How to make double extraction tincture?

With all tinctures, alcohol is used as the soaking agent. The mushroom is combined with alcohol and soaked for a set period of time, often months. After it sits, the Chaga is removed, leaving a concentrated extract. Generally, there is no heating or cooking involved. However, with a fungus like Chaga, heating releases more nutrients and health benefits.

Because they are super concentrated, tinctures are generally only consumed once a week or once a month.

A Chaga tincture is the most concentrated way to consume Chaga. It is best used at the onset of colds, during seasonal swings, or to combat recurring immune-system issues. Tinctures are also easy to store since they don’t need refrigeration. A cool, dark location is ideal for storing Chaga.

Recipes that include heating the Chaga are considered stronger, more potent options. Heating expands the cell walls of the fungi, allowing for more nutrients to become bioavailable and create a stronger healing potion.

All these recipes can be adapted to make more, just scale up using the same ratios.

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The combination of alcohol and water (specifically hot water) guarantees that all the mushroom’s compounds, triterpenes, and polysaccharides, end up in your extract. That way you’ll be able to enjoy all the benefits of Chaga.

Chaga double extraction tincture is a great way to consume the fungus. Chaga mushroom is known for its power to prevent, heal and cure many health concerns. Including cancer, heart disease, high cholesterol, symptoms of arthritis, respiratory disorders, digestive issues, inflamed skin, and different infections to name a few. Consuming the Chaga tincture will also improve your energy levels, mental alertness, and clarity.

What is exaclty Chaga?

If you’re curious about what exactly is Chaga, then here’s your answer. Found in colder climates, Chaga is a polypore fungus. Chaga grows from the side of the tree, like a large blackish-brown tumor. The appearance is much like that of a burl, and there is often quite a lot of confusion among new foragers mistaking burls for Chaga. The growth coming out of the tree is a Chaga mycelium, the vegetative part of the fungus. It is made up of thousands of branching hyphae, which network with the birch tree, transferring nutrients and communicating with its host.

What does Chaga contain?

Chaga grows mainly on birch trees. These trees have long been known to have medicinal qualities on their own. Among ancient cultures, birch tree extracts, bark, and teas were used to treat pain, relieve inflammation, and specifically for treating arthritis and rheumatism. Whilst siphoning the life out of the tree, Chaga is also drawing out the medicinal qualities of it, in a concentrated form.

Chaga is known as one of the highest natural melanin sources in the world. We all have melanin in our skin, it’s the pigment responsible for our beautiful variety of skin tones and shades, eye colors, and hair colors. However, when we discuss melanin, that discussion rarely includes its actual biological benefits. Turns out that melanin has high antioxidant levels due to the number of polyphenols it contains, meaning consuming the fungus will keep your cells healthy. In fact, Chaga has the highest Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) score of any superfood, ranking three times higher on the scale than acai berries. 

Related: Does Chaga increase melanin?

The mushrooms are also rich in a wide variety of vitamins, minerals, and nutrients, including the following: B-complex vitamins, vitamin D, potassium, rubidium, cesium, amino acids, fiber, copper, selenium, zinc, iron, manganese, magnesium, calcium.

How does Chaga taste?

Chaga tastes and smells like tree bark–but, and that in a positive way. Once processed, Chaga has beautiful sweet undertones to it. Taste is often a good indicator of the mushrooms’ source and quality. If you’ve ever had kukicha or twig tea, the Chaga flavor resonates with them.

As we have mentioned before, it’s easy to be fooled by money-hungry suppliers. That is because it’s hard to distinguish the quality of Chaga by looks alone.

You need to know what you’re asking for and trust the integrity of your seller if you’ve decided to purchase Chaga. Often times Chaga tastes off when it has been harvested from a dead tree, or as a result of bad processing, your fungus might be contaminated.

Related: Not everything that’s good for us tastes bad

Chaga tincture double extraction is a great way to consume the superfood in high potency, without having to appreciate the flavors of the mushroom.

Does boiling spoil Chaga?

To answer this question simply, Chaga won’t turn toxic when boiling, but it loses some of its nutrients. But keep in mind, that heating expands the cell walls of the Inonotus obliquus, allowing for more nutrients to become bioavailable and produce a stronger healing potion. Therefore, when processing with heat it’s best to keep the temperature low and let the fungus simmer over a longer period of time.