Mushrooms are some of the most nutritious and beneficial foods known to man. Unfortunately, most people will avoid adding these to their diets as much as possible. Some people can’t stand the texture, while others can’t stand the taste.
If you’re one of those people that miss out on the health benefits of mushrooms, you can rest easy knowing there are other ways to add them to your daily diet. For those that can’t cook with them, supplements allow you to add mushrooms to your smoothies, coffee, hot cocoa, or hot water.
While these supplements are rather new to the Western World, there’s one company that has risen as a leader in the mushroom supplement industry — Four Sigmatic. They offer a variety of different supplements that utilize a wide range of nutritious mushrooms, including Four Sigmatic Mushroom Cacao Mix and Four Sigmatic Adaptogen Shots, among others.
Today, we’re going to break down their Four Sigmatic Chaga Elixir. It utilizes the Chaga mushroom, which has long been praised as a coffee-alternative. Let’s dive right in with this review of
What Is Four Sigmatic Chaga Elixir?
As we mentioned above, Chaga Elixir is a supplement by Four Sigmatic. It has four main ingredients — Chaga Mushroom, Eleuthero, Field Mint, and Rose Hips. While many people use it as a coffee-alternative, it can be mixed in pretty much any drink you consume daily.
Available in powder-form, Chaga Elixir boasts immune benefits and can help the body relax when under a lot of stress. It’s a great addition to your morning routine or night routine, allowing you to either prepare for the day or wind down after a long one.
Before you get too far ahead of yourselves, these are not considered “magic mushrooms,” and they won’t contain any hallucinogenic properties. They will, however, help maintain overall health and well-being better than most foods we eat.
To help you better understand Chaga Elixir, we’ll go into a little more info about Four Sigmatic and what makes this Chaga mushroom so special.
About Four Sigmatic
You’ve never met a true mushroom fan until you’ve met Tero Isokaupilla, the owner of Four Sigmatic. He grew up on a farm in Finland that has been around for 14 generations. There, he would actually forage Chaga mushrooms in his backyard.
His love for mushrooms started early on, and it led to him and his friends creating this company. It’s not your typical company, though. They like to do things differently. They understand their products are top-of-the-line (which they are), so they take things a little less seriously in the office.
They have a sauna in their office, a bus named the Mushroom Mobile that serves free “mushies,” and they have a Mushroom Academy that’s completely free. They’re extremely passionate about what they do and are dedicated to spreading awareness about these superfoods.
Since opening in 2012, they’ve been featured in Time Magazine, bon appetit, Vogue, Forbes, and Bazaar. They’re in more than 65 countries and have even moved their office to Los Angeles — making it easier to spread mushroom awareness to the Western World.
What Are Functional Mushrooms?
Functional mushrooms are becoming as popular as CBD in the medical and nutritional community. While there are over 2,000 known species of mushrooms, functional mushrooms make up a specific group of about 15 different species.
These mushrooms are all known for having unique properties that extend beyond their nutritional background — that’s what makes them “functional.” Outside of their unique properties, they do have plenty of things in common, including balancing energy levels, improving digestion, providing skin support, and enhancing the immune system.
The most common functional mushrooms are Lion’s Mane, Reishi, Shiitake, Maitake, Cordyceps, Turkey Tail, Enokitake, and Chaga. Of course, Chaga Elixir will only utilize one of those — the Chaga mushroom.
What Makes The Chaga Mushroom So Special?
Known by its fancy name, Inonotus obliquus, the Chaga mushroom loves to grow in colder climates in the northern hemisphere. You can find them widespread through Siberia, Scandinavia, Canada, northern Europe, and Alaska.
Chaga mushrooms are known as a parasite, meaning they need a living host in order to survive. As a result, you should never eat a Chaga mushroom found on a dead tree. This is important to know because they resemble burnt charcoal either way — making them one of the less-attractive mushrooms.
It won’t gain any points at the beauty contest, but its fruiting body has a wide range of benefits. They are rich with beta-glucans, antioxidants, polyphenols, triterpenes, and melanin.
These nutrients help enhance the immune system, provide an energy boost without the use of caffeine, reduces oxidative stress, improves inflammation in the body, and supports a healthy heart by lowering cholesterol and regulating blood sugar levels.
Above all that, the Chaga mushroom is known to be an adaptogen. This means it helps the body process and adapt to stressful environments or situations. They’ll promote a more relaxed and calming effect in the body.
Are There Any Claims About Four Sigmatic Chaga Elixir?
Like we mentioned above, Four Sigmatic takes a more “fun” approach to their product — but that doesn’t mean they’re not careful about what they promote. In fact, they only use science and research when marketing their products.
