Mourish – Sichuan Peppercorn Mushroom Bites

Bitter: ⭐⭐⭐⭐✰

Salty: ⭐⭐⭐⭐✰

Sour/Tangy: ✰✰✰✰✰

Sweet: ⭐⭐⭐✰✰

Umami: ⭐⭐⭐✰✰

Heat: ⭐✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰

Quick Flavor Notes: Sweet, earthy, salty, dirt

Recommended: No

Texture: super dry chewy and chalky

Ingredients: Lion’s Mane Mushrooms, Morel Mushroom Mycelium, Texturized Pea Protein, Sunflower Oil, Apple Juice Concentrate, Soy Sauce (Water, Non-GMO Soy, Salt, Rice), Cayenne Pepper, Sichuan Pepper, Rice Protein, Psyllium Husk, Black Pepper, Salt, Horseradish

Mourish, which was founded in 2020, focuses on vegan snacks based on mushrooms. I’m not sure if the company’s name is a play on “More-ish” (a Britishism meaning something is so good you want more of it) or Mushrooms and Nourish. The owner says that he decided to go all in on mushroom based snacks after watching a documentary on animal factory farming and deciding he could do something better. Always being on the lookout for some interesting new spicy snacks and being a fan of mushrooms and Sichuan flavors I was excited to give these a try.

The first ingredient of these, Lion’s Mane Mushrooms, are an interesting mushroom in that they look quite hairy (mush like a lion’s mane). They’re common in northern latitudes and are considered to be one of the more nutritious and delicious mushrooms out there, with some saying they have a flavor and texture similar to lobster and crab. Next comes Morel mushroom mycelium. Morels are known as one of the most culinarily sought after, as well as one of the most expensive, mushrooms in existence. They almost always have to be foraged wild as they’re almost impossible to cultivate. These mushrooms bites however don’t use actual morel mushrooms, they use their mycelium, which is the root-structure predecessor to the mushrooms themselves. Mourish says that the mycelium is more nutrition packed than the actual mushrooms (and I imagine it’s also much much cheaper). These include two plant proteins – textured pea protein and rice protein, both made by mechanically or chemically separating the natural proteins of those plants from their starches and fibers. Apple juice is added for sweetness. While this does say that it includes Sichuan pepper and soy sauce, two ingredients that would help support the flavor profile stated on the bag, these also contain cayenne pepper and horseradish, two ingredients not usually found in a Sichuan flavor profile (nor is apple juice for that matter).

Texturally these are very firm and very dry. Typically Sichuan snacks tend to have some oil present on the surface or in the bag, and despite these saying they have oil in the ingredients they’re incredibly spongy with no visible oil, almost the texture of rubber pencil erasers. The aroma also has no links to Sichuan food or Chinese food of any variety. The apple aroma comes through the most along with some spices that make them smell more like spice cookies. That visible texture and aroma carry through to the flavor. They’re chalky and chewy in the mouth and seem to suck any moisture you have inside of your mouth right out. The sweetness comes through right away along with saltiness and the cayenne burn. There’s just the barest barest hint of the Sichuan peppercorn numbing sensation and if I wasn’t looking for it I would have likely not even noticed it was there. There is an earthy flavor from the mushrooms but one that also turns much more dirt-like on the aftertaste. The cayenne in these doesn’t bring much flavor to the table either, no fruity or vegetal pepper flavor, just a non-descript heat that lingers along with the dirt aftertaste of these. Overall these are an unpleasant mix of cloying sweetness and saltiness mixed with earthiness that turns bad and heat that doesn’t come with chile flavor and the lack of anything even remotely resembling Sichuan or Asian flavors in general.

Needless to say I can’t recommend Mourish Sichuan Peppercorn Mushroom Bites. While I commend the company on wanting to make sustainable and healthy plant-based snacks, they need to go back to the drawing room on these both in terms of flavor and texture and both are very much sub-par.