DRIED NATTO DIET SUPPORT BEANS - WASABI

I only recently learned about the potential health benefits of nattokinese on arterial health, and I started taking natto supplements. These natto beans at least imply some health benefits ("diet support beans"), but right away I will say that the high price of these make them impractical if you use them primarily for health reasons. Don't get me wrong - they taste pretty good. This was my first time trying dry natto beans, and they look to me like small peanuts. They arecrunchy and fresh, but be careful of the wasabi flavor. I like wasabi, but I definitely have to put on the brakes if I eat too many at the same time, as the flavor can get intense. Beforehand I was kind of thinking these might be like eating dry edamame beans, but in my opinion, these natto beans taste much better.

Dry natto is fermented soybeans that have been dried and roasted into a crunchy snack format, which is a very different experience from fresh natto. Fresh natto is sticky, pungent, and polarizing even among Japanese people. The dry version tones that down considerably but the flavor is still distinctly funky, earthy, and fermented in a way that genuinely has no close Western equivalent. If this is your first encounter with natto in any form, repulsive is a fair first reaction and not an exaggeration. It is very much an acquired taste and most people need several exposures before it clicks, if it ever does. The wasabi seasoning adds a mild heat on top of that base flavor which makes it even more of a sensory experience right out of the gate.

A totally different animal from this brand's cookies, but just as easy to like. These are dried natto beans, so if the word "natto" makes you picture the sticky, stringy, aggressively funky stuff, relax. Drying it out tones all of that way down. What you actually get is a light, crunchy little bean about the size of a peanut, approachable even if you've never gone near natto before.

The wasabi is the headline. It's a genuinely powerful punch up front, the real sinus-tickling kind, but it fades fast and doesn't linger or overstay its welcome. That makes it read as bold and fun rather than punishing. If you like wasabi you'll be grinning; if you're heat-shy, just go a few at a time and you're fine.

I've never had natto, so it was very interested to try this and wasn't sure what to expect. I've seen photos of it enough to know that it can be very stringy and gloppy, but this particular version was dry, which I appreciated. Imagine very small soybeans about the size of peanuts each, with an interesting but not off putting smell, and a wasabi powder coating. Very nice crunch, and that wasabi is no joke! It tastes exactly what it should, and to me seemed like a pretty concentrated dose. The packaging recommends 10 beans a day, and I can see why! So far, I'm digesting these pretty easily as I usually do with beans and wasabi, and it's easy to tell that these were packed fresh. Very unique and high quality item, making that a great value to me even if the price point is fairly debatable. My only concern is that the wasabi itself is kind of a distraction, given the concentration, so somebody who is a big fan will like it and somebody who is not will have a different opinion, I'm sure.

I have been on a bit of a fermented food journey lately, and was excited to try natto. Because I have only ever seen pictures of traditional natto, I went into this expecting the notoriously sticky, stringy, and heavily funk-tastic scent/flavor associated with fermented soybeans. Instead, because these are dried, this natto is a snack much more in the vein of a toasted nut. I was a bit disappointed to find that I couldn't detect any of that funky fermentation aroma or flavor at all. Aside from the seasoning, it really just tasted like any other toasted nut with a lighter, crispy crunch.