Taking New Zealand's Native Horopito and Kawakawa Herbs To The World

Left - Forest Gourmet's Horopito Bush Pepper being used by one of Japan's national award winning Sushi chefs.

 

From the beginning Forest Gourmet has worked to make some of New Zealand's most unique flavours available to people around world. We're regularly sending out parcels to customers in the USA and Australia, and a whole range of other countries as we get orders (Canada, Germany, Netherlands, Saudi Arabia are just some examples).

Now in early 2024 we've undertaken a research and sampling trip to Japan - focusing on getting feedback for our dried Horopito pepper and dried Kawakawa herb ingredients.

We had already received positive feedback from Japanese people living in New Zealand, but this was a chance to visit and talk with owners of food businesses in Japan - whether that be a cafe in Tokyo, or a national award winning Sushi chef in his destination sushi restaurant.

Apart from the inspiration of seeing some of their experiments of trialing horopito or kawakawa with Japanese cuisine, it has also sowed some idea seeds of some other herb mixes or rub mixes we can offer with a horopito pepper base - watch this space.