Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

After watching the documentary series Salt Fat Acid Heat, I searched for the Yamaroku soy sauce featured in the first episode and found it here. Yamaroku’s Tsuru Bishio is a finishing soy sauce ideal for flavoring dishes like grilled rice balls, fish, or meat. The sauce is unusually viscous and has a complex aroma. Comparing it to Kikkoman’s organic sauce—also made in Japan—the flavor of a Tsuru Bishio meets the expectations for a dash of pure soy sauce: a wave of saltiness, reminiscent of a condensed soup broth, rounded out with sweet and savory notes. What was, perhaps, even more remarkable than the quality of Yamaroku’s sauce is how sharp the other soy sauce hit the palate. Kikkoman’s seasoning delivered a brutal, but flat, impression in the mouth not unlike the brashness of high-proof, low-quality liquor. The next time I am relegated to using a non-artisanal product in my cooking, I think I will find myself hoping that the flavors of other ingredients will mask the undesirable flavors of the commercial product, leaving behind only the saltiness. In other words, if you want the flavor of true soy sauce, you should experience this extraordinary, traditional condiment painstakingly crafted by 5th-generation master brewer Yasuo Yamamoto—what soy sauce is meant to be.