Matsuai Tennen Jozo Kyushu Whole Soybean Shoyu (松合食品 天然醸造九州丸大豆しょうゆ)

The story behind it

Matsuai sits in Uki City, Kumamoto, facing the Ariake Sea. It is an old port town where the streetscape of white-walled storehouses still stands, and Matsuai Shokuhin has been brewing there since 1827.

This is a koikuchi (the standard dark shoyu) made from whole soybeans and wheat grown in Kyushu, using tennen jozo (naturally brewed, no temperature control). Whole soybeans rather than defatted ones means the oil in the bean ferments along with everything else, which gives a rounder savory character with no sharp edges. Nothing is rushed. The aging follows the temperature of the brewery.

This is shoyu (soy sauce) from a brewery that has stayed in the same port town for nearly 200 years.