I have watched this show for years.....love both Bridget and Julia so much.....but also I really really like Jack! He seems to be the nicest man and always so pleasant. Just wanted to give him the recognition. Thanks!
If you have an Asian supermarket near you, there is a much wider and better selection! The sauce aisle is a treasure trove for any of you who love Asian food.
Soy Sauce makes you fat. Just so you know. It stimulates your Insulin production which tells your body to store fat! So when you use it while consuming carbs, and that is really mostly what people usually use it on you are packing on the pounds. Scientists that need fat mice and rats use MSG to make them fat first, then labs perform tests on them. I love a few splashes of a high quality soy sauce on a rice dish. But just know. If you are on a diet avoid Soy Sauce like the plague. You would be better off having a bowl of ice cream and that is not a joke.
Guided Meditation that is pseudo science bs. Sodium can make you bloated but it won’t make you gain weight if you limit your calories and take lots of it. I couldn’t find any study or links confirming what you are saying, but if you provide one I would gladly change my mind.
@@guidedmeditation2396 That's some of the biggest nonsense I've ever heard. Lol Meanwhile, some of the countries with the highest concentration of soy sauce use have the lowest obesity rates. lol If it "made you fat", that would not be the case. The idea that rice and soy sauce will make you fat (anything eaten in massive quantities, even healthy food, could theoretically make you fat) is laughable. And you're also pushing the BS that MSG is bad? LOL You're just pushing racist pseudo-science.
I recently watched a Chinese cook explain how they use soy sauces. They use a light (not necessarily low sodium) soy for flavour and dark soy for the colour when cooking. I broke down and bought a bottle of each of the more expensive sauces to try. They look the same colour in the bottle, but, if you bring some up into the bottle neck under a light, you can see the difference in colour. There is a definite difference in flavours as well.
I once forgot about an unopened bottle of soy sauce for 5+ years. I knew they were made from fermentation so I figured it was still ok to use. Literally the best soy sauce I’ve had in my entire life.
Bad soy sauce costs about $3 a bottle. Good soy sauce is about $3 a bottle at the Asian mart and WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE. It's worth finding good soy sauce. Lee Kum Kee makes a Premium, a Mushroom, and a Dark that are all EXCELLENT >.
Absolutely agree. I'm lucky enough to have access to an asian market and I usually buy my soy sauce from there. But I do have the low sodium kikkoman. It's the best of the bunch from the supermarket. Not only that, there are so many different variants on soy sauce. You have light soy sauce and dark soy sauce. It really does change how the dish tastes.
Where I live, a bottle of 'organic' soy source can cost over $10. Never tried them. Nowadays, it's hard to get good soy beans. Without good soy beans, it's hard to have good soy sauce.
Japanese: Kikkoman Whole Bean Fancy (imported from Japan) Chinese: Pearl River Bridge (for light or thin soy sauce) Korean: Seimpio Naturally Brewed Soy Sauce Yuginong Premium Look for "Naturally Brewed" and few ingredients and get it from an international market if you can (more choices and less expensive)
This is the fourth 'test-video' I've seen from this channel, and they've all been good : useful, not too long, to the point, trustworthy and well produced. Thanks !
I'm always using America's Test Kitchen/ Cook's Illustrated recommendations for products I'm shopping for. Between this and the equipment reviews, I feel my annual subscription is justified.
It's also good when the tester gets it 'wrong' since it gives more information. It's like a movie critic, perhaps you like where they are coming from in terms of taste, etc.
Their test videos are better when they stick to something they know about, which is western food. Japanese and Chinese soy sauces are fundamentally different, and they should have noted that. There are major differences even among Chinese soy sauces, with light and dark being the most commonly known. So very poor review all the way around, starting with ignorance of cultural qualities.
barkebaat - I also like the taste test segments. They are short because they are taken from the half hour shows. And their equipment reviews are always helpful. I have bought several things because of their recommendations. Lisa McManus is also great at reviews. One does not need a subscription to get the information.
Had a Japanese stepmum, so grew up with Kikkoman since I was a little girl. Have had to switch to low sodium (I am now an old lady). I now cook Japanese food for my widowed Father and he, too, prefers Kikkoman lo-so.
Hi. Please don't waste your money on low sodium soy sauce. It's just regular soy sauce diluted with water. If you really want less sodium soy sauce just add water to regular soy sauce.
Jack is an exceptional presenter. Clear, easy to understand, and without any 'ego'. And, I like this better than with an audience "clapping". That was too goofy for me. Oh, and Kikkoman is the only soy sauce brand in my (Thailand) kitchen! Thanks.
Back in the early 70’s Kikkoman couldn’t even give the stuff away to American grocery stores. The salesmen begged them to try and when the purchasers tasted it they thought it was awful. Finally a rep came up with the idea of convincing the supermarket of bringing in a frying pan and stove and cooking some meat marinated with the Kikkoman soy sauce. The aroma attracted the attention of customers and people really liked it and that’s how it took off. Instead of just salt and pepper try seasoning your steak with some soy sauce. Don’t think anyone will regret it.
We all get used to ingredients and sometimes we want to expand our tastes. I appreciate seeing you try different sources and helping me narrow down what I should try next.
Soy sause in asia has different purposes. There korean soy sauce which is byproduct of soy paste. Japanese ones are sweeter. They are very suitable for japanese food and dipping sauce. They are made with wheat or burley. Tamari is excellent for sushi. There is also tsuyu. This is more for sauce for udon and soba
Tsuyu isn't soy sauce. It's the dipping sauce made from combining dashi stock with soy sauce. Also, Japanese soy sauce, like wine, varies considerably. Kikkoman is a good reasonably priced everyday soy sauce. But, there are many others that are brewed longer, much smoother, and more complex. They are superior and preferred as a finishing soy sauce for items like sashimi.
The Ohsawa Nama Shoyu (made by Yamaki Jozo in Japan, traditionally aged in big _kioke_ barrels, for two years if I recall correctly) is definitely the way to go if you're drinking soy sauce. It's the real thing and has excellent flavor, and is now pretty easy to find in US upscale markets, sometimes along similar products like Mitoku Kanazawa Shoyu. But due to it's cost ATK is right that a cheaper mass-market soy sauce like Kikkoman or Yamasa is often the way to go for cooking that requires large amounts of soy sauce, like some chicken adobo recipes I've seen that call for a cup of soy sauce and a cup of rice vinegar. It wouldn't make sense to use the expensive ones. However, Ohsawa can be quite reasonably priced if you're willing to buy a quart/liter jar at a time. It's usually sold for less than $20. If you're just using soy sauce for dipping then that generally means you only ever use a little at a time and big bottles really last. For that kind of use the higher quality "delicately flavored" soy sauces are really worth considering. A bottle might last you a year or more and you'll really taste it when you do use it. Ohsawa Nama Shoyu is also lower in sodium than even the low-sodium versions of the big brands like Kikkoman, which I really like, and it's certainly not low on flavor. It just has more nuance and a better taste in my opinion. That comes from aging for a few years rather than a few months and the differences in fermentation practices and equipment. If you're more adventurous you can get some good Japanese labeled stuff not made for export at an Asian specialty food store or online. The best I've tasted is Yamaroku Tsuru Bishio from Shodoshima, very artisanal, but Ohsawa Nama Shoyu is almost as good, has less salt, is less expensive, is imported to the US and actually available in stores here, and is made in a similar traditional way. But if you're interested in artisanal soy sauce there's great footage of Yamaroku on Great Big Story and in Netflix's _Salt Fat Acid Heat._ Ohsawa Nama Shoyu is genuine high-end Japanese soy sauce imported by Ohsawa and available in US supermarkets, so don't feel like you have to import a bottle yourself from Japan. The flavor of Ohsawa is representative of and similar to the other high-end soy sauces I've tried. It's definitely the easiest and generally the least expensive way to buy such sauce in the US and so is the best value if you want to buy high-end soy sauce in the US. I do recommend buying a bottle of Ohsawa if you want to try a step up from the cheaper mainstream brands produced using modern industrial methods with less aging. It's like a higher-quality olive oil or balsamic vinegar. It can be worth it when you're tasting it, but when used in cooking some dishes it will not always make a significant difference. It's not objectively an expensive food item, just expensive relative to Kikkoman. Small bottles of Ohsawa I see at health food stores for like $6. Bigger bottles give you more ounces per dollar. Ohsawa also imports from Yamaki some tremendous miso that blows away the domestic miso I've tried. You can get it made from brown rice, soybeans, or barley. Maybe more varieties than that. I've only had the brown rice miso but I'm curious about the barley. I'm about to buy more for my miso soup and many sauces, dressings, and broths their excellent miso has worked it's way into in my kitchen. If you want an appeal to a famous authority, Japanese cookbook author and food writer Nancy Hachisu recommends the Ohsawa soy sauce and miso. She's a fan of their supplier Yamaki Jozo and we're all glad that such quality is now available in the US.
