The Wasabi Company produces fresh wasabi (whole rhizomes, leaves, stems and flowers) on their own farms in Dorset and Hampshire, making them the first and still the only commercial wasabi grower in Europe. The connection to chalk streams is the whole reason the business exists. The farms have been growing watercress on their spring-fed beds since the 1850s, drawing mineral-rich water from the chalk aquifer around 40 metres below ground. In 2010 a visiting chef remarked that the only other crop he'd seen thriving in conditions like these was wasabi, grown beside the cold, clean mountain streams of Japan. Two years of trial and error later, with 400 plants imported from Japan, the first crop matured. Wasabi rhizomes still take at least 18 months to grow to harvest here, in adapted Victorian watercress beds that recreate the exact conditions the plant needs - conditions that exist almost nowhere else in the world outside Japan's mountain streams and, as it turns out, the chalk streams of southern England. The fresh wasabi now reaches top chefs across the UK and Europe. Alongside it, they produce an award-winning condiment range under the Wasabi Label (mayonnaise, mustard, tartare sauce) and a spirits collaboration with English Spirit (Wasabi Vodka, Shiso Gin, Sansho Spiced Rum, Yuzucello). Twenty-eight Great Taste Gold Stars to date, five at the highest three-star level.

Social Media

https://www.instagram.com/wasabigrowersuk

Can people visit or buy direct?

Buy online via their website with UK delivery (free over £75). Trade accounts are available for chefs, restaurants, retailers and wholesalers.

Website

https://www.thewasabicompany.co.uk

Address Summary

Dorchester, Dorset