Black Fungus Tincture & Alcohol-Free Extract

Black Fungus (Auricularia auricula-judae), the wood ear or jelly ear, is not a plant but a jelly fungus of the Auriculariaceae family, found across Europe, Asia, and North America on dead or dying hardwood, especially elder; the cultivated Chinese wood ear is now separated as Auricularia heimuer. Its fruiting bodies are ear-shaped, 3 to 10 centimeters across, reddish-brown to blackish, velvety outside and smooth within, with a soft, rubbery, gelatinous texture that turns hard and brittle when dried and springs back when soaked. It has almost no flavor of its own and is prized in Chinese cooking for its crunch. We extract the dried fungus.