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Turning flavour up to 11. Honest Umami’s expansion into independent speciality retail

Updated: 3 days ago

At Gourmet Partners, we work with some of the most exciting and original brands in food and drink—and right now, one brand is changing the way the UK thinks about flavour: Honest Umami.


Founded in 2024, Honest Umami makes a range of MSG based seasoning blends that “turn flavour up to 11.” Their goal is simple but revolutionary: make MSG honest, desirable, and accessible. Using clean, plant-based ingredients and no additives or euphemisms, they’ve created a series of products that enhance the flavour of any meal without overpowering it.


It’s a flavour revolution—and we’re here for it.



MSG, the underrated ingredient that everyone’s already eating


MSG (monosodium glutamate) is the purest form of glutamate, the compound that gives foods like tomatoes, mushrooms, and parmesan cheese their addictive savoury depth. Despite decades of misinformation, science has always been on its side:


“The biggest old wives’ tale is that MSG is bad for you. That is complete and utter nonsense. Glutamate is a really important element of taste.”— Heston Blumenthal, three Michelin-starred chef, owner of The Fat Duck
“I think it’s time to stand up and be counted. There’s no reality in the idea that MSG is bad for you.”— Rick Stein, chef and restaurateur
“Sometimes you just want something to taste like itself, only transcendently better. For that, nothing but pure MSG will do. It is to savoury flavour what sugar is to sweet.”— Helen Rosner, lead food writer, The New Yorker
“Things just taste better with MSG, whether it’s Western food or Cantonese food… Salt, sugar and MSG – I always joke that they’re the Chinese Trinity of seasonings.”— Calvin Eng, chef and owner of Brooklyn’s Bonnie’s, James Beard Award nominee
“I grew up on MSG by the buckets. Go to any Asian home: it’s there next to the sugar and salt. It’s a flavour that’s ingrained in my soul.”— Roy Choi, restaurateur and host of Netflix’s The Chef Show
“Aged parmesan cheese and aged beef have some of the highest levels of MSG of any food we eat, and that’s what makes them so delicious… The record is clear. There is no evidence that MSG causes ‘Chinese restaurant syndrome’.”— Harold McGee, science writer, author of On Food and Cooking

Despite the noise, MSG is not artificial, and it’s not new. It was discovered in 1908 by Japanese biochemist Kikunae Ikeda, who realised that seaweed broth owed its deliciousness to glutamic acid, and named the flavour “umami”.


Today, Honest Umami’s MSG is made from fermented sugar beets, in the same way we make beer, wine or kombucha. It’s clean, 100% plant-based, and totally safe, backed by decades of scientific research and accepted by all food safety authorities globally.




The products are simple, smart, and stylish—pinch pots that look great on a kitchen counter and deliver serious flavour in seconds. The range includes:


  • Pure – 100% Monosodium Glutamate

  • All Purpose – MSG, Sugar, Fine Sea Salt

  • Salt & Pepper – MSG, Salt, Black and White Pepper

  • Chilli – MSG, Salt, Sugar, Chilli Powder, Cayenne, Chilli Flakes


These are seasonings designed for real life. Accessible, convenient, and clean-label, with a 24-month shelf life and low MOQs for trade.


With support from food influencers (4M+ combined followers), Michelin chefs, and passionate home cooks, Honest Umami is already stocked by DELLI and OCADO, and proving popular in indie delis, farm shops, fishmongers, and butchers, to name a few Eat17, Pavilion Foods, French & Day





Consumer appetite, the tide is turning

Honest Umami’s work with Vypr, a leading product intelligence platform, showed that 65% of general shoppers—and 75% of 18–34 year olds—are open to buying MSG.


The opportunity is real: most people aren’t opposed to MSG, they just don’t know how to use it or where to find it. Honest Umami solves that with:


  1. Honest messaging

  2. Desirable product design

  3. Understandable usage

  4. Convenient pinch pots

  5. Accessible pricing and trade terms


Brand Building

Through our Brand Builders service, Gourmet Partners is representing Honest Umami on the ground with our brand and sales managers actively introducing the brand to independent retailers. We’re not just taking orders, we’re building relationships, gathering feedback, and collecting insight.


Here’s how we’re supporting them:


  • Increasing brand visibility in the right retail spaces

  • Gaining product feedback from frontline food buyers

  • Securing new listings through strategic outreach

  • Delivering data that will help Honest Umami secure distribution and scale up

  • Supporting retail events and tastings where possible


Our work is about de-risking growth for emerging brands, connecting their passion and product with our networks and experience. For Honest Umami, that means building a strong foundation of real-world traction and retail feedback to open the door to national listings and long-term sustainable success.


If you’re a buyer, deli, or distributor who wants to get in early on a flavour-first brand with integrity, we’d love to connect you with the Honest Umami team.




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