We are not talking about chocolate truffles in this article - we have mapped out as to why real truffles (the edible fungi similar to mushrooms) are so expensive! Truffles are highly sought after by the people who can afford these fragrant fungi around the world. The price of truffles vary massively per pound but one of the single largest truffles weighing in at just over 4 pounds was found back in 2014 and was later sold for over $60,000!

There are over 40 species of truffle known to man with some studies reporting as many as 100 different species existing of which a vast amount are inedible. Despite truffles being found all over the world, each species will have different requirements in order to grow to a substantial size. Trees play a huge part in whether the truffles will grow as water and nutrients are absorbed directly from the supply of the tree. The truffle manages to leech off the supply of the tree when buried via mycelium. Mycelium is essentially a bacterial colony of roots that branch out to neighbouring life to try and absorb the necessary nutrients the fungi needs to thrive.

Even with perfect growing conditions - the truffles may not grow at all! Farmers have struggled for many years and conditions right can be extremely difficult. The best truffles have been found in natural environments which increases the physical labour involved compared to farming. Truffles were initially sniffed out by pigs many years ago but as time has moved on, trained dogs are now the most common truffle hunters around the world. The fungi is sniffed out by the canine companion in most cases then dug out of the ground by hand.

With truffles being so rare to find you are more than likely to have tasted man-made truffle oil rather than the real deal. The likelihood is however that most truffle oils do not contain any real truffle whatsoever! The man-made product is produced by manufacturers to shortcut the process, not needing any real truffles at all instead they use an artificial compound that tastes similar… adding artificial elegance to a meal or food item. Most truffles that are edible will be seasonal along and will likely have a short shelf life. These key issues alone are problematic when trying to manufacture a mass consumer product. The majority of truffles on our shelves are now farmed however as technology, techniques and research has vastly improved over the years.

Since farming is now one of the world’s key supplies of truffles, this has now increased the desirability for wild truffles to be found. As climate change continues to affect ideal growing conditions along with the never ending battle with the loss of global green space - wild truffles are now even harder to find in natural environments worldwide. As the summers continue to get hotter and dryer around the world on average - the truffles are not then able to absorb as much rain water as they should which directly affects their size.

The average edible truffle will only be in season for a few months of the year and the race is on to get the fungi served on a plate as it will start to slowly degrade as soon as it is out of the ground. After about a week the truffle will have likely lost a fair amount of its pungent smell and the taste would have also been affected. Like many cheese varieties truffles usually taste a lot better than they smell by the way, the subtle earthy flavours are why the fungi is so in demand around the world. With the number of wild truffles being found worldwide decreasing year on year, some say that truffles could become extinct in the not so far future.

Can you confidently say that you have tried a wild truffle?

If not… how much time do you have?