With Chaga Elixir, things are no different. They pay attention to what we know about the Chaga mushroom — as well as the other ingredients involved. Here are the claims they make:
- Supports overall wellness and immune system with a ton of antioxidants
- Organic, caffeine-free, vegan, 3rd party lab-tested, and no sugar
- Mix it in hot water, your morning cup of joe, or smoothie
- Mushrooms were grown on birch trees in the Taiga forest
- Rich and earthy taste that somewhat resembles coffee
In addition to that, Four Sigmatic backs their product 100% by offering a money-back guarantee. In their words, “And if you’re not into it—totally fine. More for us.” Well, can’t say No to that.
Four Sigmatic Chaga Elixir Ingredients
Now that we know a little background behind Chaga Elixir, we can start diving into the most important part of this supplement — the ingredient label. This is where we get to see how good Chaga Elixir really is and whether it’s worth your money or not.
There are four main ingredients in Chaga Elixir — Chaga mushroom, Eleuthero, Field Mint, and Rose Hips Extract. While they only tell us the amount of Chaga mushroom in the supplement, which is 1,500mg per serving, Four Sigmatic is a company you can trust.
Plus, the other ingredients are generally regarded as safe to consume — so you have nothing to worry about.
Organic Chaga Mushroom
Source: Four Sigmatic grows their Chaga mushrooms on birch trees in the Taiga forest, they look like burnt charcoal and survive on trees that are still alive
Benefits: rich with antioxidants, reduces oxidative stress and inflammation, lowers cholesterol and blood sugar, helps the body adapt to stress, improves the immune system, provides a caffeine-free energy boost
Side Effects: shouldn’t be taken with anti-diabetes drugs or insulin, can negatively influence blood clotting in large doses
Recommended Dosage: 500-2,500mg per day
Organic Eleuothero
Source: also known as Siberian ginseng and Eleutherococcus senticosus, eleuthero is an herb native to Asia
Benefits: can help the body adapt to stress, provide anxiety relief, prevent heart disease, gives an energy boost, reduces fatigue, improve cognitive function, regulates blood pressure, and improves lymphatic function
Side Effects: hormone changes, muscle spasms, gastrointestinal issues, headaches, and insomnia when taken in high doses
Recommended Dosage: 300-1,200mg per day
Organic Field Mint
Source: also known as Mentha arvensis corn mint, or brook mint, found in central and western Asia and Europe, can now be found throughout the United States
Benefits: rich with antioxidants, reduces oxidative stress and inflammation in the body, improves gastrointestinal health, can help treat or prevent some cancers, overcomes allergies, healthy skin, improves breath
Side Effects: shouldn’t be used with liver disease or GERD, but relatively safe when taken in healthy doses
Recommended Dosage: 100-300mg per day
Organic Rose Hips Extract
Source: found underneath rose petals, the seed-filled bulbs of the rose are called rose hips, also called the fruit of the rose
Benefits: highly nutritious, promotes skin and eye health, rich with antioxidants, reduces oxidative stress and inflammation, improves the immune system, anti-aging properties, can help with heart health and fat loss
Side Effects: rose hips are rich in Vitamin C, high doses can cause nausea, upset stomach, or heartburn
Recommended Dosage: 500-750mg per day
Four Sigmatic Chaga Elixir Dosage, Packaging, And Pricing
I know most of you are used to seeing powdered supplements come in a tub, but Four Sigmatic makes Chaga Elixir a little more accessible when on-the-go. Each serving comes in its own packet, which are neatly stored in a small box — a lot like tea.
The box is all green with white lettering, and the packets resemble the box. Their design was upgraded with a new look in 2020, making the product look much more presentable to the public. On the front, it says, “Defend,” implying it provides a boost to your defense system.
Each serving contains three grams of powder, 15mg of sodium, and 2g of carbohydrates. You’ll receive 20 packets per box, and each box will cost $38 — meaning each serving will cost nearly $2. You can save 20% on each box by subscribing to a monthly delivery.
Four Sigmatic Chaga Elixir Pros vs. Cons
Every supplement comes with its fair share of pros and cons. Knowing both sides of the equation is essential when finding the right supplement for you. Since they’re all unique in their own way, we’re going to list off the most significant pros and cons with Chaga Elixir.
Overall, this is an extremely good product and one of the best Chaga mushroom supplements on the market today. The pros heavily outweigh the cons, but let’s take a look at what this supplement has to offer!
