Across the vast pharmacopeia of Traditional Chinese Medicine, medicinal mushrooms are highly regarded and have been an integral part of this traditional healing system for thousands of years.
At Harmonic Arts, we believe you deserve the best of what nature has to offer. Balancing herbal tradition and modern scientific study, we work with the healing benefits of the world’s top 5 medicinal mushrooms: Lion’s Mane, Cordyceps, Turkey Tail, Reishi and Chaga. These functional mushrooms are among the most studied fungi on the planet and contain a wide spectrum of active, beneficial compounds that have tremendous effects on our health. Consistent use can bring our bodies and minds back into balance.
We aim to provide you with the most nutrient-dense, pure, and potent mushrooms possible. Curious to know how our Concentrated Mushroom Powders are sourced, grown, and extracted? Read on to follow their journey from forest and farm right to your pantry.
Disclaimer: This blog is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice. Please consult your health care practitioner before adding any new herbs to your wellness routine.
Step One: Sourcing
Before entering a professional relationship with a farmer or grower, we carefully review their organic growing, harvesting, and processing practices to ensure they meet our high standards for quality and ethics.
We believe traditional growing practices produce the highest quality mushrooms. Our journey begins in the pristine mountainous regions of China and the birch forests of Siberia. These regions have a long-established history of traditional mushroom cultivation that spans back over thousands of years, starting with Shiitake cultivation in the 13th century.
Our decision to source from China is made mindfully and with deep consideration of purity, potency, and quality. Did you know that China is the leading producer of traditional log-grown mushrooms worldwide, accounting for over 85% of the world’s supply? Over centuries of mushroom growing and use, Chinese medicine has developed rigorous standards that guide the cultivation of medicinal mushrooms, specifically fruiting bodies. Fruiting body mushrooms contain a considerably high variety and volume of bioactive compounds.
The organic farms we partner with pride themselves on cultivating fruiting body mushrooms on traditional mediums including wood. Using a wood substrate for growing mushrooms is a natural method that closely resembles their wild environment. This ensures the mushroom receives the right nourishment to produce a fruiting body with the essential polysaccharides to support human health. Working with 100% fruiting body mushrooms allows us to create a potent, tasty Mushroom Powder without the use of fillers.
In contrast, most North American mushroom farms focus on cultivating mycelium rather than fruiting body. Often, mycelium is grown on a sterilized substrate of grains in a lab environment and is rarely exposed to the elements. While mycelium has its benefits, the breadth and depth of scientific research on fruiting body mushrooms is substantial and has a long history.
Want to know how and where your favourite Harmonic Arts mushroom is grown? Let’s take a look!
Reishi
Our Reishi is organically grown on aged Duanwood logs at a small, family-run farm located in the Nine Dragon Mountains. This traditional growing method produces the widest variety of active polysaccharides and triterpenes.
Turkey Tail
Turkey Tail is cultivated in Northeastern China's remote forest, located in the Heilongjiang region. This mushroom is grown on logs and deadfall to create a wide array of bioactive compounds.
Chaga
Harmonic Arts’ Chaga is grown on living birch trees in an organic-certified forest in Siberia, which ensures a high concentration of betulinic acid and triterpenes. Our Chaga is sustainably and respectfully harvested by leaving a portion of the Chaga conk behind to protect the birch trees. When harvesting, our growers also leave some of the harvest behind to propagate continued mushroom growth in the birch forest.
Lion’s Mane
Our Lion’s Mane mushrooms are grown in the foothills of Gutian, an area known as “The Ancient Mushroom Farm.” Cultivating them on a fortified sawdust substrate from deciduous wood allows for high polysaccharide content.
Cordyceps
Harmonic Arts’ Cordyceps (Cordyceps militaris) are farm-grown in China’s Zhejiang province. Cordyceps fruiting bodies are grown on non-GMO soybean and rice. This method produces a smaller batch size but ensures the highest concentration of cordycepin and adenosine.
When their fruiting bodies are full size and releasing spores, it’s time to harvest!
Step Two: Extraction and Production
Once harvested and dried, our journey continues as the mushrooms arrive at the lab for extraction and production. Here, the raw mushrooms are sorted, cleaned, and ground into a powder to prepare for the extraction process. During the extraction process, our mushrooms are essentially “cooked down” to unlock their healing properties. This vital step breaks down indigestible fibre and chitin within the cell walls, creating a final product that is easily digestible, bioavailable, and highly concentrated.
Hot Water Extraction
Hot water extraction is the most common type of extraction method. It involves heating the mushrooms in large vats of hot water and simmering them for a long period of time as a “decoction.” This type of extraction is necessary to release the water-soluble polysaccharides within the mushrooms, including beta-glucans. Each of our mushrooms undergoes a hot water extraction to unlock these active compounds.
Alcohol Extraction
For mushrooms that are woodier in texture and density, an alcohol extraction is necessary to free up beneficial triterpenes. This is accomplished by saturating fruiting bodies in alcohol for several weeks, and then pressing the liquid afterwards.
