Once upon a time, the strangest ingredient you’d find served at a coffee shop was whatever sugary syrup Starbucks had most recently concocted. These days, however, baristas everywhere suddenly seem to be pushing the same substance: chaga. People line up in droves at LA-based coffee shop Alfred, for example, to sample the bean-slinger's trendsetting chaggacino. But if the ingredient’s meteoric rise to ubiquity seems to have come out of nowhere and you still have no idea WTF chaga actually is, you’re likely not alone. Keep reading to find out more about the mysterious mushroom spreading its spores to coffee cups worldwide.

What Are Chaga Mushrooms?

Inonotus obliquus might sound like a Harry Potter spell, but it’s actually the scientific name of the fungus more commonly known as chaga. This “mushroom” from the Hymenochaetaceae family, which is found in the northern hemisphere, is not technically a mushroom at all but rather a hard, irregularly shaped parasitic fungus that looks like burnt coal on the outside with a soft orange core (hence its nickname “black gold”). As inonotus obliquus slowly causes the live birch trees it infects to decay, chaga forms on their trunks. And though its appearance signifies death for our forest friends, chaga is a medicinal marvel for humans that has long been utilized in various cultures and is currently gaining popularity in wellness circles worldwide.

Health Benefits of Chaga Mushrooms

Chaga boasts a surprising range of health benefits. Traditionally, it’s been used to treat tummy troubles, among other issues, and modern science shows the efficacy of this remedy could be due to chaga’s potential antiviral and antiparasitic properties as well as its high antioxidant content, which can decrease inflammation in the gut.

Today, chaga is most widely touted for its ability to support the immune system. This benefit is partially attributed to the shroom’s anti-inflammatory properties, but chaga has also been shown to regulate the production of cytokines, which help cells communicate with each other to fend off illness.

This super 'shroom is believed to help fight specific diseases, too. Antioxidants and other beneficial compounds in chaga may reduce bad cholesterol, thereby protecting against cardiovascular disease. The fungus is also believed to potentially prevent and slow cancer by blocking cell damage caused by free radicals. Chaga has shown promise as an anti-diabetic agent, too, as it can help to regulate blood sugar levels and improve insulin resistance. It may be neuroprotective as well. And while no fountain of youth exists outside of whatever it is that Paul Rudd has been taking for the last 30 years, chaga may help prevent cellular aging.

In short, this fungus should probably be among us as much as possible, as it is essentially a superfood on steroids. "Chaga is the most profoundly impactful and powerful antioxidant and immune supportive organism there is," says Earth & Star cofounder Erica Huss. "In terms of antioxidant content, it blows all the typical foods we think of when we think of antioxidants, like pomegranates and goji berries, out of the water."