@@XMetalChefX No, I'm just enthusiastic. Nowadays I buy relatively cheap Trader Joe's reduced sodium soy sauce, which I think tastes great for the price and surprisingly traditional (it is in fact aged for several months). I use that for cooking, and then have a bottle of more expensive imported Japanese soy sauce just for dipping my food in (or pouring over rice sometimes). That only requires about a spoonful per meal. A pint lasts me about a year for one person, so I don't think it's expensive to use and I don't buy the big bottle of Ohsawa anymore (I used to get a quart from Whole Foods), which I still recommend as a better value. The imported Yamaroku Tsuru Bishio has really gone up in price since they started getting internationally famous. When I first started buying them, they were more competitively priced. I may try some other brands someday, but I like what I have and using a little at a time I don't mind spending less than $30 annually on one bottle of really good soy sauce. I really taste it in my food. It's worth the extra cent or two per meal. It's all on Amazon. Well, not the Trader Joe's sauce, that's at Trader Joe's. Great value, and you can get it in low sodium unlike the fancier sauces. The big difference is between the brands that you'll find in takeout soy sauce packets (Kikkoman, Yamasa, etc.) and traditionally aged soy sauce. That's a big difference. The differences between the higher quality soy sauces are minor. You can taste the difference side by side, but it's not a huge difference. Generally, the cheapest soy sauces are hugely different from the good ones. You don't have to pay much more. More expensive give diminishing returns. The biggest difference is from the low-end to middle-end. High-end soy sauce is a luxury, and if you're pinching pennies you can live without it just fine. It also depends on your diet and how you use soy sauce. If you're cooking with it, you won't taste a difference. Like how I cook with the cheapest extra virgin olive oil I can find, but have better ones to eat raw or only slightly cooked. If you're buying expensive foods like sushi that you're going to dip in soy sauce and really taste the sauce, it makes sense to buy really good sauce. With strongly flavored foods, the quality of the sauce may not matter much. And how often you use soy sauce will also factor into whether quality matters to you.
If it has "hydrolyzed soy protein" in the ingredients list, I don't want it. There is no replicating the special, wonderful flavors of a properly fermented sauce in just 2 days of manufacture.
La Choy is what my family always used when I was a kid, mainly because it was the only soy sauce on the shelf at the grocery store. As an adult I use Kikkoman's, but I think I'd like to try that $10 Japanese soy sauce just once. The sticker shock will probably keep me from seeking it out, however. Lol
@@HayTatsuko I found this very interesting from Samin Nosrat's Netflix show, this was the Salt episode - "Yasuo Yamamoto's traditional soy sauce factory: Yamaroku Soy Sauce. A fifth generation soy sauce manufacturer, Yasuo uses kioke barrels to ferment his product, sometimes leaving it for 2 years or more, compared to the average 6 months period used by larger manufacturers. Kioke barrels are the key tool, and ingredient, in the production of traditional soy sauce, because of the millions of beneficial bacteria that call the wood home, and help in the fermentation process. The barrels are an antique technique, and in the whole of Japan there exist only 2 manufacturers, at which Yasuo himself has apprenticed." the barrels alone are made by a very old company that makes it by hand, its such an incredible process.
@@kade82 I was child in the sixties, born in 1959. La Choy was the only soy sauce that I knew as a kid. My wife and I met in 2008, she introduced me to Kikkoman, I have not even tasted La Choy in years. It might take me back to my childhood, but maybe not.
I grew up with kikkoman for almost half my life. But while living in hawaii, I found I preferred aloha soy sauce in the 70s. That still continues to be my go to now even though I now live in calif. So best to one is not best to others.
I think you'd find a different favorite if tested in Japan/Korea/China etc. with some testers wondering for WHAT purpose is the particular soy sauce being tested.
Until around 1990 I never knew that anything but La Choy existed as far as soy sauce. It took a ton of cooking shows and a whole food related tv network to wake everyone up to things like Kikkoman.
Just knew that Kikkoman was going to win. It's fairly affordable as well. However I would still stick with Lee Kum Kee as a personal preference, specifically with the deluxe gold version
My choice is Pearl River Bridge Light Soy first then Kikkoman. Both are available readily in our local supermarket. Honorable mention goes to Aloha Shoyu which is made in Hawaii.
You are lucky to have Pearl River Bridge soy sauce in your supermarket. I have to get mine at an Asian supermarket in my closest big city 45 min away. I always grab a bottle of the light and a bottle of the dark mushroom. I combine the two along with toasted sesame oil when making my stir fry or fried rice. SO GOOD!
For those that are Celiacs, gluten free is essential and we use low sodium Tamari in place of Soy Sauce. We get a less salty ingredient with great flavor.
48956l I’m glad you’ve found something you like. But confrontational advocacy is the least effective way to attempt to influence my opinion. (And no, I don’t think I’ll rush right out to try it, either. Maybe eventually.)
I cannot recommend enough that you round-eyes experiment with using "marudaizu" or "whole bean" spy sauce. I think Chinese translate it as fancy or luxurious or something like that. As the guy said, tamari only tastes saltier because it is less sweet. That's what the wheat brings to regular soy sauce. I like using that with sushi. Maybe I'm weird.
ok so here in Canada we use a lot of China Lily and kikkoman. China Lily is very dark with such great flavor. I've never heard of any of these except kikkoman. thanks kids.
Frank Tedesco You know they test large varieties of soy sauce right? But they only show few example here in the video. If you want to see full test of other brands you have to go through their paywall. This is true of other test conducted by ATK
@@jpaliwal That's the most important part. There are large parts of the country where there aren't Asian groceries (or the closest one is an inconvenient distance/time away).
In Malaysia we use black soy sauce to mix with rice, chicken, fish, and also potato even we can make it to be sauce for Fried banana, fried sweet potato or fried cassava. And it taste very much great and delicious.
Would've done the same thing as Bridget. Grew up with La Choy as the condiment soy sauce of choice, so I know that flavor well. I've bought Kikkoman for about 10 years now, but I have to admit when I go home to the parents ... I'm actually happy to have some of the La Choy again. I think it's merely "what we grew up with" though. And I get why people love Kikkoman.
