Yu Ding Xing

濁水琥珀黑豆醬油

Name: Amber River Soy Sauce
Brand: Yu Ding Xing
SKU: YX020300
Price: 24.00 USD
Availability: InStock
Rating: 5.0 (11 reviews)

Amber River Soy Sauce

$24.00

(11)

Quantity

Version

Just One

Just One + Pour Spout (Save 5%)

Set of Three (Save 7%)

This premium Taiwanese soy sauce is handmade the traditional way, using just single-origin Taiwanese black soybeans (Tainan #5), salt, water, and sugar. No yellow soybeans and no wheat, which makes this soy sauce gluten-free.

Almost all wheat-free soy sauces in Taiwan incorporate a bit of sugar to brighten the flavor, in the absence of the sweet flavor profile of wheat. We wouldn't describe this soy sauce as sweet, but we do offer a sugar-free version, as well, for those who prefer it.

Think of it as the cherry-on-top for your dish. Its mellow, chocolate-y, and umami flavor shines straight out the bottle, so you can use it as a dip or a finishing drizzle over light dishes like steamed fish.

Yu Ding Xing's Amber River Soy Sauce is exemplary of the best Taiwanese soy sauces. Because it's made using black soybeans, which are mellower and sweeter than their yellow counterpart, the brew has deep umami.

The black soybeans are steamed in bamboo baskets, cultured with koji, then fermented with sea salt in earthenware pots. After 450 days, the soy sauce is heated over a wood fire, which halts the fermentation process. The black soybeans, which are mellower and sweeter than their yellow counterpart, are also higher in protein, lending deep umami to the final brew.

Tasting Notes and Usage

salty, umami, mellow, with chocolate and barnyard undertones

Use as a dip for sashimi or a finishing soy sauce, drizzled over lightly flavored dishes like steamed fish or congee.

Ingredients and Instructions

Water, single-origin non-GMO Taiwanese black soybeans, sea salt, sugar

Contains soy. Gluten free.
No preservatives.

Volume: 10.1 fl oz / 300 ml

Shelf stable for 2 years from printed manufacturing date. Keep refrigerated after opening.

About Yu Ding Xing

Based 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.

SKU: YX020300

STARTING WITH THE RIGHT BEAN

Taiwanese soy sauce begins with the black soybean. Compared to yellow soybean, its higher protein content produces deeper umami flavor when fermented. Yu Ding Xing also produces soy sauce in the Chinese and Japanese traditions using a blend of soybeans.

INTRODUCING KOJI culture

After the soybeans are pressure cooked, Yu Ding Xing inoculates them with koji culture. For Taiwanese-style soy sauce, they add toasted rice bran to assist the koji with fermentation, whereas for Chinese or Japanese-style soy sauce, they add wheat.

Fermenting Flavor in Clay Vats

Following a few days of initial fermentation, the beans are rinsed, mixed with sea salt and water, then packed into a terracotta vat to ferment under the sun for at least six months. Many vats at Yu Ding Xing are decades-old.

ROASTING OVER A WOOD FIRE

The brew is extracted from the vat, pressed, then heated over a wood fire to stop the fermentation process. Although labor-intensive, slow-cooking the soy sauce over a fire enhances its flavor.