Umamo's formal name is Aurantiochytrium.
It is a minute seaweed, a kind of what is commonly called "algae".
It normally lives in places such as the underside of mangrove leaves that have fallen onto the water,
growing as it absorbs the nutrients that drift past.
We are the first in the world to succeed in growing this alga so that it is "good to eat".
The natural ingredient with the highest umami-compound content is, for now, Rausu kombu.
The alga we have grown, however,
contains more than 1.5× as much umami compound.
Hence, Umamo.
It is a new Okinawan ingredient marked by a rich umami like that of bottarga (karasumi).
There are mainly 5 kinds of umami compound*2.
Most umami ingredients, such as kombu and mushrooms, contain one of those in concentration.
Umamo, however, contains 3 of the umami compounds in exceptionally high concentration.
That is precisely why it yields a taste you would never think came from a single ingredient:
complex and concentrated.
Umami is not the only thing that is concentrated.
Umamo contains 13× the DHA of mackerel and 10× the GABA of tomatoes.
Nutrients that are hard to come by
are taken in while you simply enjoy eating — that is the kind of ingredient Umamo is.
Note: Figures given in mg / 100g.
*1 Glutamic acid
*2 The 5 kinds break down as follows. The item in parentheses is a representative ingredient.
Glutamic acid (kombu), inosinic acid (meat), guanylic acid (mushrooms), succinic acid (shellfish), aspartic acid (asparagus)
