Trader Joe's Mushroom & Company Multipurpose Umami Seasoning Blend

Trader Joe's recently released the list of the 10th Annual Customer Choice Awards winners. At this point, I can't lie. Part of my motivation to continue this blog is to find the product that will dethrone the Mandarin Orange chicken from the top spot. Again. Like stop winning so many super bowls already, except Tom Brady is really one of the greats and the Mandarin orange chicken is pretty good but not that good. As for me, I vote for everything but the bagel seasoning every year, for as many categories as I can - because it's the GOAT. It's life-changingly magical and sparks joy! Consider this my disclaimer as I go into reviewing new products for 2019, particularly anything in the seasoning department, like this new trendy-on-social-media thang.

1) This is an absurdly, unnecessarily long product name. You know how in school when you're forced to write an essay on a topic that you know nothing about, you start using flowery language to hide your lack of knowledge on the subject and bulk up the word count? But you have to use vague flowery language to avoid being exposed as a fraud? And then whoever is proofreading or grading your essay crosses out all the fluff in red ink because they see through your shenanigans? This. It's a throwback to that.

2) But to be fair, maybe all the language is necessary to a degree to let the user know that you can treat this as a multipurpose seasoning and use it in theory on anything and that it has more than just mushroom. Fine. 

If you're reading this in 2019 and still haven't heard of umami, it's okay. It gets thrown around a lot, especially in foodie circles, but I don't think many people understand what it is. I'm still trying to understand it myself. Part of the difficulty is that it isn't a simple flavor that's readily identifiable. It shows up in a number of forms, but it's not the food itself that is the essence of umami. Mushroom, parmesan, and soy sauce are all rich in umami but umami does not equate to mushroom, parmesan, and soy. Those foods contain the glutamates and other nucleotides (inosine monophosphate and guanosine monophosphate, thanks Flavor Bombs by Adam Fleischman with Tien Nguyen, p.13) that help us taste savoriness. 

Technical info aside, I've probably known umami all my life, even if I haven't known that I know it. As a savory-oriented person, all my favorite foods have umami. Umami isn't necessarily something that I can see all the time, but it's certainly there and makes food tasty and palatable and craveable.

Full disclosure- I approach this product with a high degree of skepticism. You can't just eat raw meat by itself and get blown away by its umami-ness. You can't just eat a hunk of parmesan or take a bite of miso paste. It has to get worked and cooked and combined with other stuff. Mr. Fleischman and Ms. Nguyen write that searing (hello Maillard reaction), salting (have you seen/read Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat?), and time (all our grandmas know this!) can enhance umami flavor in our food (p.16). All this to say that my gut instinct says one does not simply "sprinkle umami" on one's food.

"And company" in the product name refers to kosher salt, onion flakes, pepper, red pepper flakes, and thyme. Soooo if I learn the lesson of properly salting my food, then my food will have more umami qualities? 

3) TJ's did have an umami paste a few years ago, that apparently flopped and was silently discontinued, maybe because we didn't quite know what to do with it. I suppose a shelf-stable seasoning is easier to use than a refrigerate-after-opening paste. 

I tested this seasoning blend in a variety of ways, including but not limited to:

• Avocado toast a la everything bagel seasoning - Not as good because it's hard to evenly distribute the seasoning when the particles are so small. 
• Steak - Decent if you like mushroom flavor and as long as you salt your steak reasonably well. Plus, you do get a little kick from the red pepper. 
• Mashed potatoes - I find that most mashed potato is under seasoned anyway, even when loaded with butter.
• Savory oatmeal and congee - Tasted fine but better when used in combination with other stuff like scallion and meat. Or in my case, kimchi. 
• Stir-fried veggies - meh. It's aiite. 
• Soup broth - Tasted fine but not anything that salt and actual mushroom can't already produce. 

4) It's not a bad seasoning at all. In some applications, it's pretty good (I liked it best in savory oatmeal and mashed potatoes). You definitely have to like mushroom flavor, although the mushroom flavor comes out more in some applications (ie. steak or pasta) and not others. 

5) It's versatile and "multipurpose," meaning you can use it to cook with and also use it as a finishing seasoning. 

6) Certainly, it's user-friendly but I still think it requires a bit of finesse. You can't always use ONLY this seasoning and expect your food to taste mind-blowingly delicious. Also don't combine it with like a million other seasonings because "more is better" is not how umami works. A combination of umami foods is good, but all the umami foods together in one dish is no bueno. More umami does not beget more umami. So don't go using this seasoning, everything but the bagel seasoning, chile lime, Italian seasoning, and some 21 seasoning salute on the same food. 

7) But you can use this on a variety of foods, a bunch of which I probably have not tried yet, and it'll probably taste good. Which is on brand with Trader Joe's as a retailer - food for people who like to or want to cook but not that much. 

8) I'm all for a great seasoning and anything that can make cooking easier and more enjoyable. But this is overrated IMO. Perhaps an unpopular opinion. I liken this to learning to play an instrument via an iPad app. Maybe after 30 days I can pound some electronic keys or strum some strings and produce a tune, but is it a shortcut that can substitute the muscles and musicality that you acquire from actual lessons and practice? Thankfully cooking doesn't take years and years to master. Anyone can cook y'all - just takes some practice, trial and error, and learning from people who do it for a living, pros and homecooks alike. 

9) Points off for packaging. The mink-cocoa color is not really inspiring anything in the kitchen for me. 

10) $2.99 for this blend is a good price, considering what it would cost to buy all the ingredients to blitz up your own umami seasoning blending. 

11) Share what you make with this because I have to use it up and then say thank U next. 

TL;DR: Trader Joe's Mushroom & Company Multipurpose Umami Seasoning Blend. Instant umami in a jar? Blitzed up kosher salt and mushroom powder taste fine but I'm not convinced. 7 out of 10. Mantou Joe repurchase? Doesn't spock joy, so nope. :P