My stir-fry’s are always flavored with 1 tbs Pearl River Bridge light soy sauce, 1 tbs Pearl River Bridge dark mushroom soy sauce, 1 tsp toasted sesame oil and a dash of sugar. On point with authentic Chinese takeout as long as you remember to include some fresh ground ginger root. I could eat fried rice with these flavors everyday. The rice has to be half Tai Jasmine and half American white long grain. So good!
At the opening, he said they round up 10 best soy, but only four very tested and tasted. I wish more samples were tried. We love the Kikkoman soy and use it almost daily. However, when cooking, we use a variety of Chinese, mostly Lee Kim Kee soy to get a certain flavor or color.
Interestingly enough, in an article on the Cook's Country website, they recommended Lee Kum Kee. www.cookscountry.com/how_tos/6467-getting-to-know-asian-condiments
I grew up with Kikkoman, and it's good, but I've happily used San-J reduced sodium Tamari (white label with red circle) for decades. I love to try special varieties for different things, but the San-J Tamari is my go-to.
Kikkoman or Yamasa is what I buy, I saw a pic of Yamasa in the thumbnail, I wonder how it tested, I am gonna hazard a guess it was pretty close to Kikkoman.
Yamasa tastes better for the price imo, although the Kikkoman Marudaizu is really good. The one I really love is the Yamaroku kioke soy sauce, but that stuff is $20 per 18 oz. bottle.
They also don’t mention that there’s two ways to ferment soy sauce. The organic soy sauce is fermented for two years using traditional cedar vats - some of which are over a century old. However most fermented soy sauce is made in stainless steel vats and usually fermented less than a year. The BBC website had an interesting article about a month ago about efforts in Japan to preserve the traditional process.
I use the imported Japanese Organic Kikkoman. There is a reason you see a lot of the Asian you tubers use it, it’s a bit nicer and less processed tasting than the American kikkoman. That said, I’ve also got bottles of Korean soup soy sauce and two different Chinese soy sauces as well so I’ve got more options to compare it to.
@@haroldellis9721 Yup, there are different types of soy for different applications. Japanese food gets Kikkoman. Chinese food I need at least 3 kinds. A dark, (I use for certain noodle dishes and meats) a regular, (most commonly used for dipping) and a light (for congee and soups), and for some applications even a super dark --but I don't make those dishes......they are not interchangeable at all. Using the wrong soy sauce changes the flavor of the dish. OH, and NEVER LA CHOY
Higashimaru or Yamasa are better, in my opinion but you have to live near a Japanese specialty market. I also found that the kikkoman tamari (black and gold bottle) is much better than the san-j stuff that you normally find, but I can only seem to find it at Japanese markets as well. Kikkoman is definitely the best supermarket stuff by far.
My favorite is the Kikkoman Made in Japan, you’d have to check the label since it’s at some stores and not at others. It is miles ahead of their US version even. It must be fermented longer
For many of us who regularly use soy sauce/tamari I really wish they done more with the sauces you find at an Asian market. Interesting that Kikkoman came out on top of these four, though. I've used San-J a lot.
my thai wife has a whole cabinet full of soy sauces ie mushroom, light, dark, sweet, golden mountain, etc etc. she uses different sauces and combination of sauces for different purposes. along with fish and oyster sauces. there's a whole science going on there.. i'm a lucky man
I wish they had labeled this “Japanese soy sauce” or Shoyu because they aren’t the same as other Asian soy sauces like Korean or Chinese sauces. Some sauces are more salty, others sweeter, or more funky because that’s what you use them for in those cuisines. Japanese soy sauce can taste down right weird in certain Chinese dishes for example. I had the same issue with their fish sauce tasting. Thai, Viet, Chinese and Korean fish sauces are all different for legitimate reasons.
I'm with you. Considering they like to set themselves up as experts they didn't even bother discussing this. I'm no expert and even I know that there is a difference between Japanese and Chinese soy sauces. I had always hated soy sauce because all I'd tasted was kikkoman. I discovered that Chinese soy sauce is sooo much more flavorful and with a lot less salt. Lately I also get the reduced salt versions as well. Even the generic Winco low salt version taste so much better to me.
Kukkiman is way, way to salty, I am truly blessed living in Edmonton Alberta. My two local supermarkets have very large Asian sections with over 40 verieties of soy sauces. It gets even better with a dedicated Asian supermarket also nearby called T&Ts
@@TheIkaika777 I have used it. I love it. Occasionally, I see it in regular super markets. A 150ml regulated spout bottle is about $6. Not bad pricing wise. When I see it, I tend to snap up 2 or 3 of them knowing it's availably is sporadic.
My Chinese friend said that Kikkoman was pretty good approximation of what they had in Hong Kong when his parents first came to the US. Of course, there are plenty of others such as Pearl River Bridge on the low end and more expensive ones from Japan.
Wish Jack would have discussed all the fake soy sauces on the market...not just the ones that are not fermented but the ones that do not use soybeans in the process.
Yamaroku aged 4 years soy sauce is the best tasting sauce in the world! Complex and rich umami flavor. Slight tingly sweet flavor note and rich fermented soy beans flavor. A real nice kick to the salty and savory flavor!
Cantonese use 2 different type of soy sauces, one lighter in color, used for adding flavor, usually for stir-fry or dipping, one darker, such as the mushroom flavored one you pointed out, is for coloring mostly, or stewed/slow cook.
I wish they said more about how many brands they explored and how they cooked with them. Myself, I like Kimlan. But you need an Asian store to find it. But drinking soy sauce from a glass is just not good--as would be the case, too, with fish sauces.
Couple of things. The expensive brand one is actually Shoyu. Which is Japanese Soy Sauce. Its thinner, milder, and that particular product is a dipping shoyu. Javanese shoyu addsjrice and barley usually to the fermenting process. Kikkoman I agree is the best all around soy sauce, however I prefer the lower sodium version for a dipping sauce straight. If you are combining the soy with other ingredients use full on kikkoman. Usually you add mirin to tamari to make it have a sweeter balance.
I think putting Japanese style soy sauces vs Chinese style sauce as though they were the same thing makes about as much sense as including ketchup in a mexican salsa tasting. This is apples and oranges guys.
they are more similar to each than apples are to oranges or ketchup is to salsa. But, yes, I do agree with the basic premise. The soy sauces are different in taste. However, I've never prepared the same dish side by side with, say, Yamasa in one & Pearl River Bridge in the other to see what the outcome is. Might be a fun experiment.
@@km6206 Iirc Kikkoman in Europe is manufactured in like the Netherlands or something, but it's the only Japanese brand I've tried, and it tasted just like the Chinese light soys I get (Pearl River Bridge, Lee Kum Kee), I was really shocked how similar they tasted side by side considering the Kikkoman is over 3 times the price. However I've started buying a type of Philippian soy sauce by Datu Puti which is called Toyomansi, which is a combination of soy with hints of Calamansi which is a Phillipian lemon (kinda tastes more like a cross between an orange and a lime to me) which makes it interesting and adds a nice sourness so you don't need to mess about with vinegars or whatever for your food.
Did you test Yamasa? If so, where does it rank? I like Kikkoman but prefer Japanese soy sauce to Chinese soy sauce. IMO, Yamasa is by far the best. I’m surprised it wasn’t at least on the table. Cheers.
