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​The new power food trend? Pond scum

The blue-green substance may taste strange, but it has plenty of benefits for you.

pond scum power food

And the latest beneficiary of this strange relationship is blue-green algae, otherwise known as spirulina, otherwise known as, well, pond scum.

Indeed, while some may gag at the thought of eating a waving weed residing underneath the sea, it turns out spirulina not only has a range of nutritional benefits, it looks good in a photo, too.

A reporter at Moneyish caught up with Williamsburg, Brooklyn coffee shop owner Madi Murphy, who revealed the secrets of this fishy food, calling it a "magical ingredient." Her coffee shop, The End, has used spirulina to create one of its most popular drinks.

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"It’s definitely our best-selling drink,” she said, “and there’s been a constant uptick as more and more are sold every month.” (It also seems worth noting that The End created their own "Unicorn" beverage in 2016 before Starbucks infamously brought it to the mainstream earlier this year.)

Murphy isn't alone in her endorsement of blue-green algae, either. In 2015, we named seaweed of all varieties—brown, green, blue-green, and red—as one of our six power foods you should be eating. It's loaded with calcium, and is potassium-rich to help you maintain healthy blood-pressure levels. So, while the algae may not taste spectacular (and Murphy does say that it indeed tastes like "pond water in your mouth"), this is one good-looking food that has the benefits to match.

While Murphy and others have been finding creative ways to use it in their dishes, we recommend grinding it up into a powder and sprinkling it on your sushi.

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