Our Chaga and Reishi mushrooms undergo a dual-extraction process that involves both hot water and alcohol extraction, creating a combined full spectrum of bioavailable polysaccharides and triterpenes.
Once the extraction process is complete, the compounds are dehydrated to form a concentrated liquid. This liquid is then spray-dried to create a water-soluble powder. Finally, that powder is filtered through a fine sifter for consistency.
One way to determine the quality of a medicinal mushroom product is to look at the extraction ratio. Because we use fruiting body extracts, we can get the most potent medicine into our Concentrated Mushroom Powders. For example, our Reishi Powder has a 12:1 extraction ratio. This means that consuming 1g (¼ tsp) of Reishi Concentrated Mushroom Powder is equivalent to 12 grams of whole mushroom gathered in the wild.
Step Three: Lab Testing
Once our mushrooms have been extracted and made into powders, it’s time to test! In the lab, our powders are tested for quality, purity, and potency. This includes testing for:
Organoleptics or Physical Characteristics: Taste, odour, smell, density and fineness of the powder.
Chemical Characteristics: Terpenes, polyphenols, and polysaccharides.
Microbiological Characteristics: Free from E. Coli, Staphylococcus, bacteria, fungi, pesticides, contaminants, and heavy metals.
Once each mushroom powder has undergone testing, the results are recorded in an industry-standard Certificate of Analysis for our team to review with each new batch. From there, our Concentrated Mushroom Powders are carefully packed and shipped to our headquarters in Cumberland, BC.
Once the Mushroom Powders arrive, we organoleptically test samples of each powder and review the Certificate of Analysis provided by the lab to ensure they are clean, safe and potent. We cyclically contract 3rd party testing at Canadian labs to further verify and validate the results of the Certificates of Analysis.
Did you know that you can request to see Certificates of Analysis for all our mushrooms? To do so, contact our Help Desk at help@harmonicarts.ca.
Curious to see what the extraction, production, and testing processes look like? Join Harmonic Arts’ Co-Founder and Formulator Yarrow Willard Cl.H as he takes a tour through our production facility in China. Watch here.
Step Four: Packaging and Shipping
Sustainable action is one of our core values at Harmonic Arts. Minimizing waste wherever we can is vital to preserving the health of our planet.
We take pride in using sustainable packaging, and our Mushroom Powders are no exception. We use recyclable glass and low-waste shipping components, including compostable packaging whenever possible.
In 2022, 72% of our product packaging was either compostable or recyclable. With your help, we have kept 49,023 lbs of waste from entering landfills! We continue to choose packaging that has a lighter environmental footprint.
Our journey ends with our high-quality Concentrated Mushroom Powders landing on your doorstep, ready for you to enjoy!
Our Promise to You
This may seem like an extensive process, but it’s well worth the effort to ensure our customers receive the best medicinal mushrooms that nature has to offer. Using traditional log-grown methods and ideal extraction methods for each mushroom allows us to create a potent, Certified Organic Mushroom Powder we know you’ll love.
The mushroom medicine in our Concentrated Mushroom Powders is potent, and much higher quality than other powders on the market. We use 100% fruiting body because it has the highest concentration and variety of active compounds. This includes a greater than 30% polysaccharide content.
Environmental responsibility, sustainable action and social responsibility are at the heart of what we do. The traditional method of cultivation our mushroom farmers use is sustainable. We make sure we have minimal impact on the ecosystems where our mushrooms are grown.
Rave Reviews
Reviews for our Concentrated Mushroom Powders report increased energy and focus, less anxiety, and a stronger immune system. Here are a few examples of what our community has to say:
“...I kept getting flus and colds and since I have been taking them I have done really well. No colds or viruses while people around me are dropping like flies... I am much healthier than I was for sure.” - Janine
“After trying to fix my symptoms for the last 5+ years, your Lion's Mane Powder is the one product that has truly made a difference for me. Nothing comes close. Thanks!” - Kyle
“This is an excellent product and the quality is outstanding. Tastes amazing and loving the gut health benefits. Thanks for making such an array of amazing products!” - Nik
See For Yourself
Looking to experience the benefits of these top medicinal mushrooms all at the same time? Try our 5 Mushroom Concentrated Powder, featuring Chaga, Reishi, Lion’s Mane, Cordyceps and Turkey Tail. This blend of 5 functional mushrooms supports whole-body harmony and immune system intelligence.
Targeting specific benefits means diving deeper into the unique healing capabilities that each mushroom has to offer. Discover the unique properties of each mushroom below:
Chaga - Immunity | Antioxidant | Power
Lion’s Mane – Focus | Memory | Nervous System Support
Cordyceps – Stamina | Energy | Stress Support
Turkey Tail – Gut Health | Deep Immunity
Reishi – Adaptogenic | Grounding | Vitality
Click here to learn more about our potent Concentrated Mushroom Powders and feel their benefits for yourself.