Every Asian cooking class I’ve taken the chefs all recommended kikkoman as a good general all purpose soy sauce They had different recommendations for different purposes (maninades, dipping, soups.etc) but said if cost & availability were an issue then kikkoman was the best I’ve also noticed that several of the Asian cooking channels I follow they have that industrial size bottle of kikkoman soy sauce to refill their soy sauce bottles
Like wine, garlic, vinegar and bitters, some foods are rather assertive by themselves - they need other elements to bring out their hidden flavors - soy sauce needs to be traditionally brewed and aged, regardless of what it is made of (wheat vs no wheat) and used sparingly in order to utilize it's subtle characteristics - this taste test illustrates how complex flavors can be
100% agree with your choice. Kikkoman's the only Soy Sauce I use and I've used it for decades. Yes; tried others and never liked them. Your video also reminded me that I used the last bit of my Soy Sauce (Kikkoman) 2 weeks ago and again forgot to buy another bottle. It's now on my list. :)
As a kid growing up in the Great Lakes area, I would have an oriental style food once in a while. I would dash on some soy sauce. Or, thought that I was. My first duty station in the U.S. Air Force was in northern Japan. That was 1961. There, I was introduced to Kikkoman soy sauce. WOW!!! What a difference. If I added one part Kikkoman to five parts water, I would again have the American soy sauce that I had grown up with. Yuck. A new friend that I met there, explained it well. “After Japanese soy sauce, American soy sauce is just a bitter disappointment.” BINGO! He encapsulated the entire subject in one sentence. Courtesy of Half Vast Flying
You know they test large varieties of soy sauce right? But they only show few example here in the video. If you want to see full test of other brands you have to go through their paywall. This is true of other test conducted by ATK
I only use San-J Tamari. And most of their products are gluten free. They have really good flavored sauces too - orange, peanut, Mongolian etc. BTW, they also have reduced sodium
the difference is that low sodium has lactic acid in it, so if you eat it with vinegar rice you probably wont notice. i would still go for the regular stuff once they become available again.
Kikkoman is the Heinz ketchup of soy sauces. It’s on the tables in thousands of restaurants across the US. Made right here in Wisconsin, just spitting distance from millions of acres of Illinois soybeans.
We use Kikkoman for sauces & marinades, but prefer Pearl River mushroom soy sauce on rice or to add to dishes. Did you test Pearl River? If yes how did it do in the testing?
I have watched this show for years.....love both Bridget and Julia so much.....but also I really really like Jack! He seems to be the nicest man and always so pleasant. Just wanted to give him the recognition. Thanks!
Yeah, he looks like a patient man. Good stuff. Thanks from Texas.
Bridget is my sweetheart! I love her dearly. 💟
He seems a little snobbish to me
If you have an Asian supermarket near you, there is a much wider and better selection! The sauce aisle is a treasure trove for any of you who love Asian food.
Yeah if you are lucky enough to live near one, I bet it's a treasure trove of goodies.
Chinese .... Korean .... Japanese .... Filipino ..... Thai ..... You can literally be overloaded by the variety.
It's coconut aminos for me.
We have an H Mart... Wonderful place to shop!
I will not buy from China
“And the winner is Kikkoman”
Oh, so, I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing then.
Haha right, I was thinking isnt that already the most popular one.
Soy Sauce makes you fat. Just so you know. It stimulates your Insulin production which tells your body to store fat! So when you use it while consuming carbs, and that is really mostly what people usually use it on you are packing on the pounds. Scientists that need fat mice and rats use MSG to make them fat first, then labs perform tests on them.
I love a few splashes of a high quality soy sauce on a rice dish. But just know. If you are on a diet avoid Soy Sauce like the plague. You would be better off having a bowl of ice cream and that is not a joke.
Guided Meditation that is pseudo science bs. Sodium can make you bloated but it won’t make you gain weight if you limit your calories and take lots of it. I couldn’t find any study or links confirming what you are saying, but if you provide one I would gladly change my mind.
@@guidedmeditation2396
That's some of the biggest nonsense I've ever heard. Lol
Meanwhile, some of the countries with the highest concentration of soy sauce use have the lowest obesity rates. lol If it "made you fat", that would not be the case.
The idea that rice and soy sauce will make you fat (anything eaten in massive quantities, even healthy food, could theoretically make you fat) is laughable.
And you're also pushing the BS that MSG is bad? LOL You're just pushing racist pseudo-science.
@@OpiumBride That's the lower sodium version
I recently watched a Chinese cook explain how they use soy sauces. They use a light (not necessarily low sodium) soy for flavour and dark soy for the colour when cooking. I broke down and bought a bottle of each of the more expensive sauces to try. They look the same colour in the bottle, but, if you bring some up into the bottle neck under a light, you can see the difference in colour. There is a definite difference in flavours as well.
I once forgot about an unopened bottle of soy sauce for 5+ years. I knew they were made from fermentation so I figured it was still ok to use. Literally the best soy sauce I’ve had in my entire life.
Hahahah! That's awesome! Thanks from Texas.
Oh wow! How great!
placebo, almost all are pasteurized so no more fermentation is occurring.
@@MrNoipe lol exactly it's not going to ferment more in an unopened, sealed GLASS bottle
@@jscmain if it did, it would explode from the co2
Bad soy sauce costs about $3 a bottle. Good soy sauce is about $3 a bottle at the Asian mart and WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE. It's worth finding good soy sauce. Lee Kum Kee makes a Premium, a Mushroom, and a Dark that are all EXCELLENT >.
That's where I buy it..im very surprised kikkoman won in this taste test 😰
@@iillylabrat Same. I always kind of lumped it in with La Choy. It's liquid salt with no real depth.
Absolutely agree. I'm lucky enough to have access to an asian market and I usually buy my soy sauce from there. But I do have the low sodium kikkoman. It's the best of the bunch from the supermarket.
Not only that, there are so many different variants on soy sauce. You have light soy sauce and dark soy sauce. It really does change how the dish tastes.
Where I live, a bottle of 'organic' soy source can cost over $10. Never tried them. Nowadays, it's hard to get good soy beans. Without good soy beans, it's hard to have good soy sauce.
Lee Kum Kee is my favorite too. I didn’t realize the had a mushroom. Sounds fantastic. I always use the Premium. Thanks for sharing.
Japanese: Kikkoman Whole Bean Fancy (imported from Japan)
Chinese: Pearl River Bridge (for light or thin soy sauce)
Korean: Seimpio Naturally Brewed Soy Sauce Yuginong Premium
Look for "Naturally Brewed" and few ingredients and get it from an international market if you can (more choices and less expensive)
Golden Mountain should be mentioned in this list.
This is the fourth 'test-video' I've seen from this channel, and they've all been good : useful, not too long, to the point, trustworthy and well produced. Thanks !
I'm always using America's Test Kitchen/ Cook's Illustrated recommendations for products I'm shopping for. Between this and the equipment reviews, I feel my annual subscription is justified.
It's also good when the tester gets it 'wrong' since it gives more information. It's like a movie critic, perhaps you like where they are coming from in terms of taste, etc.
Their test videos are better when they stick to something they know about, which is western food. Japanese and Chinese soy sauces are fundamentally different, and they should have noted that. There are major differences even among Chinese soy sauces, with light and dark being the most commonly known. So very poor review all the way around, starting with ignorance of cultural qualities.
barkebaat - I also like the taste test segments. They are short because they are taken from the half hour shows. And their equipment reviews are always helpful. I have bought several things because of their recommendations. Lisa McManus is also great at reviews. One does not need a subscription to get the information.
Had a Japanese stepmum, so grew up with Kikkoman since I was a little girl. Have had to switch to low sodium (I am now an old lady). I now cook Japanese food for my widowed Father and he, too, prefers Kikkoman lo-so.
Hi. Please don't waste your money on low sodium soy sauce. It's just regular soy sauce diluted with water. If you really want less sodium soy sauce just add water to regular soy sauce.
