For Frohman, a seasoned entrepreneur who has sold successful CBD and hemp brands, jumping into the functional mushroom space was an obvious choice for his next professional venture. But he wanted to create adaptogenic mushroom products consumers would actually enjoy rather than just dutifully incorporate into their daily supplement routines. Coffee beverages were a natural first entry into the market given they’d been his initial inspiration, and Frohman launched the first Odyssey Elixir products, 'shroom-infused lattes and teas, in June of 2021. Serving as his own salesman, Frohman says, “I sold $12,000 worth of product in two weeks in June. I doubled that in July, and sales just kept going up.”

He chose Odyssey Elixir’s initial beverage types specifically because the strong flavors of coffee and tea made it relatively easy to mask the earthy taste of mushrooms. Then he came across a game-changing company using new technology to make high-potency mushroom extracts without a flavor that needed to be masked. This innovation opened up a whole new realm of possibilities. “Energy drinks typically have around 300 milligrams of caffeine, which adds to anxiety, but I wanted a better-for-you energy drink,” he says. So Frohman set out to create a 'shroom-boosted sparkling drink with only 85 milligrams of caffeine and all organic ingredients: lion's mane for cognitive function, focus, and clarity, cordyceps for mood and energy, and fresh fruit. “I wanted to make these delicious-tasting sparkling drinks that are incredibly elevating,” he says.

Frohman finalized his new beverages just in time for the October 2021 Expo East, an annual trade show of products in the food, beverage, beauty, and wellness spaces, and the drinks were an instant hit. By December he’d hired distributors, and Odyssey Elixir’s four flavors of sparkling beverages—including the just-launched orange ginger flavor—are now stocked alongside the company’s other coffee and tea offerings on approximately 2,500 store shelves across the country.

Odyssey Elixir’s growth isn’t surprising given just how much people love sparkling beverages and flavored sparkling waters, but Frohman says his versions’ functionality give them an edge over standard go-to drinks. “Regular sparkling beverages are refreshing, but people are really looking for products that will benefit their health in some way,” he explains. “Hardly anyone is making beverages like this. A lot of companies will say they have mushrooms in their sparkling drink, but there’s not actually much mushroom in them, whereas we are a high-potency mushroom product.” Frohman’s great-tasting-yet-still functional sparkling beverages also enhance creativity and productivity. “When you drink these drinks, the sky looks bluer, and the trees look greener. Whatever you're doing, you feel more present, more euphoric, more elevated,” he adds.

The success of his company has only served to solidify Frohman’s belief in the power of mushrooms. “They’ve been utilized for a really long time, especially in Asia, but they exploded over the last decade—not because of celebrity endorsements or anything like that but because regular people learned about the benefits of mushrooms through word of mouth,” he says. “Now we're at this inflection point, and we’re about to see that this market is way bigger than most people realize.”

With new technological developments and experimentation, companies like Frohman’s are now able to seamlessly add mushrooms into tasty treats people drink and eat on a regular basis, and Frohman hopes Odyssey Elixir beverages will continue to lead the way. He is currently testing out additional types of 'shrooms, such as turkey tail and reishi, and developing new flavored sparkling drinks as well as a low-calorie coffee beverage. No matter what comes next, it is sure to be 'shroom-specific because Frohman continues to believe so strongly in the benefits of these ancient remedies. “Functional mushrooms are not a band-aid,” he says. “They are a real cure that is going to be with people for the rest of their lives to really make a difference.”