As we all know tea is a very
healthy drink. We hardly need to feel guilty for drinking it too many
cups. In the evenings I try to avoid drinking tea with caffeine in it
to get better sleep and so I go for my collection of herbal teas or
infusions, as you could better call them (usually there are no tea
leaves in them, just herbs). And then there are some other so-called
teas which are made of very healthy mushrooms!
My father has been drinking
daily the chaga mushroom tea because of its healthy benefits. It's
said to prevent and cure cancer and all other diseases. He collects
it from the forests, dries it in the sunlight, chops it into small
pieces and makes a tea from it. His friend does the same! For years I
was sceptic of tasting this superdrink as I thought it tastes like
coffee! I feel shamed of my pettiness... It was not until now that I
went over my limits and had courage (do you even need it?) to taste
it. It was splendid! And for the most part I didn't get any
associations with coffee! It was more or less like some mild black
tea, a good one, with a very smooth feel.
The
use of chaga mushroom as a herbal remedy goes strongly back to the
17th century Russia and Siberia and even further away. The chaga
grows in the elderly hardwoods and is a common saprotroph mushroom in them. The tree grows in itself a burl which
doesn't have any germs in it, not until the tree dies. It contains
lots of phytonutrients, is a strong adaptogen and tonicum. The chaga mushroom has also been widely researched scientifically
with strong evidencies of its health benefits. Its oxygen radical
absorbance capacity is almost 22 times stronger than for example in
blueberry. It is also a good source of vitamin B and protein and the
list just goes on... Check more of related research here:
http://www.mychaga.com/scienceresearch.aspx
It's
safe to use it in large amounts and for longer periods of time only
if you are not using any antibiotics, penicillin, intravenous glucose
at the same time because they work as antagonists and also if you are
allergic to some mushrooms you'd better avoid this drink.
I
visited my parents in Kiiminki, north of Finland. I asked my father
to take me to 'chaga hunting' and he was pleased to take me to the
nearest forest. We didn't have to go far to find the tree with one
growing on its trunk one and half meters high. Father hit it with his
axe and so I got something to take back to Helsinki.
P.s.
It's better to go to the forests futher away from roads as chaga
mushroom tends to absorb pollution.