I grew used to using/eating Aloha Shoyu from Hawai'i when I was stationed there. Less salty than most, plus they have a low sodium type also.
Yes, Kikkoman for me too 🤩
Jack is an exceptional presenter. Clear, easy to understand, and without any 'ego'. And, I like this better than with an audience "clapping". That was too goofy for me. Oh, and Kikkoman is the only soy sauce brand in my (Thailand) kitchen! Thanks.
Hello- love these type of videos. It helps me to buy without doing all the legwork myself. Thank goodness for this channel.
Back in the early 70’s Kikkoman couldn’t even give the stuff away to American grocery stores.
The salesmen begged them to try and when the purchasers tasted it they thought it was awful.
Finally a rep came up with the idea of convincing the supermarket of bringing in a frying pan and stove and cooking some meat marinated with the Kikkoman soy sauce.
The aroma attracted the attention of customers and people really liked it and that’s how it took off.
Instead of just salt and pepper try seasoning your steak with some soy sauce. Don’t think anyone will regret it.
Kikkomans soy sauce is the main ingredient on everything I grill, steaks, chops, chicken, ribs
I’ve tried it. Steak marinated in soy sauce is disgusting. Now Leo Perrin’s Worcestershire sauce is a very different story. Now that’s where it’s at.
@@johnbarcza5945 You don't use just straight up soy sauce. 🤦♀
Kikkoman low-sodium for me. That one is by far my favorite. Cutting down on the salt allows the other flavors to shine through.
Kikkoman paid them to do advertising for them...
Made in Walworth, Wisconsin, proudly! Pax
I prefer the low salt Kikkoman, but have not seen it here in the Philippines.
The regular to me is acidic and alcohol like. The low sodium tastes so much better. And mine came in a glass jar like theirs.
fyi: you're paying for expensive water. Dilute your regular sodium kikkoman with your own water and you now got low sodium.
We all get used to ingredients and sometimes we want to expand our tastes. I appreciate seeing you try different sources and helping me narrow down what I should try next.
Soy sause in asia has different purposes. There korean soy sauce which is byproduct of soy paste. Japanese ones are sweeter. They are very suitable for japanese food and dipping sauce. They are made with wheat or burley. Tamari is excellent for sushi. There is also tsuyu. This is more for sauce for udon and soba
I think you’re hurting people’s head here. So let’s not, for sake of non-Asians
sake
@@panglebangle9445:
You're making me think of putting a drop of soy sauce into a bottle of sake and just downing it all.
good comment as it shows they no zero about soy sauce
Tsuyu isn't soy sauce. It's the dipping sauce made from combining dashi stock with soy sauce. Also, Japanese soy sauce, like wine, varies considerably. Kikkoman is a good reasonably priced everyday soy sauce. But, there are many others that are brewed longer, much smoother, and more complex. They are superior and preferred as a finishing soy sauce for items like sashimi.
The Ohsawa Nama Shoyu (made by Yamaki Jozo in Japan, traditionally aged in big _kioke_ barrels, for two years if I recall correctly) is definitely the way to go if you're drinking soy sauce. It's the real thing and has excellent flavor, and is now pretty easy to find in US upscale markets, sometimes along similar products like Mitoku Kanazawa Shoyu. But due to it's cost ATK is right that a cheaper mass-market soy sauce like Kikkoman or Yamasa is often the way to go for cooking that requires large amounts of soy sauce, like some chicken adobo recipes I've seen that call for a cup of soy sauce and a cup of rice vinegar. It wouldn't make sense to use the expensive ones.
However, Ohsawa can be quite reasonably priced if you're willing to buy a quart/liter jar at a time. It's usually sold for less than $20. If you're just using soy sauce for dipping then that generally means you only ever use a little at a time and big bottles really last. For that kind of use the higher quality "delicately flavored" soy sauces are really worth considering. A bottle might last you a year or more and you'll really taste it when you do use it.
Ohsawa Nama Shoyu is also lower in sodium than even the low-sodium versions of the big brands like Kikkoman, which I really like, and it's certainly not low on flavor. It just has more nuance and a better taste in my opinion. That comes from aging for a few years rather than a few months and the differences in fermentation practices and equipment. If you're more adventurous you can get some good Japanese labeled stuff not made for export at an Asian specialty food store or online. The best I've tasted is Yamaroku Tsuru Bishio from Shodoshima, very artisanal, but Ohsawa Nama Shoyu is almost as good, has less salt, is less expensive, is imported to the US and actually available in stores here, and is made in a similar traditional way. But if you're interested in artisanal soy sauce there's great footage of Yamaroku on Great Big Story and in Netflix's _Salt Fat Acid Heat._
Ohsawa Nama Shoyu is genuine high-end Japanese soy sauce imported by Ohsawa and available in US supermarkets, so don't feel like you have to import a bottle yourself from Japan. The flavor of Ohsawa is representative of and similar to the other high-end soy sauces I've tried. It's definitely the easiest and generally the least expensive way to buy such sauce in the US and so is the best value if you want to buy high-end soy sauce in the US.
I do recommend buying a bottle of Ohsawa if you want to try a step up from the cheaper mainstream brands produced using modern industrial methods with less aging. It's like a higher-quality olive oil or balsamic vinegar. It can be worth it when you're tasting it, but when used in cooking some dishes it will not always make a significant difference. It's not objectively an expensive food item, just expensive relative to Kikkoman. Small bottles of Ohsawa I see at health food stores for like $6. Bigger bottles give you more ounces per dollar.
Ohsawa also imports from Yamaki some tremendous miso that blows away the domestic miso I've tried. You can get it made from brown rice, soybeans, or barley. Maybe more varieties than that. I've only had the brown rice miso but I'm curious about the barley. I'm about to buy more for my miso soup and many sauces, dressings, and broths their excellent miso has worked it's way into in my kitchen. If you want an appeal to a famous authority, Japanese cookbook author and food writer Nancy Hachisu recommends the Ohsawa soy sauce and miso. She's a fan of their supplier Yamaki Jozo and we're all glad that such quality is now available in the US.
You TOTALLY work for them lol
@@XMetalChefX No, I'm just enthusiastic. Nowadays I buy relatively cheap Trader Joe's reduced sodium soy sauce, which I think tastes great for the price and surprisingly traditional (it is in fact aged for several months). I use that for cooking, and then have a bottle of more expensive imported Japanese soy sauce just for dipping my food in (or pouring over rice sometimes). That only requires about a spoonful per meal. A pint lasts me about a year for one person, so I don't think it's expensive to use and I don't buy the big bottle of Ohsawa anymore (I used to get a quart from Whole Foods), which I still recommend as a better value. The imported Yamaroku Tsuru Bishio has really gone up in price since they started getting internationally famous. When I first started buying them, they were more competitively priced. I may try some other brands someday, but I like what I have and using a little at a time I don't mind spending less than $30 annually on one bottle of really good soy sauce. I really taste it in my food. It's worth the extra cent or two per meal.
It's all on Amazon. Well, not the Trader Joe's sauce, that's at Trader Joe's. Great value, and you can get it in low sodium unlike the fancier sauces.
The big difference is between the brands that you'll find in takeout soy sauce packets (Kikkoman, Yamasa, etc.) and traditionally aged soy sauce. That's a big difference. The differences between the higher quality soy sauces are minor. You can taste the difference side by side, but it's not a huge difference. Generally, the cheapest soy sauces are hugely different from the good ones. You don't have to pay much more. More expensive give diminishing returns. The biggest difference is from the low-end to middle-end. High-end soy sauce is a luxury, and if you're pinching pennies you can live without it just fine. It also depends on your diet and how you use soy sauce.
