Shroomami Packs an Umami Punch

MEREYA BLANCO AND Justin Smurawa of Midnight Disco Fungi are here to turn up the flavor on everything from weeknight dinners to movie-night popcorn with mushroom-powdered seasoning blends. The Albuquerque-based couple started growing mushrooms as a pandemic hobby and turned it into one of New Mexico’s most intriguing small-food brands. Their star product, Shroomami: Umami Seasoning Blend, was developed in collaboration with chef Ryan Rainbird Taylor (Ohkay Owingeh). The combination features three mushroom varieties—lion’s mane, shiitake, and oyster—with locally sourced black garlic from Albuquerque’s Chile del Sol and chickpea miso. “It’s basically just like an all-out umami blast,” Blanco says. Sprinkle it over eggs, stir it into ramen, crust your salmon with it, or just shake it over popcorn. “Living in New Mexico, we had to have the green and red chile versions, too,” Smurawa adds with a laugh. But Midnight Disco is about more than spices: Mushroom growing kits, tinctures, and teas (including Prickly Pear + Lion’s Mane Matcha), round out the lineup. For Blanco, the products also connect to Mexican Indigenous healing traditions passed down from her grandmother: Food is medicine, and medicine should be accessible. “Food has been weaponized against my community,” she says. “Trying to restore that imbalance is really personally important to me.”