Gino Iyo Barley Miso (ギノーみそ 国産伊予のみそ・つぶ)

The story behind it

During the Kyoho famine of the Edo period, a farmer named Sakubei in Iyo-Masaki is said to have refused to eat his seed barley even as he starved, leaving the village its next harvest and dying in the process. People called him gino, the righteous farmer.

Gino Miso was founded in that same town of Masaki in 1958 and took Sakubei's name as its own. It is now Ehime's largest miso brewery. Ehime grows more naked barley than any other prefecture, and this Iyo no Miso uses more of that domestic barley koji than soybean, finishing at a moderate 8.5% salt. Toasted barley aroma and a natural sweetness are its character.

The story of a man who protected the seed, and the bounty of a barley-growing province. There are 250 years of Iyo dissolved in a bowl of this soup.