Seafood & Gourmet Products

Japan

Takuko’s soy sauce production from beginning to end is a lengthy traditional practice. Takuko is part of a dwindling number of traditional makers still producing 16-to-24-month-old soy sauce today. Temperature and humidity are very critical to the production of Takuko soy sauce. Taking advantage of the cold temperatures production begins in the late fall and early winter months after the arrival of the new soybean harvest. The Takuko processing facility is located in an area reputed since long ago to be well suited for soy sauce production. Other important factors include the buildings and kegs where the product is made. Many of the kegs now in use for Takuko’s soy sauce are two and three centuries old, and through repeated use, they retain certain microorganisms deep within the grain of the wood. Thus, in addition to the traditional practices and techniques handed down within the maker’s household from generation to generation, the maker’s plant carries another biological tradition of microbial cultures handed down through generations of use.