Hirose Shoyu Mentsuyu (広瀬醤油 めんつゆ)

The story behind it

Hirose Shoyu has been brewing shoyu (soy sauce) in Ichinomiya, Takamatsu, for a little over a hundred years. Beyond local tables, people who have moved away from Kagawa order it as a taste of home.

The shoyu is made from whole soybeans, roasted Kagawa wheat and sun-dried salt. The koji is grown over three days, and the moromi mash ferments and matures in cedar vats for one to one and a half years. It is pressed the traditional way, wrapping the mash in cloth and stacking the bundles one by one.

This mentsuyu blends extracts of katsuobushi (dried bonito), kombu and iriko, the small dried sardines long used for udon broth around the Seto Inland Sea. The label reads "Sanuki no Aji", the taste of Sanuki, the old name for Kagawa. The brewery describes its character as a mellow saltiness with a natural sweetness.