How Long Can You Store Chaga Mushroom?
Storage of your chaga is important, as you can prolong a chagas shelf life nearly indefinitely when stored correctly.
How to Store Chaga Mushrooms
There are various methods of storing and using chaga, and each one may have different shelf lives. You can store extracts from chaga just like you would blocks, but remember, generally speaking, the shelf life for extracts is about two years.
To make storing and using it later even easier, you can grind the chunks down into a fine powder, which you can use for making chaga tea, and which you can store in your kitchen cupboard with ease. If you would rather make it fresh and save it for later, another way of storing chaga can be frozen ice cubes.
If you would like your Chaga to be ready to consume quickly, then you will have to make tincture or powder. Even if you buy chaga already dried or powdered, you will have to properly store it in order to keep the most freshness.
How to Store Chaga Powder
Once dried, the chaga needs to be stored in a sealed container so the chaga does not absorb any airborne moisture. As long as Chaga is stored correctly (sealed inside our bags or another sealed container) and is not exposed to heat or humidity, Chaga should last for at least 1 -2 years.
It is best to freeze your brewed chaga tea if you do not expect to consume it for 10-14 days. You can store leftover chaga tea in a mason jar in the refrigerator, where it will keep good for up to three days. Chaga mushrooms can be stored in sealed containers, and chaga tea made from the decoction can last in the refrigerator for around 10 days.
Tea bags contain ground chaga mushrooms, which may not be quite as fresh, but allow the drinker to prepare chaga tea far faster than using the pieces. Chaga powdered tea may lose potency after the initial steeping, so chunks or powder should be used only twice.
Once chaga has been harvested in full, it must be cleaned and dried before being used for tea brewing, or made into an extract or tincture. We need to begin with saying that properly dried Chaga needs to be brewed, and cannot be consumed as it was simply harvested. To increase the nutritional value of fresh Chaga, it needs to be dried (either by nature under the sun or in a dry house) to remove the excess moisture.
Be sure to store wet Chaga in a freezer so that it does not get contaminated by mold. Moldy chaga will make you sick if consumed, so be sure to completely dry out the chaga before using it or storing it.
Try to avoid storing your chaga in paper bags, instead, keep dry chaga in an airtight container, food-grade bags or glass jars work fine. You may wish to store your Chaga mushrooms in a glass container or a cardboard box in a dry area, away from sun. Although chaga is nearly self-preserving, mostly due to its high mineral content, making chaga tea eventually becomes fermented because bacteria will enter your concoction.
