Alice Mushroom Chocolates, Tested & Reviewed

“Let me be honest—I either expected to be bouncing off the walls with energy or to feel absolutely nothing. Instead I settled into a feeling of deep focus—the kind of dialed-in where you suddenly feel compelled to take a typing test,” says Kate Kassin. She and I tried the Brainstorm chocolates for the first time together, and we both scored 100+ words per minute with no errors. Yes, we are normally fast typers, but this was something else. About an hour into our first experiment, I sent Kate a Slack with an impressive list of what I’d just accomplished. She wrote back with similar enthusiasm, saying she’d just zipped through two article drafts and checked a bunch of nagging administrative tasks off her to-do list.

“I’m someone who has cultivated a wildly high caffeine tolerance—to the point where I really can’t feel its effects in a meaningful way anymore,” said Emily Johnson, describing a feeling I find entirely too relatable. “After taking the Brainstorm, though,” she says, “I felt keyed-in and hyper-focused on my job, really energetic. I even felt like my mood was a bit elevated.”

We all loved the nutty flavor of the Brainstorm chocolates, and there were times when I had to remind myself that it probably wasn’t the best idea to eat two squares at a time. “All three varieties have this amazing creamy texture: soft and sort of fudge-like—they melt in your mouth so nicely, and genuinely feel luxurious to eat,” says Emily.

Nightcap

Getting work done is great, but we were all most curious to see how the Nightcap chocolates for deep sleep would perform—because let’s be honest, there are few things we wouldn’t do for a guaranteed good night’s sleep. Nightcap is formulated with a combination of reishi mushrooms, magnesium, chamomile, zinc, and L-theanine, all of which are said to reduce stress and promote relaxation. (L-theanine is an amino acid that’s present in some mushrooms as well as in green and black tea.)

“Listen, I’m fully willing to admit that there could be some placebo effect involved here, but I noticed a distinct tired feeling—my eyes felt heavy, and I felt really relaxed—about 45 minutes after taking the Nightcap chocolate,” Emily says. All three of us reported similar experiences.

I started testing Nightcap during a bout of deadline-stress-induced insomnia, where instead of sleeping so I could wake up and write the next morning, I’d lie awake in bed worrying about writing, which would lead to me not actually getting anything done the next day. But the first time I took a square of Nightcap before bed, I slept like someone who didn’t know the meaning of the word stress. And the same thing happened the night after that. After a week of alternating Nightcap with Brainstorm, I had made serious progress on the project that had been previously keeping me up at night.

But Kate’s testimony might be the most convincing of all: “I’m in a book club where we read exclusively thrillers—which, no, is not my typical genre of choice and often makes my heart beat a little faster before bed. Our last read was one I was probably better off indulging in during the daylight, but I also just learned to pair the book with a square of the Nightcap chocolate. Finishing your book in time for the group discussion and sleeping despite its nerve-racking plot? Two thumbs up from me.”

The Verdict

Look, we’re not saying that Alice Mushroom Chocolates are magic, but we’re also not saying that they aren’t. While these won’t make you have psychedelic visions, all three of us felt positive effects—both in the short term and over time. If you’re curious about functional mushrooms and want to experiment with something that tastes good and seems to actually do something, we definitely recommend picking up one of the Duo packs and going down the rabbit hole yourself.