Birch Boys Chaga Tincture is a dual extracted tincture made from wild-harvested chaga fruiting bodies.
They are made in upstate New York.
The mushrooms are wild-harvested in the Adirondack Mountains of New York, and only the fruiting bodies are used; no mycelium is added.
Unlike most mushroom powders and capsules, dual-extracted mushroom tinctures retain the full range of beneficial compounds. They also have much better bioavailability.
Their process uses a dual extraction 36-hour hot water process and, after that, an alcohol steep.
Key Points:
- Wild harvested
- Grown on wood
- Dual extracted
- Traceable to the source
- No mycelium
- Sustainably harvested
- Third-party testing using the correct methods.
Why should you choose mushrooms grown on wood not grain?
If you have ever harvested medicinal mushrooms in the woods (turkey tail, lion’s mane, reishi, maitake, chaga), you probably noticed that they always grow on wood. Wood is the food source for medicinal mushrooms (except cordyceps, which prefer insects like caterpillars). Some even grow on specific trees like Chaga, which grows on birch, and hemlock reishi, which grows on hemlock trees.
Wood contains high levels of lignin, the ideal food for mushrooms. In addition, mushrooms grown on various types of wood can produce different types and amounts of beneficial compounds. For example, Chaga produces high levels of certain compounds because of what it gets from the birch trees. Growing it on grain or other trees will not have the same benefits or compounds.
Unfortunately, nearly all medicinal mushroom supplements sold in the United States are produced using mushrooms or mycelium grown on grain or sterilized sawdust byproducts from lumber mills.
Mushrooms grown on grain do not produce as high of levels or the diversity of beneficial compounds that medicinal mushrooms grown on their preferred food source, wood, does. For example, mushrooms grown on grain will have higher levels of carbohydrates and lower levels of beta-glucans than those grown on wood. Growing mushrooms on rice or tapioca starch can never replicate the effects of growing mushrooms on wood.
Mushrooms grown on sterilized sawdust are often just grown on one tree type, which may not be the preferred tree for that mushroom. Growing a mushroom indoors on sterilized sawdust cannot yield the same results as mushrooms growing in the wild on a variety of different trees. In addition, when growing mushrooms indoors, they are not exposed to the same stressors they would face in the wild. When plants and fungi are exposed to stressors, they produce higher levels of compounds to protect themselves through a process called xenohormesis. To get around this, many mushroom companies try to convince people that only one compound is important, such as beta-glucans. That is far from the truth, so don’t fall for it. Each mushroom has a broad range of beneficial constituents, not just one. We recommend choosing mushroom supplements made from ethically wildcrafted mushrooms to ensure you get sufficient amounts of various beneficial compounds.
FDA Disclaimer: These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.