Teraoka is a shoyu (Japanese soy sauce) brewery based in Hiroshima that still preserves traditional barrel brewing methods for producing authentic soy sauces like this one. This is Teraoka's flagship soy sauce, handmade and aged in century-old kioke wooden barrels.
This excellent barrel aged soy sauce is made with simple yet high quality ingredients; Japanese organic whole soybeans, Japanese organic wheat, and solar salt. What makes this soy sauce distinct from regular soy sauces is that it is fermented naturally in old-centuries wooden barrels for 3 years. This time intensive process brings out unique characteristics like more glutamic acid and umami compounds. In addition, each brewery's "ecosystem" is different allowing more varied flavors and fragrances profiles to develop than soy sauce brewed in steel tanks.
This soy sauce has an assertive full-bodied taste with a faint aroma of cedar, but the sauce is not too sharp nor too viscous so it is pretty easy to eat. A must-try for those who are looking for a real Japanese handmade soy sauce.
Simply add an appropriate amount of this shoyu to the dishes so that you can enhance the umami of food.
Its rich taste makes it the perfect pairing for sashimi, cold tofu, grilled fish, steaks, etc.
It can also be used as a seasoning or secret ingredient; a teaspoonful amount of this soy sauce in soup will brighten up and add a depth of flavor to an otherwise dull soup. This works especially well with meat-based soups.