• Aged more than 14 months in cedar barrels that have been in continuous use for over a century
• Three ingredients: organic soybeans, organic wheat, and salt from the Seto Inland Sea
• A finishing shoyu — pour it over grilled fish, steamed vegetables, chilled tofu or a seared steak and add nothing else
Adachi Jozo has been brewing in Taka, a mountain village in the Okubanshu region of Hyogo Prefecture, since 1889. Thirty-two kioke — the tall cedar barrels Japanese brewers used for centuries before stainless steel — still stand in its warehouse, and some have been working without a break for more than a hundred years. Today kioke account for less than one percent of all soy sauce made.
The reason a brewery keeps them is biological. Wood is porous, and the yeasts and lactic acid bacteria that drive fermentation live inside the grain of the staves. Wash a steel tank and they are gone; wash a kioke and they stay. Each barrel ends up with a slightly different resident population, which is why no two taste quite alike — and why a brewer guards a barrel the way a baker guards a sourdough starter.
Yui is the label Adachi Jozo makes for outside Japan, brewed by two brothers of the founding family. The moromi — the mash of soybeans and wheat — ferments uncovered through a hot summer and a cold winter at whatever temperature the season delivers, until the master brewer decides it is ready to press. The soybeans and wheat are grown organically in Hokkaido, the brewing water comes from the Sugihara River, and the salt comes from the Seto Inland Sea. The ingredient list is three lines long.
結 (yui) means a tie, a bond. It stands for the relationships the brewery is built on — with the organic farmers who grow its grain, and with the few remaining coopers who still know how to make a wooden barrel. Each box is marked by hand with the number of the barrel the bottle was drawn from.
In Japan the same shoyu is poured at Iida Shoten and Chuka Soba Tomita, two of the most decorated ramen shops in the country. Heat drives off the aroma that makes it worth the price, so use it at the end rather than in the pot.
Saltiness ■■□ Sweetness ■□□ Umami ■■■
Size 10.1 fl oz / 300 ml
Ingredients Organic soybeans, organic wheat, salt
Certified USDA Organic, EU Organic, JAS Organic
Brewery Adachi Jozo, Taka, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan (founded 1889)
Care Store in a cool, dark place. Refrigerate after opening.
A limited quantity has been brought in. Once these bottles are gone, the next barrel is about three months away.
