On the go all the time? A liquid mushroom extract may be exactly what you’re looking for, as you can get the benefits of mushrooms without having to eat a lot of them
A liquid mushroom extract is an efficient and effective way of getting the healthful constituents from mushrooms without needing to constantly eat pounds of fresh mushrooms. Not to say that you shouldn’t eat a bunch of fresh mushrooms. We certainly recommend it, but we also understand that not everyone has the time, opportunity, or stomach for doing so.
A liquid mushroom extract is the way to go. When buying a real liquid mushroom extract that exclusively contains fruiting bodies, you can rest assured you are receiving 100% fungal tissue and no grain in the final product. This allows for the best liquid mushroom extract around without any undesired fillers.
How a high-quality liquid mushroom extract is made
The first step in making a great liquid mushroom extract begins with a strong tea using hot water. The hot water will extract the aqueous compounds stored in the mushroom. When you make a hot water extraction, the beta-glucans become available for your body to use. Beta-glucans are the primary compounds studied in medicinal mushrooms. Just making a hot water extraction will give you many of the benefits mushrooms have to offer. However, not all constituents found in mushrooms are water soluble so the liquid and mushrooms are separated and a second extraction method is used.
To make a hot water extract, begin by steeping the mushrooms in hot water that is between 125-145 degrees Fahrenheit for 8-12 hours. The low setting on a crock pot overnight is perfect for this. You can even use the hot water extract to make rice, soup, or drink it straight. If you have extra you can freeze it in quart containers and use as needed.
The second extract method utilizes alcohol. To make a tincture you add alcohol to the mushroom tea (including the mushrooms) and let it sit for 6 weeks to draw out the remaining constituents. When adding alcohol it is important to keep the overall alcohol percentage around 25-35%. So, if you were adding 190 proof grain alcohol you would do 1/3 alcohol and 2/3 water. If you were doing 100 proof alcohol you would do about half and half alcohol and water. If you are making a liquid mushroom extract at home for yourself, then this doesn't have to be an exact science. You can use jars and roughly guess the amount of alcohol and hot water to put into each extract. Once you have your liquid prepared, place a piece of wax paper below the cap and mix the tincture up so the alcohol doesn't just sit on the top. After about six weeks your tincture will be ready!
Understanding the best liquid mushroom extract products available
Some mushroom supplements don’t use any mushrooms and they only use mycelium. When you look at the back of these supplements they will say at the bottom other ingredients: freeze-dried myceliated brown rice. These products are mostly not mushrooms and they primarily do not involve the mushroom fruiting body. Instead, they involve mycelium grown out on grain.
The issue here is that the mycelium and grain cannot be separated so both are extracted and placed into the product. It’s not clear what percentage of grain has been transformed into mycelium, so who knows how much of the product is actually fungal biomass and how much is undigested rice. The majority of traditional mushroom use throughout history has involved consuming the fruited mushroom body.
With products that exclusively use mushroom fruiting bodies you know 100% of that is fungal biomass and you are using the anatomical part of the fungus that has been used historically and traditionally. A lot more research is needed to see if these products are equal in their efficacy.
Be aware that marketing and advertising is being heavily used in the mushroom supplement industry currently. Be sure your products are actually mushrooms and do your own research as to what possible benefits are.
The benefits behind our liquid mushroom extract of chaga
There are two key points that make our chaga tincture different from other companies. First, we only use dried wild harvested chaga mushrooms from New England. We do not use any mycelium grown on grain or chaga imported from other countries. This ensures the chaga we use is not contaminated with radiation, or other pollutants.
The cheapest way to make chaga tincture or powders is to cultivate the mycelium on grain, dry it, and then extract or powder that product. This is not the traditional way of making chaga extract and all research that has been conducted, primarily in Russia, uses chaga fruiting bodies. Growing the mycelium is cheaper and easier to mass produce but it leads to a lower-quality product. The betulin and betulinic acid which are derived from the birch tree are not found in these products.
We use a triple extraction method. In order to extract the vast majority of the compounds in chaga multiple methods are needed. By using cold water, hot water, and alcohol extraction, the maximum amount of compounds can be made available in our chaga tincture.