Chaga mushrooms may look more like burnt pieces of bark than actual mushrooms, but these edible fungi have long been used in traditional medicine because of their numerous health benefits.
Chaga mushrooms are native to the cold regions of Russia, Northern Canada, Korea and Alaska. They normally grow on the bark of birch trees, where they produce a woody growth that looks like burnt charcoal.
According to research, the Russians were the first to brew chaga mushrooms and drink chaga tea. They believed that chaga mushrooms possess antiviral, anti-diabetic and anti-inflammatory properties.
Despite their unappealing appearance, chaga mushrooms are highly valuable. Experts say only one out of every 4,000 birch trees will have chaga mushrooms growing on it. They are also impossible to grow domestically. Due to their rarity and reported benefits, chaga mushrooms are sometimes aptly referred to as “black gold.” Read more…
