Jewels of the Forest is a brand owned by Mycolab Solutions, LLC based out of Occidental, CA. They specialize in growing organic mushrooms and sell kits to grow your own shrooms.
Their mushroom jerky is made from oyster mushrooms grown on spent beer grains obtained local breweries. The mushrooms are grown on their own fungi farm, also named "Jewels of the Forest". The jerky is distributed to natural food stores throughout the United States, with most locations in the Northern California area. They can also be ordered online from their website.
The packaging claims this jerky is Non-GMO, certified vegan, gluten-free, and 100% natural.
Ingredients
Organic oyster mushroom (air dried), organic soy sauce, organic cane sugar, organic sesame seeds, organic toasted sesame oil, garlic powder, black pepper.
Review
The first thing my tongue picks up is a sweet, sesame flavor. The mushroom flavor comes in right away and takes over the palate. The chewing brings on a light soy sauce with touches of garlic.
For being named, "Sesame", it certainly does serve up that taste, but mostly in the first few seconds of popping a piece into your mouth. It tends to have a toasted sesame oil flavor, much like what you'd get from a real Chinese restaurant (as opposed to a Americanized chain Chinese).
Otherwise, the primary flavor profile is the mushroom. While not being an expert on mushroom varieties and flavors, it's much like the flavor of a Shiitake mushroom. The seasonings and flavorings are light overall, and seem meant to just enhance the mushroom rather than take it over.
The chewing is "chewy" but still easy to get through. You're not going to wear out your jaws. Each piece is cut into a bite sized portion. They have a little bit of that gummy character at first, but eventually take on a texture much like Shiitake mushrooms, which are little more chewy than typical white mushrooms you find in grocery stores.
Verdict
This Sesame mushroom jerky from Jewels of the Forest does an excellent job in retaining the full flavor of oyster mushrooms while still providing the meaty, chewy snacking that jerky aficionados look for. Thus far, this is the best mushroom jerky we've reviewed. Everything about this product seems simple and natural, and bursts with its own Earthly goodness. If you happen to like mushrooms, and are looking for a meat-alternative, this
Rating: Best (5/5)
nice Need to get me some off this i wonder if they ship to australia
ReplyDelete