Luxury items
with a story.
Anybody can print single origin. We can tell you the valley, the grower and the week it was cut.
Eight lines, ten regions,
and
the one we cannot disclose yet.
Every line is traced to the prefecture that ships it, because the prefecture is what decides the product. Hokkaido water is colder than Kyushu water. Uji finishes tea grown across four prefectures. Shizuoka and Nagano together ship 93 percent of Japan's water grown wasabi.
- Japanese WagyuMiyazakiSouth east Kyushu, and the establishment named on the quote.
- Japanese Kobe BeefHyogoTajima country, in the mountains north of Kobe. The certification requires the animal to be born, raised and slaughtered inside this one prefecture, which is why the map has a single pin.
- Japanese WasabiShizuoka, NaganoThe two prefectures that ship 330 of Japan's 354.8 tonnes of water grown rhizome, which is 93 percent of the national crop.
- Japanese ScallopHokkaidoThe Okhotsk coast, in the far north east. The fishery is the northernmost thing we buy and the coldest water.
- Japanese MatchaKyoto, Aichi, KagoshimaUji in Kyoto, Nishio in Aichi, and Kagoshima, which are three different trades rather than three sources of one thing.
- Japanese HamachiKagoshima, NagasakiFarmed in the warm water off southern Kyushu.
- Japanese AppleAomoriThe top of Honshu, which grows over half of Japan's apple crop.
- Japanese SakeNot named yetNo brewery is fixed. Sake is on request, and until a maker is chosen there is nowhere honest to put a pin.
Japan also decides where we may not buy. MAFF codes wasabi for plant quarantine and prohibits its export from the Amami, Ogasawara, Ryukyu, Tokara and Volcano islands, none of which are drawn here. Tokyo Prefecture administratively includes Ogasawara, so Tokyo grown wasabi has to be confirmed mainland before it can be offered.
Our five question method.
We do not appoint a producer from a directory. Somebody goes, and asks the things a catalogue will never tell you.
- One
What is the growing method?
Water grown or field grown. Hand cut or machine. Processed ashore or at sea. These change the product more than any grade on a label does.
- Two
What can you ship in a year?
Not what you could grow. What you can actually put on a pallet, in the months you can put it there.
- Three
What happens in a bad season?
Who gets cut first. If the answer is the newest customer, we would rather know now than in February.
- Four
Do you already sell internationally?
A producer already shipping abroad has paperwork habits. One who is not will need help, and we would rather budget for that than discover it.
- Five
Can you formally verify this?
Grade, count, net against gross, glaze, and whether the count is guaranteed. A producer who will not write it down is not a producer we can quote.
To deliver you the best service.
The prefecture and, where it is meaningful, the valley or the fishery. Recorded against the lot, not against the product line.
How it was grown, caught or made, and by whom. Stated on the quote so a buyer can repeat it to a chef.
Against the producer's own grading, with the count or size band written down and the tolerance agreed.
Net against gross, and the glaze percentage on anything frozen. A price on gross weight is not a price.
The carriage temperature agreed in writing before booking, with a logger in the box where the lane is new.
The export documents the destination actually requires, confirmed against that country, not assumed from the last one.
We will tell you when not to buy.
Every line on our page has months where it is at its best and months where it is not. Wasabi grown through a hot summer carries disease loss somebody pays for. Scallop prices rise when the catch falls, and the catch has fallen two years running. A supplier who quotes you the same number in February and July is either not watching or not telling you.
Our promise to you.
- You will know whose food it is. The producer, the prefecture and the method are on the quote, and they are the same ones on the paperwork that arrives with the box.
- You will see the grade before you buy it. A sample is drawn from the grade you would actually take, because a sample of anything else proves nothing to either of us.
- You will be told when not to buy. Every line has months when it is wrong, and we would rather lose the order than sell you a bad one.
- You will get it in writing. Grade, count, net against gross, glaze and the carriage temperature, agreed before anything moves rather than argued after it lands.
What leaves Japan this month.
Once a month: the prices that moved, the reason they moved, and what we can allocate before it is spoken for. Written for people who buy, by the people doing the buying.
Buyers and distributors only. We do not sell the list and you can leave in one click.