If you're cooking with it, you won't taste a difference. Like how I cook with the cheapest extra virgin olive oil I can find, but have better ones to eat raw or only slightly cooked. If you're buying expensive foods like sushi that you're going to dip in soy sauce and really taste the sauce, it makes sense to buy really good sauce. With strongly flavored foods, the quality of the sauce may not matter much. And how often you use soy sauce will also factor into whether quality matters to you.
Thanks for the marketing BS corporate shill
It is always very interesting to see how people from a different culture see and evaluate soy sauce.
What a great way to spend my Saturday evening
I always buy kikoman for basic soy sauce needs. I have a general distaste for all la-choy products.
If it has "hydrolyzed soy protein" in the ingredients list, I don't want it. There is no replicating the special, wonderful flavors of a properly fermented sauce in just 2 days of manufacture.
La Choy is what my family always used when I was a kid, mainly because it was the only soy sauce on the shelf at the grocery store. As an adult I use Kikkoman's, but I think I'd like to try that $10 Japanese soy sauce just once. The sticker shock will probably keep me from seeking it out, however. Lol
They give me migraines. They even load up their bean sprouts in MSG.
@@HayTatsuko I found this very interesting from Samin Nosrat's Netflix show, this was the Salt episode - "Yasuo Yamamoto's traditional soy sauce factory: Yamaroku Soy Sauce. A fifth generation soy sauce manufacturer, Yasuo uses kioke barrels to ferment his product, sometimes leaving it for 2 years or more, compared to the average 6 months period used by larger manufacturers. Kioke barrels are the key tool, and ingredient, in the production of traditional soy sauce, because of the millions of beneficial bacteria that call the wood home, and help in the fermentation process. The barrels are an antique technique, and in the whole of Japan there exist only 2 manufacturers, at which Yasuo himself has apprenticed." the barrels alone are made by a very old company that makes it by hand, its such an incredible process.
@@kade82 I was child in the sixties, born in 1959. La Choy was the only soy sauce that I knew as a kid. My wife and I met in 2008, she introduced me to Kikkoman, I have not even tasted La Choy in years. It might take me back to my childhood, but maybe not.
I think Chris K. picked Eden Shoyu Soy Sauce years ago, and I’ve been using it ever since. Everyone who tries it seems to love it
I grew up with kikkoman for almost half my life. But while living in hawaii, I found I preferred aloha soy sauce in the 70s. That still continues to be my go to now even though I now live in calif. So best to one is not best to others.
Love Aloha Shoyu.
Aloha is by far the superior soy sauce
Thank you for sharing! Best presentation video of Soy Sauce!
😊🤗😊🤗
I think you'd find a different favorite if tested in Japan/Korea/China etc. with some testers wondering for WHAT purpose is the particular soy sauce being tested.
Until around 1990 I never knew that anything but La Choy existed as far as soy sauce. It took a ton of cooking shows and a whole food related tv network to wake everyone up to things like Kikkoman.
Three generations of Kikkoman Shoyu here! 🎌
Shoyu chicken yuppers!!
Just knew that Kikkoman was going to win. It's fairly affordable as well. However I would still stick with Lee Kum Kee as a personal preference, specifically with the deluxe gold version
My choice is Pearl River Bridge Light Soy first then Kikkoman. Both are available readily in our local supermarket. Honorable mention goes to Aloha Shoyu which is made in Hawaii.
Aloha’s flavor is pretty good but tends to be a little weak for me in general.
I keep reading comments about this Pearl River. I will need to look for it. And I like their name, too. Thanks from Texas.
You are lucky to have Pearl River Bridge soy sauce in your supermarket. I have to get mine at an Asian supermarket in my closest big city 45 min away. I always grab a bottle of the light and a bottle of the dark mushroom. I combine the two along with toasted sesame oil when making my stir fry or fried rice. SO GOOD!
For those that are Celiacs, gluten free is essential and we use low sodium Tamari in place of Soy Sauce. We get a less salty ingredient with great flavor.
Pearl River Bridge is my favorite
(It’s Chinese, medium darkness)
KIMLAN BRO FIGHT ME
48956l
I’m glad you’ve found something you like.
But confrontational advocacy is the least effective way to attempt to influence my opinion. (And no, I don’t think I’ll rush right out to try it, either. Maybe eventually.)
PRB light is my favorite.
Kurtis Kroon how much do you even bench dude
I've tried them all and Pearl River Bridge is a clear winner in my estimation. My Hawaiian wife, who grew up on Shoyu and Kikkoman, also agrees.
I cannot recommend enough that you round-eyes experiment with using "marudaizu" or "whole bean" spy sauce. I think Chinese translate it as fancy or luxurious or something like that.
As the guy said, tamari only tastes saltier because it is less sweet. That's what the wheat brings to regular soy sauce. I like using that with sushi. Maybe I'm weird.
Informative, but I do wish the sample size was much larger.
It was.
10 to be exact. But you have to join their site to see full reviews of what they test.
If you want to see full test of other brands you have to go through their paywall. This is true of other test conducted by ATK
ok so here in Canada we use a lot of China Lily and kikkoman. China Lily is very dark with such great flavor. I've never heard of any of these except kikkoman. thanks kids.
These folks need to grab the 50+ brands in any Asian store. Then we'll talk.
Frank Tedesco You know they test large varieties of soy sauce right? But they only show few example here in the video. If you want to see full test of other brands you have to go through their paywall. This is true of other test conducted by ATK
@@Mryodamiles Also, they tend to test what will most likely be available to you in your local supermarket.
@@jpaliwal That's the most important part. There are large parts of the country where there aren't Asian groceries (or the closest one is an inconvenient distance/time away).
In Malaysia we use black soy sauce to mix with rice, chicken, fish, and also potato even we can make it to be sauce for Fried banana, fried sweet potato or fried cassava. And it taste very much great and delicious.
Just bought some Lee Kum Kee double fermented soy sauce...very rich with complex flavor...can’t wait to play around with it
Would've done the same thing as Bridget. Grew up with La Choy as the condiment soy sauce of choice, so I know that flavor well. I've bought Kikkoman for about 10 years now, but I have to admit when I go home to the parents ... I'm actually happy to have some of the La Choy again.
I think it's merely "what we grew up with" though. And I get why people love Kikkoman.
Without consciously comparing flavors, I have drifted toward Kikkoman over time.
My wife is Asian from SE Asia and a great cook. We have a number of true Asian supermarkets in our area but she only buys Kikkoman low sodium.
All i knew was VH soy sauce for 23years, then we ran out of some out the house, I picked up kikkomans, we havent switched back
My stir-fry’s are always flavored with 1 tbs Pearl River Bridge light soy sauce, 1 tbs Pearl River Bridge dark mushroom soy sauce, 1 tsp toasted sesame oil and a dash of sugar. On point with authentic Chinese takeout as long as you remember to include some fresh ground ginger root. I could eat fried rice with these flavors everyday. The rice has to be half Tai Jasmine and half American white long grain. So good!
You ladies are so inspiring!! I really never enjoyed cooking till I started watching your videos. Keep up the great work!
At the opening, he said they round up 10 best soy, but only four very tested and tasted. I wish more samples were tried. We love the Kikkoman soy and use it almost daily. However, when cooking, we use a variety of Chinese, mostly Lee Kim Kee soy to get a certain flavor or color.
I wonder if they tested my favorite, Kimlan. I like their pick as well.
My favorite too - they have low sodium too.
Kimlan is what I put in my Kikkoman dispenser.
My favorite too.
As always, great show, great presentation from 'the best'. A big thank you to Jack & Bridget. 👍😎❤
My favorite is Lee Kum Kee. Ive always found it to have the right balance.