Pros
- Highly reputable company with a founder that’s passionate about functional mushrooms
- Excellent caffeine-free alternative to coffee
- Can be added to coffee, smoothie, or hot water
- High dose (1,500mg) of Chaga
- Not that expensive if taken once per day
- Organic, Vegan, No Sugar, and 3rd Party Lab-Tested
- Helps the immune system defend the body
- Chaga and Eleuthero are known to be adaptogenic
- Field Mint and Rose Hips help add to the favor, as well as the immune system
- Provides an energy boost
Cons
- Doesn’t come in any common flavors like chocolate or vanilla
- Can become expensive if you’re using twice per day
- Don’t know exactly how much Eleuthero, Field Mint, or Rose Hips there is
Claims vs. Reality
Earlier in this supplement review, we took a close look at the claims and guarantees made by Four Sigmatic about Chaga Elixir. We mentioned how careful they were to not mention anything that doesn’t have scientific evidence behind it — and that’s exactly what they did.
Chaga Elixir is loaded with antioxidants and is highly beneficial to the immune system. All the ingredients used were organic and vegan. It’s easy to mix in pretty much anything we drink, and the taste won’t be unbearable to most people.
If you struggle to consume mushrooms on a daily basis — or at all — and you want to start adding the Chaga mushroom to your diet, this is the perfect way to do it. It can also benefit people who are trying to kick their coffee habit by acting as an alternative.
Four Sigmatic hit it spot-on with this Chaga mushroom supplement, and you won’t find much better than Chaga Elixir.
Four Sigmatic Chaga Elixir Alternatives
I truly believe there aren’t many brands that take functional mushrooms as seriously as Four Sigmatic. Since I view them in a league of their own, I’m going to highlight some of their similar products that can also help defend the body’s immune system.
Instead of listing competitors, we’ll look at alternatives offered by Four Sigmatic. In the “Defend” category, we have three we’re going to look at — Mushroom Blend, Ground Mushroom Coffee with Probiotics, and Protein Packets.
10 Mushroom Blend
Four Sigmatic 10 Mushroom Blend is a powdered supplement that comes in a can, opposed to a packet. Instead of supplying a major dose of Chaga Mushroom, like Chaga Elixir, it offers a much smaller dose of a variety of functional mushrooms.
Among the ten mushrooms included in the formula are: Chaga, Reishi, Cordyceps, Lion’s Mane, Shiitake, Maitake, Enokitake, Agaricus Blazei, Meshima, and Tremella. They also include Organic Rose Hips, in case that wasn’t enough for you.
With all the different mushrooms, this supplement provides benefits that range from the immune system, cognitive function, physical function, and much more. Better yet, it’s cheaper than Chaga Elixir and is listed at just $30 for a 30-serving tub.
Ground Mushroom Coffee with Probiotics
If you’re not looking to kick your coffee habit, but still want to try something unique and different, Four Sigmatic Ground Mushroom Coffee with Probiotics is an excellent coffee blend. Four Sigmatic uses fair-trade coffee beans grown in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala.
In addition to the ground coffee beans, they add Chaga and Turkey Tail mushrooms, Yacon Juice Powder, and Bacillus subtilis. It helps boost the immune system, enhance gut health and digestion, and improves overall wellness. The Yacon Juice Powder provides prebiotics, while the Bacillus subtilis provides probiotics.
Each bag will contain about 16 servings and will cost just $20. It’ll brew medium and bold, while also allowing you to add some of your favorite additives like almond milk or coconut oil.
Protein Packets
Packaged similar to Chaga Elixir, these packets provide a wide range of ingredients that can help you stay healthy throughout the day. In terms of mushrooms, it contains Chaga, Reishi, Cordyceps, Lion’s Mane, and Turkey Tail.
Not only that, but they also add 18 grams of organic pea protein, organic hemp seeds, organic chia, organic pumpkin seeds, and organic coconut protein — all the best plant proteins. To top it all off, they add Eleuthero and Ashwagandha.
If you’re looking for a protein shake that improves brain, digestive, and immune function, Four Sigmatic’s Protein Packets are perfect. They come in unflavored, creamy cacao, or peanut butter flavors.
Each box contains 10 packets (one serving per packet) and costs $40 per box. As with all their products, you can save 20% by subscribing to a monthly delivery.
Final Verdict: Four Sigmatic Chaga Elixir
There’s a lot to love about Chaga Elixir and Four Sigmatic as a whole. They really care about their supplements, are passionate about mushrooms, and are adamant about giving back to the community. They won’t stop until everyone knows about the power of functional mushrooms.
If you’re solely interested in the Chaga mushroom, Chaga Elixir is great. It has 1,500mg per serving, which is a rather high dose (don’t worry, it’s safe). The simple formula only has three other ingredients that combine for another 1,500mg — which is also safe.
When you’re ready to start adding mushrooms to your diet — without even realizing it — Four Sigmatic is the way to go.
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