Who we are
Welcome to The Wasabi Company. We're a family-run business with farms in Dorset and Hampshire, specialising in growing and supplying fine Japanese ingredients. We were the first in Europe to successfully cultivate wasabi - and now we supply all kinds of wasabi products to top chefs, retailers and home cooks alike.
Alongside wasabi, we grow a wide range of other Japanese ingredients for online purchase - or you can buy plants to cultivate them at home. You could grow wasabi, citrus trees (such as yuzu), shiso herb, sansho pepper, edamame beans and more - all in your back garden. Our plants and produce are subject to seasonal availability, but we also import high-quality Japanese products that can be purchased year-round.
As well as growing Japanese food ingredients, we have also developed a wide range of award-winning condiments, drinks and seasonings for making Japanese dishes at home. We are thrilled to have won 24 Gold Stars across twelve products we entered in the Great Taste Awards in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022.. Our Wasabi Mustard, Sanbaizu, Vegan Sudachi Kombu Ponzu and Organic White Sesame Oil were given the coveted award of 3 Gold Stars.
Where it all began
Believe it or not, the Wasabi Company started out as a watercress farm. Since the 1850s, watercress has been grown in our Dorset and Hampshire sites - but it wasn't until a chef visited us in 2010 that we thought of switching things up. When he saw our farm, he remarked how the only other crop he had seen growing in similar conditions was wasabi in Japan. That was enough to plant the seed.
We began looking into what it might take to grow wasabi in the UK. We came across many warnings about how difficult it is - in fact, wasabi had never been successfully cultivated in Europe. But luckily for us, watercress and wasabi share a lot of similarities in the conditions they require.
It still took two years and a huge amount of trial and error to bring our first wasabi crop to maturity. Word quickly spread, and our wasabi now reaches many of the top chefs in the UK and Europe. It is prized by sushi chefs serving fresh wasabi with traditional japanese food, as well as those incorporating wasabi into their own style of cooking. When they are available, the wasabi flowers, leaves and stems are all snapped up inspire different culinary creations.
Want to know a bit more about fresh wasabi?
We recently had a visit from @_spicymoustache_ and our founder, Jon, showed him around our Hampshire farm and explained how it grows, how to prepare it and why real wasabi is the real deal. See for yourself:
