This is real wasabi.
Joe: Oh, it's, like, thick.
Whoa!
Hotter than — oh, s---.
It's really spicy, Yuelei.
Oh, but it's good.
[coughs]
And these are wasabi-flavored.
Holy s---, these are hot.
Holy s---.
Welcome to "Flavor Binge."
If you're just here for the binge,
you can skip to the next chapter.
But stick around to find out what wasabi actually is.
Doesn't, does not smell
spicy at all, yeah.
Has a bit of, like, a carrot vibe to it.
Smells nice.
Smells like the stuff you're used to seeing with your sushi,
but maybe a little bit sweeter.
Raw wasab.
Yep, I'm definitely tasting it.
Ooh.
But
that's not how you make wasabi, guys.
Without a grater,
you can't break the cells down properly,
and therefore you're not releasing all the chemicals
to get all of the flavor out of it.
Wasabi stores two molecules in two separate compartments,
which mix when the plant is broken down to activate them,
kind of like snapping a glow stick.
I don't know if I can get a paste off of this,
but I'll try.
[laughs]
Yeah.
Whoa.
It's significantly hotter.
Whoo!
But there's a problem.
Most of the products you buy advertised as wasabi flavor
actually contain little, or even no wasabi.
Some experts have even estimated
that 99% of the wasabi eaten by Americans
is actually fake.
There's two main reasons for that.
One of them you'll have to wait 30 minutes for.
But the other we'll tell you now.
Real wasabi is very expensive.
A kilogram of fresh wasabi can cost up to 250 bucks.
This little piece right here is
52 grams.
What is —
so, wait, how much is that?
This is mostly due to how hard it is to grow.
Wasabi is a super-needy plant.
It can be killed by the slightest change
in temperature or sunlight.
Same.
So what do food producers do instead?
Well, they tend to use horseradish.
It's a plant from the same family as wasabi
with plenty of allyl isothiocyanate.
I've never seen one in person before.
And it looks kind of like a really thick
wizard's wand.
I'm not gonna say the other thing it looks like on camera.
Horseradish is way cheaper than wasabi.
This 200-gram piece cost me £1.85,
or about $2.45.
The same amount of wasabi would cost you $50.
This is the smallest piece they had.
Look at this.
Look how big,
ugh, this thing of horseradish is.
It's like a leg of a baby grand piano.
Let's put it to the test ourselves
and make our own fake wasabi.
It does smell pretty similar to the wasabi did
when I chopped that.
Oh, I felt that.
Do we have a hammer?
Oh, there we go.
It's hard to get a firm grasp on.
[crew laughing]
Stop it. [laughs]
All right.
Rest of this goes right in the trash.
Then we'll add a little bit of mustard.
A couple drops, right?
You think that was too much?
What do you think?
Little too green?
So, here is my homemade fake wasabi.
And it does kind of smell like wasabi.
That's exact — oof.
Ooh, I can feel it in my nostrils.
That's exactly what I would expect.
In both the US and the UK,
you can get a range of wasabi powders and wasabi pastes,
but with varying amounts of actual wasabi in them.
Don't know what we're gonna do with
a kilogram of 2% wasabi powder
after this shoot, but.
The only 100% pure wasabi powder I could find in the UK
was from a website called JustIngredients.
But it cost £844 per kilogram,
so we've decided not to buy that one.
This gigantic bag seems to have zero real wasabi
and only has horseradish and mustard
listed on the label as flavorings.
Ugh.
Woof, it doesn't smell like wasabi.
Yeah, already a much different,
a much more pleasant odor.
And just look at the pot.
You can totally visually tell the difference, right?
The hundy. Oh, yeah.
This, whoa.
It actually smells pretty nice.
That's got the strongest taste of anything I've had so far.
Yeah.
Whoa!
Whoa. 100%?
About as spicy. It was a lot earthier.
Look how happy this guy is. Look at this guy.
He's just thrilled.
He's thrilled to be here.
We all are.
We'll start with this one from S&B,
which contains just 4.5% real wasabi.
That's enough wasabi. Oh, man.
Joe: So, this is the real wasabi.
Oh, it's, like, thick.
Look at that. Look how thick this is.
Whoa!
Hotter than — oh, s---.
It's really spicy, Yuelei.
Oh, but it's good.
It's actually really good.
Then we got this one, from Yutaka,
which contains 5% real wasabi.
I learn nothing.
Mm.
Oh, gosh, that went in my nose.
Yutaka's premium version,
which contains 65% real wasabi,
which is pretty good.
[coughs]
Why does that have crunchy bits in it?
Oh, dear.
I can definitely taste the difference.
I can definitely, I can't believe I'm saying this,
but I can taste the difference.
And this one is way better.
But I do like them both.
Boy, this is really good.
I'm surprised by how much I'm liking this.
Sweet, let's try some wasabi crisps.
I've actually got really high hopes for these.
I feel like wasabi and beef would be a good combination.
We put a lot of horseradish sauce
on our beef in the UK, so this seems pretty good.
Ooh, those smell good.
They smell beefy.
The first thing I get is wasabi,
but then it kind of dissipates pretty quickly,
and then you get this beef.
There's some sweetness to it.
I don't know what's causing that.
Woof!
No.
Wait.
I hate them, but now I kind of like them.
Next up we got these "Demon Slayer" mini snacks,
which I think are little crisps
kind of stacked in a tube.
I don't know what "Demon Slayer" is.
Judging by the guy up here, it's probably an anime,
but let me know if I'm wrong.
Oh, look how little these guys are!
Look at those.
It's kind of like tiny Pringles.
Like mini Pringles.
Weaker wasabi flavor.
Quite a lot of wasabi from that.
This looks like
dried pasta.
See that?
You know, I would've said
sweet and wasabi don't go together,
but they actually kind of do.
So, I think these are very out of date.
I think that they may have gone off in March.
These are Doritos Wasabi Risk 5.0,
which I think are from Turkey.
They don't really smell of wasabi.
And they just kind of look like a standard
nacho-cheese-type Dorito.
Yeah, that was just a cheesy Dorito.
That's anticlimactic.
Turns out, once we translated the bag,
that only a couple of the ones in here
are actually wasabi-flavored and are very spicy.
So I'm going to have to basically
keep eating until I hit one.
Ah, that one was quite wasabi.
Yeah, that tasted like they've tried to put wasabi on it.
Maybe before they went off.
I definitely have got some wasabi flavor
from this bag at some point.
I just can't tell exactly where it's come from,
which is a bit disappointing.
Oh, these look like Cheetos.
Uh-oh.
Whoa!
These are super spicy.
Oh, wow.
But I kind of love them.
Yeah, dude!
Once you get used to the wasabi flavor,
like, that's kind of awesome.
Oh, it's tingling.
That was underwhelming.
Next up is these Koikeya wasabi nori potato chips,
which actually sound really good.
Ooh, great color on these.
Look at this.
That's green boy.
"A subtle combination of soft and sharp wasabi
with a touch of sophisticated mild nori."
Mm.
These are really good.
You get wasabi, but I think they're right,
it's quite a soft wasabi.
I don't even know what this, I don't even know what —
I mean, I'm assuming this is a wasabi guy.
Right?
So these are Korean wasabi snacks.
Ugh.
Take it back. This is actually really good, dude.
Like, we have crab chips.
And we have shrimp chips.
If I can recall, I've never had fish-flavored chips.
This might be the worst thing I've ever tasted.
Yuelei: Oh, my God!
It's little crabs.
Look at these guys.
If I got these regularly,
I would no problem eat this whole bag.
Wasabi wouldn't even slow me down.
Shrimp versus shrimp.
My ears are starting to ring.
I think my body is starting to fight back on wasabi.
Oh, these are like little puffs!
I don't even taste wasabi.
You, I've been looking forward to these.
I've been looking forward to these.
These look like they're popular.
I like the shrimp chips.
Taste the shrimp.
It's like, I mean,
I'm not tasting any wasabi in these, or very little.
Oh, my God.
Puffy.
Puffy crisp.
They're little puffy things!
Look at that.
My only question would be,
why would you serve that in a can
if it's not a Pringle?
Look at that.
It's like a little Cheeto thing.
Here we go.
I mostly get sweetness from those.
I don't know exactly where that's coming from.
There is definitely some wasabi, but also, again,
like, not particularly hot.
Out of all of these,
as far as wasabi balance,
I like these.
These were good.
And what was the one that I insisted you guys have?
This.
All three of these.
Great balance with the wasabi.
Added it in perfectly.
These three are good. Ooh, I'm gonna have
a few more of these.
Crackers and seaweed.
Uh, tempura crisps.
Crunchy and savory seaweed.
Oh, yeah, it says seaweed on here.
See?
No.
Nope,
no.
First up we got these Itsu crispy seaweed thins.
Itsu is a chain in the UK that does Asian food.
That was pretty good.
Wasabi — aw, look how un-fun this is.
Ugh!
It's the seaweed part that I hate, to be honest.
Next up we've got these Ocean's Halo seaweed thins.
I mean, they look identical to the previous ones.
These are very salty, but I get almost no wasabi,
especially compared to the Itsu one.
Why are we doing this?
Is this ... ?
Why are we eating seaweed?
I don't know.
Nope, as bad as the other one.
Then finally we got some Marks & Spencer seaweed thins.
I think these are the most wasabi
of the ones that I've tried.
Probably second place to those.
Last place to those.
Korean. Seaweed snack. Wasabi.
All the seaweed was trash.
Then we're onto some crackers.
It's another Itsu offering.
These ones are prawn crackers with mild wasabi.
I get a very small amount of wasabi.
Honestly, I don't think it's
a worthwhile addition to a prawn cracker.
I think they're already tasty enough as they are.
The first thing I tasted was wasabi,
but that did disappear pretty quickly,
and then it's just kind of nice sweet rice cracker.
Not bad.
Gimme something fun.
Get this horrible seaweed taste out of my mouth.
Ooh!
Yeah.
There's a lot —
holy s---, these are hot.
Holy s---.
Oh! Oh!
I can't have a second one.
Oh!
Ah!
Leon: I think
you don't get to choose how much goes on these.
Harry: Oh, God.
Leon: I think we get to choose.
Harry: Oh, no. I don't want to. I don't like this.
That's far too much!
Are you insane?
Feel like this is revenge
for how difficult I am to work with.
I hate everything about this.
First up,
fat-free wasabi Dijon dressing.
Ugh.
Yes, this cracker's been marinating
in the sauce.
Nope.
Well, I can barely taste wasabi.
Oh, there it is.
It's obviously got the texture of mayo
and the kind of creaminess, but then does still have
a fairly strong wasabi taste coming through.
Not two things your brain kind of
expects to be associated with each other.
For real?
This much?
That's just, like, more mayo
than I want to put in my mouth at one time.
Wasabi mustard.
It's got that —
Jesus Christ.
Oh, no.
Ooh, I don't like that.
Moving on to the wasabi ranch.
[sighs]
I'm getting very little wasabi from these.
I wonder why that is.
Now, the texture of this is bizarre.
It's got all these weird lumps in it.
Like, what is — I don't want that from a sauce.
0.3% wasabi.
So I'm assuming it's not going to be wasabi.
That's not spicy.
It's just unpleasant.
Chunky sauce that tastes very salty.
"A versatile condiment with a," I love this,
"velvety zing."
All right.
Oh, s---.
Oh, wow.
It was velvety!
And it did have a zing!
Hey, Kikkoman copywriters.
You're doing it, guys.
And then last but by no means least,
we have this one, a Wasabi-O hot sauce.
[coughs]
Ugh, man.
Ass Kickin' wasabi hot sauce.
Look at that donkey.
That is an ass that is kickin'.
It also says habanero on here.
Wish I knew that before you dumped
half the bottle on the chip.
Oh, man!
Oh, crap.
Ugh, man.
But I like it.
This goes in the Joe's Spicy Hall of Fame.
[cheering]
Whoa.
This is a maybe. I'm not gonna —
yeah, I'll put this in there.
[cheering]
These were kind of all bad.
I don't think I would eat any of these
out of choice in the future.
I'd say the wasabi mayo and the hot sauce
were maybe, like, a 2 out of 5.
And these ones were both, like,
a 1 out of 5.
How do I look? Do I look like I'm ... ?
I feel like I'm losing a fight.
♪ Peas and nuts ♪
♪ Gonna try a bunch of ♪
♪ Peas and ♪
Let's do a lightning-round-style ranking
of all of these by spice.
5 out of 10.
1 out of 10.
6 out of 10.
What's that word right there?
I know this is supposed to be a lightning round.
What's that word? What's that word? Read that aloud for me.
Yuelei: Hot. Joe: Hell no.
I'm gonna give that a 0.
2 out of 10.
Wasabi edamame.
0! What is happening here?
7 out of 10.
Wasabi almonds.
0.5.
5 out of 10.
Wasabi-coated peanuts.
F---.
I'll give those guys an 8.
2 out of 10.
4 out of 10.
5 out of 10.
3 out of 10.
I'll give that a 1.
I think I could easily handle 10 wasabi peas at once.
10's nothing.
I'll do 20.
[crunching]
Come on, come on, come on! Get hot!
If I put 15 to 20 of these in my mouth at once
that ups the scale to, like, a 4.
Here we go now.
A handful.
Oh, f---.
Oh, s---.
That caught me off guard.
Oh, s---.
I almost peed myself a little 'cause it's so spicy.
Oh, man.
Now we're heading into some of the more
weird and wonderful wasabi-flavored snacks out there,
and, boy, do we have some surprising combinations.
I'll start with a banger,
which is wasabi cheese.
It smells quite, quite heavily of wasabi.
It's extremely rubbery, like super plasticky,
and has that very, quite threatening
green wax on the outside.
Yeah, that's, um.
It's not for me, I don't think.
It's just, like I said,
got the texture of quite a rubbery cheese
with a fairly strong wasabi aftertaste.
Not really spicy.
Just that kind of earthiness
that you would maybe get from actual wasabi.
