Fresh California Wasabi Rhizome – Daruma Variety

Our Daruma variety of wasabi is hydroponically grown on the California Coast. Not quite as spicy as the Japanese varieties, Daruma is perfect for the wasabi novice. Mild in flavor, this wasabi grates into an ivory-white paste.

Though most regard wasabi as a familiar flavor, it is a wildly rare ingredient to come upon in its true form. The reason for this is simple: wasabi is one of the world’s most difficult and expensive plants to cultivate, and these costs are almost impossibly high if aspiring toward a commercial, cost-effective scale. Wasabi requires an extremely particular perennial climate – moderate temperature, shelter from direct sunlight, seasonally high humidity, and a consistent supply of clean, flowing water without stagnation. These conditions are most classically exemplified in certain pockets of the Japanese mountains, but even there, it takes years for a single stem to progress from seed to harvestable crop.