Expo West 2024 SUGIMOTO SHIITAKE Most Powerful & Natural Umami Booster!

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Expo West 2024 SUGIMOTO SHIITAKE Most Powerful & Natural Umami Booster!

Sugimoto Shiitake Powder is recognized globally for providing the most Powerful, Natural, and Healthy Umami Booster. It amplifies the flavor of all foods without adding a Shiitake taste, and it can be used daily with any meal. We are the most popular on Japanese Internet Search and the top Amazon Shiitake seller.

Our premium mushrooms have been proven to provide the strongest Umami Boosters, the highest levels of Adaptogens + Vitamin D, and are 100% Natural & Sustainable.
Michelin's top chefs, eateries, home cooks, and users all recognize and support our shiitake products on a global scale.

The Healthiest & Safest Mushroom Powder with Deepest Umami Available

The mushroom and shiitake powder products sold by our competitors are artificially grown on sawdust composites. Shiitake grown in hothouses results in questionable hygienic conditions, with inferior taste, umami, and texture. Our Premium Forest Grown Shiitake is 100% sustainably grown outdoors on natural logs by our local Japanese cultivators. We have organic and kosher certification. Learn more <= Click!

The Best Japanese Quality & Craftsmanship

Please click below for rave reviews and testimonials we have received.

New York, Sen Restaurant <= Video

Amsterdam, Ramen Impossible <=Video
Why go plant-based with ramen? / Shiitake powder impression / What should plant-based cuisine be? / The potential of dried Shiitake / How do we communicate with customers? /
Japan, Tonkatsu Kirishima <= Video
Amazing taste transformation / Why not try on our Tonkatsu? / But only my Son disagreed / Son's reaction / Applying Shiitake powder / Customer Reactions / Reduces salt /

Why SUGIMOTO SHIITAKE is EXCEPTIONAL.

1) The best Japanese-tasting and textured shiitake comes from Takachiho, grown naturally on Japanese Sweet Oak.

2) 600+ local families hand-craft their shiitake using a 1,000-year-old sustainable cultivation tradition

3) Healthiest:

Nourished only by 100% natural moisture & nutrients
No chemicals or artificial preservatives used
Contains powerful Umami, Adaptogens, Ergothioneine, the Highest Vegan Vitamin D
Deep Umami flavor reduces Salt use by 10%.

4) Promotes a strong local community and economy

Circular Economy & Way of Life
Bridges a local traditional heritage in a modern global society.

5) Agro-business will not copy. Too costly & time-consuming.

1) The Best Japanese Tasting & Textured Shiitake comes from Takachiho and is grown naturally on Sweet Oak.

Japanese Sweet Oak provides the best Shiitake growing medium. In the special microclimates of Takachiho, our Shiitake slowly absorbs moisture and minerals from the oak logs to produce deeper tastes and texture, deeper Umami and other healthy elements. This mountainous region is cooler and receives less rain and more fog than other areas.

In the middle of Kyushu, at Takachiho, we grow the most Japanese sweet oak trees in Japan. Takachiho-go is Japan's oldest recorded growing region, where Shiitake has grown wild since ancient times.

In the mornings of autumn and winter, a sea of clouds forms, and the surrounding fog blesses the shiitake mushrooms, enhancing their sweet flavor and texture.

Best Tasting, Healthy & Safe. Our Shiitake amps up the taste of all cuisines!

2) We support 600+ Local families who hand-craft their Shiitake using a 1,000-year-old sustainable cultivation tradition

Over 600 local farmers using a 1,000-year-old cultivation technique ensure i) 100% oak regrowth and ii) regular thinning, which increases undergrowth biodiversity and CO2 absorption while reducing erosion and improving water quality.

To minimize their risk, we buy each farmer's complete Shiitake harvest upfront and in cash. Our growers are also facing an aging issue, which can require our help when hard labor is required. We will assist by working with our local disability associations to provide additional support. The Japanese Government has recognized our efforts by awarding us the 2020 Sustainability Award.

Our growers are dedicated to harvesting the best quality shiitake while promoting a local way of life and heritage. The growers cut wild oak trees into logs and cure the logs before introducing shiitake spawn for a two-season harvest. The logs will last 5-7 years before they are replaced, and the wild oak grows back naturally in 15 years.

The periodic cutting of trees helps promote better plant undergrowth and water quality. Growers carefully tailor their harvest to meet different weather and microclimate conditions. Our Shiitake depends on a strong local community harnessing and protecting the powers of nature. Our growers take tremendous pride in producing the best-tasting & highest-quality Shiitake.

Our Sustainability Initiatives <= Click!

3) Contains powerful Umami & Adaptogen, Ergothioneine, Highest VitaminD, & reduces Salt Use

Did you know that only Dried Shiitake, not fresh, and most other natural foods contain a powerful 3rd Umami, Guanylate (ours 6X vs. other similar Chinese products). Guanylate is strengthened when Shiitake mushrooms are grown naturally & slowly with little moisture.