I too also ordered the wasabi cheese.
It has not arrived.
I received an email a couple days ago
telling me that it's not going to get here until February.
But what I did get is this.
Vegan jerky.
Wasabi-flavored.
I don't want this at all.
Meatless jerky, we did it!
[sighs]
[whispering] It doesn't smell good.
It smells — I know you can hear me
'cause you have headphones on —
this smells real bad.
Oh, God, I hate this.
Meatless vegan jerky is terrible.
And no wasabi flavor in that at all.
Next up we have this one.
It's Mike popcorn, and it's wasabi-soy-sauce-flavored.
My hands are so greasy from the cheese.
Hm.
That's actually quite pleasant.
That's pretty nice.
Calling this the mystery bag.
I saw Harry also had it.
So I don't know what I bought and what this is.
Local translator Yuelei Song is saying
that this is fire-flavored.
Let's find out together.
I don't know what this is.
Uh-huh.
Yep.
Ooh-argh!
Man!
Aah.
Yeah, it's hot.
That goes in the hall of fame.
[cheering]
Now, these ones with this very alarming packaging
with the big warning label
are Frito-Lay Forbidden Wasabi spicy snacks.
These do kind of look like Cheetos.
They also kind of look like Nik Naks,
which were a specific British brand of crisps.
Let's give it a try.
OK.
Yeah, wow.
I can see why these are forbidden.
That's pretty strong.
Whoo!
Yeah, those are good.
Those are actually spicy.
We're moving into the wasabi and sweets,
wasabi and chocolate zone,
with, first, this just says Jackie's Chocolates.
Jackie, if you're watching, thank you for your chocolates.
Jackie, I've been eating wasabi all day,
so maybe that's it, but,
next to no wasabi in this.
But what have I learned from before?
If you can't taste the wasabi,
just shove a bunch more in your mouth.
Now, with slightly less alarming packaging
but also supposedly very spicy,
are these Raging Fire wasabi crackers.
That seems like a waste of packaging.
Lots of plastic here.
Mm.
[coughs]
[laughs]
Woo-hoo!
Wow, OK.
We might have a winner.
We might have a 10.
Those are powerful. Wow!
Leon: Harry, throw it to me.
[crew laughing]
Hells to the yeah.
Wasabi Kit Kats.
I'm intrigued to see how wasabi meshes with chocolate,
so let's give it a go.
All right, go, Joe.
Oh. [muffled] This is really good!
Mm!
I mean,
it's delicious.
I can't quite explain why.
This might be the best-tasting thing.
And of course we have this,
wasabi shampoo.
If you watch "Food Wars"
and you thought in this episode,
"Man, Joe's hair is looking a little bit nicer.
Scalp's looking a little bit healthier,
a little more bounce to that guy.
What's going on?"
Your eyes do not deceive you.
I've spent at least the last week,
this long,
using wasabi shampoo in this very head of hair,
and I gotta say, it's pretty nice.
Doesn't really smell wasabi-like, but yeah.
I honestly have no idea
how to incorporate this into the video, but,
there was a film called "Wasabi" starring Jean Reno,
and I just thought it was worth mentioning.
Yeah, I got it too.
"Wasabi," the movie.
I don't know anything about it.
I haven't seen it.
I don't know what else to say.
That means it's time to talk about the second reason
as to why all your wasabi is fake.
So, yeah, in just 30 minutes,
our wasabi has gone from that lovely
vibrant green paste to this.
It's kind of a slightly sad-looking
yellow and brown crusty little blob.
And it has almost no odor.
That's really weird.
Nope, nothing.
That's wild.
There's so little, little flavor to that. Wow.
Wow, it's flavorless.
Like, it's not even kind of wasabi-ish.
Completely flavorless. Wow.
There are a couple of ways around this volatility,
like how some of the powders from earlier
were freeze-dried to preserve the flavor.
But if you're at a restaurant,
unless you're seeing a rhizome being grated
right in front of you,
you're probably eating fake wasabi.
I am sick of wasabi. Are we done yet?
Not yet, Joe.
We've got one more surprise up our sleeves for you.
Oh, OK. Back in a second.
[cheering]
Cool.
Is that too much?
Charlie: Uh ... we'll see.
I'm back. The crew has set this up.
I know very little about what is in any of these.
I'm assuming some kind of
wasabi-based surprise is in one of them,
but we're going to find out.
I'm going to pick one and eat it.
Wish me luck.
Oh, spicy.
[mumbling]
Ugh.
Oh!
F---.
Oh!
Oh, my God, it's so bad.
Ugh.
Oh, f---.
Oh, my God.
Ugh.
Thanks for watching. If you enjoyed this,
check out our "Fast Food Chemistry" episode
where I made popcorn chicken using 42 ingredients.