This is Taiwan’s answer to dark soy sauce, a condiment used to add color and sweetness to braises and barbecue. Made using black soybeans and traditional Taiwanese sugars, this brew was created specifically for soy-braising. The sugar adds not just gloss and sweetness, but also a deep brown color from the caramel.It has the rich, buttery scent of caramel with a soft sweetness and mild umami. Its dark hue and sugar content make it great for mixing with other soy sauces to add complexity and deeper color to braises like lurou 滷肉. In fact, the Chinese name of this soy sauce is 糖烏 or "sugar black," referring to this traditional method of adding rich warm color to soy-based foods using caramelized sugars.Like other Yu Ding Xing soy sauces, this one is hand prepared, naturally fermented in earthenware vats, and heated over a wood fire at the end of the fermentation process. What makes it extra special is the use of two kinds of Taiwanese sugar from one of the last active sugar factories in Taiwan: Hu Wei Refinery 虎尾糖廠 of Taiwan's national sugar company Tai Sugar 台糖.The first type of sugar is san wen sugar 三溫糖, which translates to "sugar of three warmths." It is a Japanese-style sugar made by thrice cooking leftover sugarcane syrup from sugar-making. Yu Ding Xing employs it to add a soft sweetness to their soy sauce.The second type is Hu Wei white sugar 虎尾特砂. Without adding water, Yu Ding Xing caramelizes it slowly over a wood fire, until all the sugars have just broken down, contributing nutty caramel aroma and color to the final brew without too much sweetness.Both sugars are added to the soy sauce during the reduction process, as the soy sauce smokes up and evaporates over a wood fire.Tasting Notes and UsageHickory syrup, toast, port winePair it with other soy sauces for both flavor and color. The longer you cook this soy sauce, the darker it gets.Because of its sweetness, Yu Ding Xing also recommends it for dipping sashimi.Ingredients and InstructionsWater, non-GMO black soybeans, sea salt, white sugar, Taiwan Huwei sanonto sugar, mirin (glutinous rice, rice koji, sugar), licoriceContains soy. Gluten free.No preservatives or food coloring.Volume: 14.2 fl oz / 420 mlKeep refrigerated after opening.About Yu Ding XingBased in Xi Luo, Taiwan, Yu Ding Xing 御鼎興 is a family-owned soy sauce brewery founded in 1947. They hand make their soy sauces and soy pastes the traditional way: sun-brewed in giant earthenware vessels (many of which have been in use for decades), then cooked slowly over a wood-burning fire.While tradition is their foundation, under the leadership of third-generation operators Yi-Cheng and Yi-Che Hsieh, the brewery blends inherited know-how with experimental impulse and collaborative spirit to expand the boundaries of soy sauce production. Think soy sauce brewed with Taiwan-grown pineapples or soy paste mixed with local miso.As with coffee or wine, Yu Ding Xing's ethos and practice illuminate how technique and terroir contribute to the flavor and body of a soy sauce. Learn more about their history and production process in our mini-documentary Time, Terroir, Taiwan.
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