She found the note in her own handwriting and couldn’t remember writing it. It was tucked beneath her laptop, three words written quickly in blue ink: “Call Mom Thursday.” She stared at it for a moment. She had forgotten to make the call, but the alarming part was the fact that she had apparently known she might forget, written herself a reminder, and then forgotten the reminder existed. She smiled at the absurdity of it, then glanced at the clock.
The morning had already begun its usual disappearing act. Somewhere between answering a message and looking for a pair of keys, she had lost the thread of what she had originally intended to do.
There were no flashing warning signs, no single moment she could point to and say, “This is when things changed.” Just little slips appearing in the spaces between everything else: a name hovering just out of reach, a sentence that suddenly seemed to have gone missing halfway through saying it, an afternoon when the distance between lunch and dinner felt longer than it used to.
She had started calling it being busy. Everyone was busy. Still, every now and then, she missed the ease she used to take for granted, the feeling of reaching for a thought and finding it already there.
That morning, she picked up the note, folded it once and slipped it beneath her phone. Thursday was still two days away. She decided she would make the call before she had to write herself another reminder.
When “Normal” Starts Feeling Different
Getting older is often accompanied by a strange cultural shorthand. The forgotten word becomes “age.” The afternoon slump becomes “just life.” The inability to concentrate after a long morning becomes something to work around rather than something worth understanding.
Of course, aging is real, and the body changes over time. Sleep, nutrition, stress, movement, hormones, workload and countless other factors can influence how someone feels and functions from one season of life to another.
What matters, then, isn’t chasing perfect recall. It’s preserving the ability to participate fully in ordinary life, to stay with a conversation, finish a thought, remember why you walked into the kitchen.
The Mushroom Behind the “Awakening”: Why Lion’s Mane Gets Attention
Yamabushi Farms calls its Lion’s Mane tincture MEZAME, a Japanese word associated with awakening. The name feels particularly fitting for a product centered on mental clarity.
MEZAME is made from 100% fruiting-body Lion’s Mane grown at the company’s Los Angeles facility, rather than mycelium grown on grain. The company uses a dual-extraction process involving water and food-grade ethanol, intended to capture compounds with different solubilities. Its product page also states that batches are third-party tested for potency and heavy metals.
The mushroom supplement category can make those questions surprisingly difficult to answer. “Mushroom” on the front label does not necessarily tell someone which part of the organism was used, where it was cultivated, or how it was extracted.
Yamabushi Farms takes a more traceable approach. The company grows the Lion’s Mane itself in Los Angeles, and describes the mushrooms as the same fruiting bodies supplied to Michelin-starred kitchens in the city.
What the Science Can and Cannot Say
Lion’s Mane, or Hericium erinaceus, has attracted considerable scientific interest because it contains compounds including hericenones and erinacines that researchers have investigated in relation to nerve growth factor and neuronal processes. That does not mean a tincture can magically restore memory or reverse cognitive aging.
The research is still developing, and human evidence is much more limited than the excitement surrounding Lion’s Mane sometimes suggests. One small randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial, for example, found improved cognitive-function scores among older adults with mild cognitive impairment during 16 weeks of Lion’s Mane supplementation, with scores declining after supplementation stopped. That is interesting, but it is not enough to turn a mushroom supplement into a treatment or make broad promises about cognition.
For someone who is simply interested in supporting everyday cognitive function, Lion’s Mane can be part of a broader conversation about nutrition, sleep, exercise, stress management and healthy aging. MEZAME sits within that conversation rather than replacing any of those fundamentals.
Then There Are the Afternoons
At 7:30, someone can feel unstoppable. By 2:30, she may be staring at the same email she opened twenty minutes earlier. The body feels heavier. The mind becomes less decisive. Coffee starts looking less like a pleasure and more like a negotiation. This is where Yamabushi Farms’ second formula, IBUKI, takes a different route.
The Japanese word refers to breath, and the formula combines Lion’s Mane, Cordyceps and Guayusa. Yamabushi Farms describes IBUKI as a dual-extracted tincture intended to support cognition, stamina, balanced focus and sustained effort.
MEZAME is centered primarily on Lion’s Mane and the idea of mental clarity. IBUKI adds Cordyceps and naturally caffeinated Guayusa, making it more relevant to someone looking for a combination of mental focus and daytime energy.
Cordyceps has been investigated for exercise performance and aerobic capacity, although results vary by study, formulation and population. A recent systematic review and meta-analysis of fungal supplementation in adult athletes found potential improvements in some endurance-related outcomes with Cordyceps sinensis, but that evidence should not be stretched into a universal promise of increased energy.
Guayusa brings something different to the formula. Unlike Lion’s Mane and Cordyceps, it is a plant: a caffeinated leaf traditionally consumed as a tea in parts of the Amazon. IBUKI uses it as the formula’s natural source of caffeine, alongside the mushroom extracts.
A Farm Changes the Story
The most distinctive part of Yamabushi Farms is the connection between cultivation and formulation.
The company traces its farming heritage to a family history of mushroom cultivation in Gunma, Japan, while growing its mushrooms today in an urban Los Angeles setting. Its founder-grower’s family history spans 24 generations, creating an unusual bridge between traditional knowledge and a contemporary American farm.
The Better Wellness Question
Back in the kitchen, the refrigerator door is finally closed. She remembers why she walked in. It was the fruit. She takes it out, washes it and stands at the counter eating it before returning to whatever she was doing. A few minutes later, she notices the note beneath her phone. “Call Mom Thursday.” She picks up the phone.
Wellness is often packaged around more energy, sharper thinking, better performance, a newer and improved version of ourselves. Most of life is not lived in these kinds of transformations. It is lived in small moments that either feel available to us or somehow just beyond our reach.
What makes Yamabushi Farms interesting is that the story begins with something growing. There is a farm in Los Angeles. There is a family history of mushroom cultivation reaching back generations in Gunma, Japan. There is the slow work of growing, harvesting and extracting an ingredient that has traveled from an old tradition into a very modern problem: how to feel fully present in a life that rarely stops asking for our attention.
She looks at the note again. Thursday is still two days away. This time, she does not put it back beneath the laptop. She taps her mother’s name. For once, she remembers before she needs reminding.
