It has been more than 20 years since chaga mushrooms were first introduced in Korea, but for many people they are still an unfamiliar mushroom that grows in foreign lands. What is more, when people hear that the quality differences among chaga mushroom products are very large, it becomes difficult to take chaga readily. It takes courage to purchase and consume chaga mushroom products.
Yes, that is right! Chaga mushroom products do indeed differ greatly in quality. The reason is none other than that all chaga mushrooms are wild-grown. Chaga mushrooms cannot be raised by human hands.
If chaga were cultivated or farmed by human hands like most other mushrooms, its quality would become similar, because the growing environments would be alike. However, each chaga mushroom grows for some 20 years in its own different environment. Some grow splendidly, while others fail to grow properly. Some are rich in nutrients, while others are depleted of them, leaving nothing but the outer crust.
If you had 100 chaga mushrooms, they would all differ in quality, so much so that you could line them up from 1st place all the way to 100th.
A bad product can come out even from good raw materials, but no matter how good the technology is, a good product cannot be made from bad raw materials. Therefore, the most fundamental of fundamentals in making high-quality chaga products is none other than using good chaga raw materials.
Naturally, the price of the chaga raw materials also accounts for the largest share of the cost of chaga products. High-quality chaga raw materials are expensive, while lower-quality chaga raw materials are cheap.
For reference, back in the days when our company produced only a single premium product, if we purchased 100 first-grade chaga raw materials, we would use only 20 to 30 of them and resell all the rest at a dirt-cheap price. Now, however, because we make three product lines by quality grade, we use about 50 of the raw materials. Our average raw material cost has actually decreased, and we have been able to lower the consumer sales prices.
Next to the raw materials, what affects the quality of chaga products is the manufacturing process. What is needed is to turn the nutrients contained in the chaga raw materials into products without loss. Production facilities and technology matter here.
In fact, the process for making a good chaga product is fixed. You must extract with water at a low temperature, concentrate it with good equipment and technology, and dry it within the shortest possible time. Whether this is faithfully followed or not makes all the difference.
Some companies are unable to follow, or simply do not follow, these principles—because they lack equipment or technology; others, in order to increase production volume; and still others, in order to save on manufacturing costs. Yet other companies quietly adhere to the principles and make their products over a long period of time.
For reference, while most chaga companies have their products produced by extraction-specialist companies, our company—although it costs far more—entrusts the production of our chaga products to a pharmaceutical manufacturer. Our products are made in the same environment as medicines in many respects, including equipment, technology, and hygiene conditions. This is a principle we have kept for more than 20 years already.
As shown above, the quality of chaga products is determined, first, by the quality of the chaga raw materials and, next, by the manufacturing process.
The problem, however, is that from the consumer's standpoint, these processes cannot be known by looking at the product alone. Each company claims its own raw materials are superior and its own technology is advanced, so it becomes confusing what the right answer is. It is unfortunate, but that is the reality. Realistically, the best a consumer can do is not to judge the product but to judge the company—to judge whether what this company says is trustworthy.
It is difficult and tiresome work, but chaga is fully worth it. Whether or not one encounters good chaga can determine one's health and future. I hope this helps you in choosing chaga products.
- Kinam Oh, kinam_oh@hanmail.net