The fact that it wasn't even in the pack was a let down for me. It is the light soy that even Chinese people choose.
Try Lee Kum Kee premium soy.
Interestingly enough, in an article on the Cook's Country website, they recommended Lee Kum Kee. www.cookscountry.com/how_tos/6467-getting-to-know-asian-condiments
I totally agree. It's my favorite as well.
@@halfthefiber Maybe because they are a sponsor of Cook's Country!
I grew up with Kikkoman, and it's good, but I've happily used San-J reduced sodium Tamari (white label with red circle) for decades. I love to try special varieties for different things, but the San-J Tamari is my go-to.
Kikkoman or Yamasa is what I buy, I saw a pic of Yamasa in the thumbnail, I wonder how it tested, I am gonna hazard a guess it was pretty close to Kikkoman.
@Vikingr Beerdserkr Their website usually lists notes from everything they tested.
@@ncooty thanks!
Yamasa tastes better for the price imo, although the Kikkoman Marudaizu is really good. The one I really love is the Yamaroku kioke soy sauce, but that stuff is $20 per 18 oz. bottle.
Yamasa, from Japan, is what’s used in high end Japanese restaurants.
They also don’t mention that there’s two ways to ferment soy sauce. The organic soy sauce is fermented for two years using traditional cedar vats - some of which are over a century old. However most fermented soy sauce is made in stainless steel vats and usually fermented less than a year. The BBC website had an interesting article about a month ago about efforts in Japan to preserve the traditional process.
Not surprised. my wife (who is Japanese) won't let me buy anything except Kikkoman.
Have you ever tried Kyoto shoyu?
La choy has added sugar which sucks.
I use the imported Japanese Organic Kikkoman. There is a reason you see a lot of the Asian you tubers use it, it’s a bit nicer and less processed tasting than the American kikkoman. That said, I’ve also got bottles of Korean soup soy sauce and two different Chinese soy sauces as well so I’ve got more options to compare it to.
and my Ex-Wife, who is Chinese, is always telling me I am using the wrong soy sauce for a particular application.
@@haroldellis9721 Yup, there are different types of soy for different applications. Japanese food gets Kikkoman. Chinese food I need at least 3 kinds. A dark, (I use for certain noodle dishes and meats) a regular, (most commonly used for dipping) and a light (for congee and soups), and for some applications even a super dark --but I don't make those dishes......they are not interchangeable at all. Using the wrong soy sauce changes the flavor of the dish. OH, and NEVER LA CHOY
I like the winner too. Cheap and easy to find!
Higashimaru or Yamasa are better, in my opinion but you have to live near a Japanese specialty market. I also found that the kikkoman tamari (black and gold bottle) is much better than the san-j stuff that you normally find, but I can only seem to find it at Japanese markets as well. Kikkoman is definitely the best supermarket stuff by far.
The san-j had a strange off flavor to me as well. Not pleasant at all.
wellivea1 I’ve found Yamasa in regular supermarkets now and then but I usually go to a Japanese market for the big bottle. It’s the best.
@@fisch723 I've never seen it in normal supermarkets here in NC but I'll keep my eyes open for it.
ATK is a family favorite - We love you all - stay safe
Family favorite has been Kikkoman for over 30 years. I lived in Okinawa for 3 1/2 yrs. The soy sauce from there is not available where I live.
My favorite is the Kikkoman Made in Japan, you’d have to check the label since it’s at some stores and not at others. It is miles ahead of their US version even. It must be fermented longer
For many of us who regularly use soy sauce/tamari I really wish they done more with the sauces you find at an Asian market. Interesting that Kikkoman came out on top of these four, though. I've used San-J a lot.
my thai wife has a whole cabinet full of soy sauces ie mushroom, light, dark, sweet, golden mountain, etc etc. she uses different sauces and combination of sauces for different purposes. along with fish and oyster sauces. there's a whole science going on there.. i'm a lucky man
Hopefully she has some toasted sesame oil kicking around. That’s another magic potion.
I wish they had labeled this “Japanese soy sauce” or Shoyu because they aren’t the same as other Asian soy sauces like Korean or Chinese sauces. Some sauces are more salty, others sweeter, or more funky because that’s what you use them for in those cuisines. Japanese soy sauce can taste down right weird in certain Chinese dishes for example. I had the same issue with their fish sauce tasting. Thai, Viet, Chinese and Korean fish sauces are all different for legitimate reasons.
It just shows they know nothing about soy sauce and you can tell how they picked it.
I'm with you. Considering they like to set themselves up as experts they didn't even bother discussing this. I'm no expert and even I know that there is a difference between Japanese and Chinese soy sauces. I had always hated soy sauce because all I'd tasted was kikkoman. I discovered that Chinese soy sauce is sooo much more flavorful and with a lot less salt. Lately I also get the reduced salt versions as well. Even the generic Winco low salt version taste so much better to me.
I have both Kikkoman and la choy. La choy is my favorite all purpose soy sauce. Kikkoman is lighter on the saltiness and works well with wasabi
Kukkiman is way, way to salty, I am truly blessed living in Edmonton Alberta. My two local supermarkets have very large Asian sections with over 40 verieties of soy sauces. It gets even better with a dedicated Asian supermarket also nearby called T&Ts
Phillip Mulligan Totally agree with you. Also in Edmonton and 5 minutes from T&T. Presently own 5 different soy sauce varieties.
Phillip Mulligan yamasa low sodium is my go to
Not too salty but tasty
Try Yamasa from Japan, it’s the best and used in a lot of high end Japanese restaurants.
@@TheIkaika777 I have used it. I love it. Occasionally, I see it in regular super markets. A 150ml regulated spout bottle is about $6. Not bad pricing wise. When I see it, I tend to snap up 2 or 3 of them knowing it's availably is sporadic.
My Chinese friend said that Kikkoman was pretty good approximation of what they had in Hong Kong when his parents first came to the US. Of course, there are plenty of others such as Pearl River Bridge on the low end and more expensive ones from Japan.
Wish Jack would have discussed all the fake soy sauces on the market...not just the ones that are not fermented but the ones that do not use soybeans in the process.
I wanna hear about those!
That’s LaChoy lol. I grew up on that one and can’t stand it now. I even got my parents to FINALLY convert to Kikkoman!
Just stay away from them is you need to know.
I made the mistake of buying DOLLAR TREE soy sauce once. 🤮🤑🤑 it tasted like paint remover.
@@pauly5418 Amen brother! That crap is, well... Crap! 🤣
Yamaroku aged 4 years soy sauce is the best tasting sauce in the world! Complex and rich umami flavor. Slight tingly sweet flavor note and rich fermented soy beans flavor. A real nice kick to the salty and savory flavor!
Did you test Pearl River Bridge(mushroom flavored soy sauce) brand?
Cantonese use 2 different type of soy sauces, one lighter in color, used for adding flavor, usually for stir-fry or dipping, one darker, such as the mushroom flavored one you pointed out, is for coloring mostly, or stewed/slow cook.
@@brucel7430 yes, mushroom soy is too heavy for dipping, its a cooking sauce for braising.
I use Ohsawa Nama Shoyu organic in everything. It’s the best soya sauce in the American market so far.
I wish they said more about how many brands they explored and how they cooked with them. Myself, I like Kimlan. But you need an Asian store to find it. But drinking soy sauce from a glass is just not good--as would be the case, too, with fish sauces.
Mine too. They also have good low sodium.
