It was a rainy, summer day. My daughter and I were out for lunch at Mojo Market, a local place we hadn’t been to in a while. As we waited for our food, a woman sitting near us ordered an iced chaga latte. Used to skipping over the coffee selections, I missed this on the menu.
It’s been years since I’ve had decaf coffee, much less caffeinated coffee. Having had a long love affair with coffee in my youth, I ultimately ended things due to what is best described as a bout of partial facial paralysis. Eventually, I let go of the decaf option as well.
Lately, I have started to include more mushroom supplements, teas, and drinks into my daily routine. Naturally, then, my ears perked up at the mention of this iced chaga latte. I decided to order one with oat milk, without the coffee of course.
Initially, it was too sweet—I forgot to ask them not to include the pump of cinnamon vanilla syrup (yup! I’m that kind of customer).
Unsweetened drink in hand, I took a sip and felt an immediate sense of nostalgia; its taste being similar to the coffee I once loved. So, I decided to try and make my own.
Vanessa G’s Iced Chaga
At home, I combined the following ingredients:
- Five cups of water;
- Two tablespoons of chaga powder;
- Three tablespoons of dried reishi mushrooms from Flat 12 Mushrooms (a local shop);
- and a few pinches of an herbal chai mix I found at a tea shop in Solvang, California.
I slow cooked it for 14 hours in my Instant Pot (my Mom has slow cooked the reishi mushrooms and chamomile in the past to make her tea, so I decided to use her method).
In the morning, after giving the chaga mixture some time to cool, I strained the tea into a large-ish mason jar using a cheese cloth that I originally purchased for the purpose of making queso fresco, but never did. After I finished straining the tea, I covered it and put it in the fridge to chill.
I originally tried to make a frapuccino style of chaga tea using my Vitamix and some oat milk ice cubes. That felt like a lot of effort for not much reward. In the end, I liked it best just adding a splash of oat milk to the chilled tea.
Note: if you’re looking for something that is more like black coffee, Four Sigmatic has a mushroom elixir with chaga that has a similar taste.
Enjoy!
