Dr. Jill Palko

Founder & Lead Reviewer — board-certified OB/GYN · MD, FACOG

Board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist (MD, FACOG) practising since 2014, former health-content consultant to wellness brands and publishers, and founder of Mushroom Coffee Lab. She writes the brand reviews, rankings and comparisons, and applies the same standard she uses on clinical claims to mushroom coffee marketing.

Education: M.D., UC Davis School of Medicine · B.A. Biology, UC Davis

Why a physician reviews coffee

I used to be the person who rolled their eyes at "adaptogenic" anything. Then I spent three months testing mushroom coffees — lion's mane, chaga, reishi, cordyceps, the works — for a friend's podcast and noticed two things: most of them taste like wet cardboard, and almost nobody is honestly reviewing them. The "top 10" lists were written by people who had never brewed the stuff, and the health claims were rarely tied to a study I could open.

So I started Mushroom Coffee Lab in 2024: independent reviews and taste tests of every functional mushroom coffee brand I can buy, with cupping notes, ingredient breakdowns and the label dose printed next to the dose the research actually used. No sponsorships influence the rankings, and nothing here is paid placement. What began as a spreadsheet for friends is now a review platform with its own testing methodology and a growing comparison database.

Experience

  • Founder & Lead Reviewer, Mushroom Coffee Lab (2024–present) — built the taste-test protocol, the six-criteria scoring system and the brand comparison database behind this site.
  • Practising OB/GYN & Clinical Advisor (2014–present) — board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist; consults on women's-health content and reviews medical and wellness claims for accuracy.
  • Health Content Consultant (2019–2024) — advised wellness brands and publishers on the clinical accuracy of medical and health-related content.

Verification

  • Florida Department of Health medical license ME137111
  • Fellow, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists; profiles on Healthgrades and U.S. News

What Dr. Palko writes and reviews here

She authors the brand reviews, rankings, comparisons and mushroom pages. Because she is the author, health-related pages she writes are checked by a different member of the medical review team — her name appears as reviewer only on pages she did not write.

Open to brand partnerships that don't compromise editorial independence, to speaking on functional-beverage trends, and to hearing from anyone who has found a mushroom coffee that doesn't taste like dirt — contact.

Pages by Dr. Jill Palko