If you want to see full test of other brands you have to go through their paywall. This is true of other test conducted by ATK
Couple of things. The expensive brand one is actually Shoyu. Which is Japanese Soy Sauce. Its thinner, milder, and that particular product is a dipping shoyu. Javanese shoyu addsjrice and barley usually to the fermenting process.
Kikkoman I agree is the best all around soy sauce, however I prefer the lower sodium version for a dipping sauce straight. If you are combining the soy with other ingredients use full on kikkoman.
Usually you add mirin to tamari to make it have a sweeter balance.
I think putting Japanese style soy sauces vs Chinese style sauce as though they were the same thing makes about as much sense as including ketchup in a mexican salsa tasting.
This is apples and oranges guys.
they are more similar to each than apples are to oranges or ketchup is to salsa. But, yes, I do agree with the basic premise. The soy sauces are different in taste. However, I've never prepared the same dish side by side with, say, Yamasa in one & Pearl River Bridge in the other to see what the outcome is. Might be a fun experiment.
@@km6206 Iirc Kikkoman in Europe is manufactured in like the Netherlands or something, but it's the only Japanese brand I've tried, and it tasted just like the Chinese light soys I get (Pearl River Bridge, Lee Kum Kee), I was really shocked how similar they tasted side by side considering the Kikkoman is over 3 times the price. However I've started buying a type of Philippian soy sauce by Datu Puti which is called Toyomansi, which is a combination of soy with hints of Calamansi which is a Phillipian lemon (kinda tastes more like a cross between an orange and a lime to me) which makes it interesting and adds a nice sourness so you don't need to mess about with vinegars or whatever for your food.
My Thanksgiving turkey game changed when I found Kikkoman's video on using it in a brine. Happy to see it winning out!
Did you test Yamasa? If so, where does it rank? I like Kikkoman but prefer Japanese soy sauce to Chinese soy sauce. IMO, Yamasa is by far the best. I’m surprised it wasn’t at least on the table. Cheers.
Yamasa for me also.
Every Asian cooking class I’ve taken the chefs all recommended kikkoman as a good general all purpose soy sauce
They had different recommendations for different purposes (maninades, dipping, soups.etc) but said if cost & availability were an issue then kikkoman was the best
I’ve also noticed that several of the Asian cooking channels I follow they have that industrial size bottle of kikkoman soy sauce to refill their soy sauce bottles
Always nice when the brand you use is the winner.
8 different bottles and only 4 choices...
I found so much more respect for this guy when I learned that he is much more to
ATK than the taste test guy.
I like using the San-J Reduced Sodium Tamari.
I like all of their products. AND, it's brewed in Japan. It's the real deal. That said, it's a bit strong for sushi dipping.
I love San J Tamari. Very complex to me vs the typical American supermarket brands. Bottom of the rankings and one dimensional?? Not to me.
Like wine, garlic, vinegar and bitters, some foods are rather assertive by themselves - they need other elements to bring out their hidden flavors - soy sauce needs to be traditionally brewed and aged, regardless of what it is made of (wheat vs no wheat) and used sparingly in order to utilize it's subtle characteristics - this taste test illustrates how complex flavors can be
I like the Kikkoman low sodium with the green label
Yes! ✅
Yep, green label Kikkoman is all I buy.
Bragg liquid aminos any good? That's what I normally use but I don't have much to compare it with
My favorite is Kikkoman as well. Good balance of salty and sweet, and price is good also.
100% agree with your choice. Kikkoman's the only Soy Sauce I use and I've used it for decades. Yes; tried others and never liked them. Your video also reminded me that I used the last bit of my Soy Sauce (Kikkoman) 2 weeks ago and again forgot to buy another bottle. It's now on my list. :)
Finally! Something familiar to me! That’s the one I use!,,,
Whew, I was getting nervous there, I’m glad the panel picked Kikoman. Tried and true.
Why is La Choy even in the test!
Paul Smith - EXACTLY! There is NOTHING even vaguely Asian about La Choy!
Jack said they rounded up the 10 best selling brands. So there's many that weren't taken into consideration.
@@daveogarf it's like the crap that Chinese takeout gives you!
Because the tests have to include The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.
Maybe it's in the top 10 selling list because of price alone?
As a kid growing up in the Great Lakes area, I would have an oriental style food once in a while. I would dash on some soy sauce. Or, thought that I was.
My first duty station in the U.S. Air Force was in northern Japan. That was 1961. There, I was introduced to Kikkoman soy sauce. WOW!!! What a difference. If I added one part Kikkoman to five parts water, I would again have the American soy sauce that I had grown up with. Yuck.
A new friend that I met there, explained it well. “After Japanese soy sauce, American soy sauce is just a bitter disappointment.”
BINGO! He encapsulated the entire subject in one sentence.
Courtesy of Half Vast Flying
These tests would be better with a broader range of examples.
Michael Burke Their actual testing is with many more brands. The video segments are just a brief summary.
You know they test large varieties of soy sauce right? But they only show few example here in the video. If you want to see full test of other brands you have to go through their paywall. This is true of other test conducted by ATK
LOVE Kikkoman! I particularly like the ponzu citrus and ponzu lime.
WaJa Shan? Yamasa? Kimlan? Pear River? Missing some real good ones here.
Yes to Yamasa!!!
Yamasa is what you find in most restaurants.
Completely agree. Kimlan is my favorite and and not too salty. Pearl River mushroom for cooking. Going to have to try Yamasa
@@jjdawg9918 Japanese soy sauces cannot be used in chinese cooking, it tastes all wrong...it's fine for dipping only
Yamasa is my favourite
I would like to see them do a low salt taste test. Soy sauce has WAY TOO MUCH SALT in it.
Kimlan low sodium is very good
Just add water. Boom.
Low sodium isn't just diluted soy sauce (by adding water). It is just less salt in the normal brew. Very different than adding water.
Not surprised Kikkoman won, that's my favorite soy sauce. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Kimlan yellow bottle is the best out there. It's cheap and tastes amazing for cooking.
Agreed! Thanks from Texas.
I order it by the gallon. I consider Kikkoman unacceptable in comparison.
I only use San-J Tamari. And most of their products are gluten free. They have really good flavored sauces too - orange, peanut, Mongolian etc.
BTW, they also have reduced sodium
What no Kimlan? The true take out soy sauce
Love Kimlan, I use all the different types. Chinese cooking requires mixtures of different soy sauces for different applications.
Kimlan is my the best. Kikkoman is disgusting. I should know, I drown my stir fried rice in soy sauce. Thanks from Texas.
Kimlan has good low sodium version too
I must stick with Tamari since I have gluten issues, but now I understand that I need to add a bit of sweetness to balance it out.
Thanks 😘
All the shelves in Hawaii for soy sauce are out of Kikkoman. I had to buy the reduced salt version. Can hardly tell the difference!
As a topping or dipping the low sodium Kikkoman is the best. The original flavor I use for cooking.
the difference is that low sodium has lactic acid in it, so if you eat it with vinegar rice you probably wont notice. i would still go for the regular stuff once they become available again.
I buy Yamasa, the best. Better than Kikkoman and way better than Aloha Shoyu.
Kikkoman is my choice too.
Kikkoman is the Heinz ketchup of soy sauces. It’s on the tables in thousands of restaurants across the US. Made right here in Wisconsin, just spitting distance from millions of acres of Illinois soybeans.
Lee Kum Kee is my favorite
Matthew Hunter Mine too. Just found out they have a mushroom flavor...Ive always used the Premium version.
Mine too. Lite and dark
We use Kikkoman for sauces & marinades, but prefer Pearl River mushroom soy sauce on rice or to add to dishes. Did you test Pearl River? If yes how did it do in the testing?