We can provide reports on the high content of Adaptogens and Vitamin D in our mushrooms.

Our shiitake powder was also recently discovered to contain 77 mg/100 g of natural ergothioneine, the second highest concentration after golden oyster mushroom (Pleurotus cornucopiae var. citrinopileatus), which is a potent antioxidant!

Our shiitake powder not only makes our dishes more delicious, but it is also very healthy!

The Japan Forest-based Products Association website, a Japanese semi-government organization, has also investigated and reported on the benefits of dried Shiitake mushrooms.

Key Findings:
1. Promotes bone growth
2. Lowers cholesterol and blood pressure
3. Inhibitors of platelet aggregation
4. Provides antioxidants
5. Inhibits liver damage
6. Inhibits tumor formation
7. Helps prevent influenza

The in-factory UV-B drying process increases the Vitamin D content (the highest of all-natural foods) while preventing foreign contaminants. Our Shiitake has Organic & Kosher certifications.

It might be apparent but often overlooked that the lack of chemicals and pesticides in our forest-grown Shiitake raises the probability of spoilage. We need our growers to dry the shiitake within six hours of harvesting. The growers dry the shiitake in hot air to preserve its freshness and quality. After that, we use a second drying process at the factory with far-infrared rays and UV-B.
Our process reduces moisture by <9% (vs. competitors' 12-15%), ensuring we provide and preserve the highest quality.
The Umami of Shiitake cannot be fully produced by sun-drying alone. For this reason, historically, growers used a second wood-fired and charcoal-fired drying method. SUGIMOTO's original far-infrared drying process is a modern innovation to improve Dried Shiitake's taste, texture, quality, and health benefits.
Moisture content is the most important element in controlling the quality. The flavor and quality will quickly deteriorate if it is not kept dry.
Our company has achieved zero insect eggs using only heating and sorting techniques. We are the only company in the world whose pesticide-free, forest-grown Shiitake has received kosher certification.

4) Promotes a Strong Local Community and Economy

Promotes a Circular Economy & Way of Life
Bridging a traditional heritage in a modern global society

5) Too time-consuming & costly for Agro-business to copy

The best quality Shiitake requires intensive tailoring to produce the optimal blend of flavor, texture, and health benefits. Our growers take great pride in selecting plots that maximize sunshine, shade, moisture, and wind exposure to slowly nurture their mushrooms. Moreover, they make detailed adjustments depending on changing weather patterns by providing more shade, moving the log positioning, adjusting the harvesting, and needing to dry within 6 hours after picking. All without adding chemicals, fertilizers, or direct watering. The local cultivators understand the need for different timings to cut the trees, aging the trees before cutting into smaller logs, and when to innoculate the logs with Shiitake spawn. This type of tailoring is time-consuming and requires much more detailed work, which is unsuited for a larger agro-business mass production approach.

6) Dried Shiitake contains a powerful, lesser-known 3rd Umami

Dried Shiitake boosts the powerful, safe Natural Umami with or without adding a Shiitake flavor. Lab-produced MSG adds a standard manufactured, bland, and sometimes harsh Umami taste. Forest-grown Shiitake enhances the naturally rich umami flavor of every food ingredient.

Glutamates are naturally present in all foods, and dried shiitake mushrooms yield a unique umami-enhancing compound called Guanylate.

The natural Umami of each ingredient, such as tomatoes, carrots, dairy products, meat, and seafood, is further amplified. Each food element becomes richer in Umami, creating an elegant symphony of flavors.

The presence of the Guanlyates of Dried Shiitake causes us to taste the Umami of Glutamate with an even deeper flavor because our tongues have receptors that detect the 5th Taste of Umami.
A much more subtle and milder earthy flavor can be achieved with dried Shiitake. To remove or alter the taste of Shiitake in your food while keeping a high umami content, you can add or remove shiitake powder.

Discover the difference between the flat, harsher Umami taste of artificial MSG and the distinctive harmony of Natural Umami flavors from Shiitake powder.
Only dried and rehydrated Shiitake produce Guanylate, a natural Umami booster.

7) Drying makes it taste better.

Shiitake is a mushroom that tastes better dried than fresh. Shiitake's drying and rehydrating process produces the rare Guanylate, which boosts the Umami taste of other ingredients. The rehydrated water becomes a broth/"Dashi," which can be used in many ways to improve food flavor and Umami taste.

Most other (especially from China) rehydrated dried Shiitake broth cannot be used as a Dashi. The taste is too harsh, and the chemicals and bleaches used to clean and whiten their mushrooms can be a health risk.

8) Boosts the natural Umami of other ingredients
We experience the umami taste when glutamate reaches the tongue's umami receptors. Guanylate locks in the Umami taste receptors, making the Umami taste longer and stronger.

Glutamate is abundant in various foods, but Guanylate is only found in very few foods, such as dried Shiitake mushrooms.