Taiwanese Fire Roasted Soy Sauce

Unlike Chinese and Japanese soy sauces that use yellow soybeans and wheat, traditional Taiwanese soy sauce is made with black soybeans. Black soybeans have a higher protein content. When used to make soy sauce, they produce a deeper, richer, almost chocolatey umami flavor. To balance that intensity, a touch of sugar is added.

Family-run soy sauce brewery Yu Ding Xing in Xi Luo, Taiwan, blends both traditions by using black and yellow soybeans, wheat, and sugar. Their sauce is inoculated with Japanese koji, sun-brewed in terracotta vats for six months, and finished over a wood fire to stop the fermentation process. Seasoned with mirin and licorice, it’s sweet, complex, and rich with a bright anise note.

More full-bodied and sweeter than other soy sauces, it’s best kept for finishing or dipping. It plays especially well with Chinese-five spice. If you want to swap it into marinades or stir fries, cut it with a little bit of water or balance it with rice vinegar.