So you’ve bought some chaga mushrooms and now you’re wondering what do with them? Well, the first step is decoction. This is a very simple process, it just takes a little bit of time.
Equipment Needed:
Large Pot, Instant Pot or Slow Cooker
Ingredients
- 2 – 3 inch chunk of chaga (or several smaller chunks)
- Roughly 2 L of water
Directions
- All you need to do is fill a large pot or a slow cooker full of water.
- Drop the large chunk of chaga or 4 – 5 small chunks into the pot.
- Let simmer for about 5 hours, or overnight. *I have used a basic slow cooker, and just let it cook on low all day, and I’ve used my Instant Pot on slow cooker mode and set it for 5 hours; both methods worked well.
- After the chaga has steeped for a number of hours, the water will turn dark brown, almost black in colour. Don’t be alarmed! That’s what it’s supposed to look like 🙂
- When it is done steeping, you can drink the hot tea black or with lemon and honey. (Be aware that chaga has a slightly peculiar taste; one that might take some getting used to; it’s been described as “loamy”…)
- Alternatively, you can store the tea in a large pitcher, or jars to use at a later time. *I pour the chaga tea into large jars, let them sit on the counter until they’ve cooled, and refrigerate them for future use.
- Keep the chunks of chaga that you steeped, let them dry out in a small dish and store them in the fridge until your next use. You can steep them at least 2 – 3 more times until the water is light or nearly clear, then you know you’ve extracted all of the beneficial compounds. * I often save the chunks of chaga I’ve already steeped to ground up and use in my Chaga Coffee.
- Now that you’ve got a big batch of chaga tea, you can add it to any regular tea that you drink, into smoothies, or try making Golden Chaga Milk, or Hot Chagalate.
