what can be traced and we identify what lacks proof as yet.

Closing note from the desk

What lingers from this talk is a maker who preserved ceremony while altering the chain that fills the cup. Heath speaks still as a designer fond of coffee aroma, yet he responds as a purchaser of botanicals, seeking farm names, lot codes and assay sheets ahead of adjectives.

MUDWTR aimed to invite a rethink of coffee, toward mornings without jitters, crash and lost sleep, built from certified acreage and California mushroom houses through American blending rooms to a legible panel. The next task mirrors the past one, to map each stage and to state plainly and kindly where support stays thin, while directing readers with health questions to a clinician or pharmacist.

Product spotlight

Matcha arrives as a 30 serving pouch at 50 dollars. It holds 100 percent organic matcha plus spices and mushrooms and naturally occurring L theanine, at a fraction of coffee caffeine. Whisk with hot water or milk for a morning rise cup.

Coffee arrives as a 30 serving tin at 50 dollars. It joins arabica coffee with cacao, masala chai and fungi including lion’s mane and cordyceps, with L theanine. Stir with hot water and milk or creamer as a morning coffee alternative.