Chaga (Inonotus obliquus), in case you don’t know, is a fungus that parasitizes birch trees in northern latitudes and has been harvested and consumed by northern peoples for hundreds of years. Chaga has long been a staple amongst circumpolar folk and alternative medicine, though recent years have seen it gain popularity in the main stream, largely due to its widely publicized anti-cancer benefits and status as a “superfood”. There is an ever-growing body of health claims regarding chaga, ranging from stimulating the immune system to lowering cholesterol, to curing cancer, and everything in between. Though very few clinical trials have been done in humans, the antioxidant, anti-tumor, and anti-inflammatory effects have been well documented in laboratory and animal studies (run a google Scholar search on Inonotus obliquus for a super fun and nerdy time!). Chaga is typically dried, ground in to a powder, and consumed as a tea, which has the appearance of black coffee and has a taste that is hard to describe, though I would say that is is bitter, earthy, and kind of vanilla-like. No strange or strong after-tastes either.
Because we are fortunate enough to live in Alaska, where chaga definitely grows, we decided to spend a sunny Saturday in April hunting for this highly prized mushroom.
But I should stop here and insert a disclaimer. Chaga is not only somewhat of a rarity, but is also grows extremely slowly, with some estimates putting the life cycle of the fungus at 5-10 years. This means that chaga MUST be harvested responsibly, or this miraculous mushroom will become threatened by over-harvesting, especially with how popular it has become. If you are wild harvesting chaga for your own personal use, make sure to educate yourself regarding chaga distribution and life cycle, and only harvest larger mushrooms, leaving the younger/smaller ones to grow. And if you are purchasing chaga supplements (this stuff is pretty ubiquitous online these days), do your best to purchase from a vendor that harvests responsibly.
Okay, disclaimer over, here are some pictures from our chaga harvest! We got pretty lucky on this hunt and came home with around 4 lbs of chaga, which we then dried, ground, and made into tea (scroll to the bottom for the recipe)!
Wrapping the chaga in a towel, then smashing it to break up the big chunks (Mazel Tov!)
To make chaga tea, a long simmering time is essential in order to extract the maximum amount of beneficial compounds. Therefore, we make our chaga in 2 liter batches, letting it simmer for 2-3 hours on our woodstove. We then strain the tea and keep the finished product in the fridge so that we can easily and quickly heat up one or two cups at a time. Here is roughly the recipe that we follow, but you can adapt it to produce smaller or larger batches depending on your needs. By the way, this is a super helpful video about making chaga tea and chaga in general.
Wild Alaskan Chaga Tea
- In a large saucepan, bring 2 liters water and 3 Tbs ground chaga powder to a boil
- Reduce heat and let simmer 2-3 hours (we do this on our wood stove and it works really well)
- Using a fine mesh strainer, strain the tea into a clean jar or tupperwear
- Store in refrigerator for up to a week, heating up small batches as needed
Alaska Abode 