The Spring 2025 Original and Green Chile Cedar soy sauces are shipping now! The Cara Cara Chile is in the last stage of production and should start shipping March 29th.
Shipping will begin between March 24th-31st, 2025.
Original and Finishing? When it comes to soy sauce, these two terms might be new to you. To me, they describe the foundation of SoyOry. I've cooked and seasoned with soy sauce- using the same store-bought bottle for both purposes, occasionally mixing it up with some Tamari. I thought of it as more of a base, something to combine with other ingredients, and something that had to be applied carefully to a finished dish, always a little wary of the result being too far on the salty side. It wasn't until I started experimenting with making my own soy sauce that I saw the real potential- just like olive oil and wine, some are for cooking, and some you want to just drink straight from the bottle. So, the word "Finishing" for how best to use it. There is a delicacy, a 'nose' and complexity that heat will either mute or downright destroy. It should be the last thing between your food and your mouth.
Why "Original"?
This is an unpasteurized traditional soy sauce that is lighter in color than store-bought soy sauces and noticeably less salty, made with only four ingredients. It is aged for a minimum of six months in a water and kosher salt brine, allowing the combination of organic soybeans and hand-toasted wheat inoculated with a strain of Aspergillis Oryzae from Japan to develop an umami flavor that is unlike any commercial soy sauce. The combination of aging and ingredients is where the delicate flavors and layers of aromas are developed. This complex brew becomes the base, the prime, the 'mother' soy sauce. It is what all other SoyOry sauce varieties are built on.
This batch of 2024-2025 sauce goes back to a fermentation method I first used in 2023. I had moved to a less-oxygenated environment in 2024, which added some fruity notes but reduced the overall umami goodness. My lead fermenting vessel Roy lovingly massaged the moromi (soybeans, ground toasted wheat, koji and salt water) in his belly (a semi-closed environment) for 6 months. Pressing was done by hand utilizing the pressure of a 3-ton hand operated cider press. This becomes my Original Finishing Sauce, which is used as the base for my infused varieties.
