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Product Advantage
1. Thick, meaty and with a dome-shaped cap. This Shiitake mushroom is called "Donko" and is picked when budding, so it is meatier than Koshin, bite-size, 33mm-42mm. "Hana-Donko” is our most premium dried Shiitake in terms of taste, texture, and appearance. Our Hana Donko is Forest grown, unlike most others which are house grown and looks good but not as tasty.
2. Premium Forest-grown Shiitake Mushrooms naturally cultivated outdoors on special sweet sap oak logs. Our Shiitake are grown 100% by local farmers on Kyushu, a Southern Island of Japan. Our Shiitake has the most natural Vitamin D, 6880 IU/100g.

3. Japan's most famous cooking school, Hattori Nutrition College, recommends our Shiitake. We minimize Shiitake's moisture content to less than 9% to preserve a premium taste and quality.　Our Forest-grown Dried Shiitake is recognized as the best tasting and provides the most Umami.

PRODUCT INTRODUCTION
"Hana" Donko is our most premium dried Shiitake in terms of taste, texture, and appearance. Most "Hana" Donko you find on the market are house grown. They look good but cannot match the flavor nor the texture of the rare luxury of our natural grown "Hana" Donko. Gift packaged Hana-Donko is a perfect present for your gourmet friends or family, especially during the Chinese New Year!
Sugimoto Premium Forest-Grown dried Shiitake is cultivated locally by 600+ traceability managed growers. The growers use a 1,000-year-old Japanese approach to grow sustainable Sweet Sap Oak (Sawtooth Oak) Tree logs. Our Shiitake are grown on Sawtooth Oak which are in Japan recognized as producing the best-tasting and textured.
Naturally, Forest-grown Shiitake has a distinct and deep flavor with an outstanding firm texture. Forest-grown Shiitake grows slowly when cold winds and natural sunlight quickly dried moisture provided by rain and fog. Each Shiitake has it's own unique climatic exposure, which produces distinctive shapes and colors.
For instance, less moisture touching the surface of the mushroom umbrella creates beautiful white cracking patterns. This type of Shiitake is called "Hana-Donko," which means Flower Shiitake and considered the most delicious with the best aroma. As you can guess, Hana-Donko is very rare in a natural forest environment. They can only grow in specially protected locations (such as underneath logs) where rain will not directly fall on the Shiitake surface. In greenhouses, Hana-Donko can be produced very easily on mixed wood shavings where they can grow quickly, beautiful but not very tasty.

Japanese famous chef, Dr. Yukio Hattori, chose our Shiitake for his traditional Japanese New Year foods "Osechi." He is known as an expert commentator on the Japanese television show "Iron Chef." His cooking school recommends our Shiitake and allow us to use his name on our products.

Our Shiitake is perhaps the only Kosher certified Shiitake that are 100% Forest-Grown. The most strict Orthodox Union approves our factory. ( https://oukosher.org/companies/sugimoto-co-ltd/ )
Kosher certification means Pure Shiitake as with no chemicals or insect egg.
The forest undergoes a 15-years life cycle. In the spring, seedlings will grow from sawtooth oak stumps. Thus, the oak trees on the mountain will regrow after a period of time. Very Sustainable. We use a far-infrared drying approach, which minimizes moisture to less than 9% (others are 12%+) to preserve a premium taste and quality. Our Shiitake has the most natural Vitamin D, 6880 IU/100g, by UVB exposure.

Forest-grown Dried Shiitake contains the largest amounts of Guanylate, which enhances the Umami of Glutamate and creates a much more intense Umami taste. The most abundant amino acids in the natural world are Glutamate. Umami, produced by Glutamate, has a characteristic of becoming seven to eight times stronger through Guanylate of Dried Shiitake. The drying process breaks the Shiitake's cell membrane, and the rehydrating produces Guanylate. Dried Shiitake is a natural Umami booster for home cooking. Forest-grown Dried Shiitake provides the most and deepest Umami flavor.

Tips for Rehydration
For the best results, please soak in cold water for 24 hours in the fridge. To reduce soaking time, take out the Shiitake one hour after you started soaking, remove stem, soak for another hour until soft.

Store dried Shiitake mushroom at room temperature, away from heat and moisture.