Real Wasabi, LLC, founded in January 2005, is a pioneering grower and manufacturer of products derived from authentic Wasabi Japonica, the nutrition-rich, flavorful and versatile condiment loved throughout Japan and Asia for hundreds of years. Brand: Real Wasabi Product: Wasabi Rhizome The faux wasabi that American sushi-eaters add to their soy sauce is often composed of horseradish, mustard, food coloring and artificial flavoring. To introduce Americans to the authentic plant, this South Carolina startup is growing and selling wasabi rhizomes, which you can grate or mash into genuine wasabi paste. The company also sells ground wasabi and wasabi-flavored nuts and salad dressings. Trus wasabi, grown from the Wasabia japonica plant, produces a much milder heat and more complex flavor according to Doug Lambrecht, owner and founder of Real Wasabi, LLC. Lambrecht's company grows the wasabi plant at their farm in Cullowhee, and they create products designed to introduce wasabi to the American palate. "It's a versatile flavor that complements a lot of things, " Lambrecht says. " Its a rounder and fuller flavor, and the heat dissipates very quickly, leaving a sweet taste in the back of your mouth." Growers use every leaf and stem from the wasabi plant, but the most valued portion is known as the rhizome-the thick underground stem. Inside the rhizome are all the rich nutrients that give the plant ist distinctive flavor. Growing wasabi can be tricky. Because of its love for cold, damp climates, there are few places in North America capable of growing the plant. The best tasting plants, sawa wasabi, thrive in gravel beds flooded with pure spring water. Lambrecht expected the mountains of Western North Carolina could provide ideal conditions for this type of cultivation, and Real Wasabi was born. He and his business partner, Brooks Quinn, traveled to Japan in 2005 to learn the best techniques for growing the plant straight from the source. Back home he "put some plants in the stream and they thrived, " he says. Lambrecht and other wasabi farmers who supply his company are only a handful of wasabi growers in North America and the only growers of sawa wasabi in the states. Certified Organic, Real Wasabi's products include dressings, sauces, powders and wasabi flavored nuts, all of which can be used to create a variety of dishes from wasabi chicken saute' to mashed potatoes. Real Wasabi LLC founding partners Doug Lambrecht and Brooks Quinn are growing and importing the hot and spicy condiment traditionally used in Japanese cuisine and processing and marketing it in several products, including salad dressings and finishing sauces. The year-old business just moved from Hilton Head Island to Persimmon Street off Bluffton Parkway. The partners are on a mission to build a sustainable business, but they're also obsessive about getting the word out about authentic wasabi. Most of the wasabi you get is nothing more than horseradish, mustard and green food coloring, said Lambrecht, the marketing force behind the business and the co-owner with his wife Renee of a wasabi-growing farm in North Carolina. Authentic wasabi is a wonderful herb, and more and more research is showing that it is a super-food, that it has medicinal values. We hope to be successful in the food industry with wasabi, but we also want to educate, to continually update information about wasabi as it becomes available and create a scientific clearinghouse and database, he said. Lambrecht, a long-time fan of sushi and sashimi ( the real sushi, or raw fish ), met Quinn at a sushi bar. We both were in our own businesses he's a landscape architect and I'm an investment management consultant. We shared an appreciation of sushi and authentic wasabi and saw an opportunity to do something unique. The pair decided to start the business and launched Real Wasabi, LLC in January 2005. Real Wasabi products include the powdered wasabi in three container sizes, three wasabi-based dressi
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