Kaki Dashi Shoyu: Oyster Flavored Soy Sauce

A few days ago, I checked Amazon Japan’s popularity rankings of soy sauce and found two Kaki Shoyu (牡蠣醤油) brands in the top 5.

As Kaki (牡蠣) is the Japanese word for oyster, while Shoyu (醤油) is soy sauce, Kaki Shoyu or Kaki Dashi Shoyu is oyster-flavored soy sauce. 

Higashimaru Kaki Dashi Shoyu

Yesterday, I stopped by a supermarket on my way home from work, and in the seasoning section, luckily, I could find one of the two products.

There were over a dozen varieties of soy sauce there, and most had plenty of stock. But regarding the Kaki Dashi Shoyu, only a few were left.

Honestly, I had never tried oyster-flavored soy sauce until then, when I was just attracted to the fact that the Dashi Shoyu was trending and grabbed it after all.

This soy sauce is from the Hyogo-based Shoyu maker Higashimaru Shoyu, and it was not as expensive as I thought, priced at 360 yen or so (about 2.9 USD) per 400 ml.

Taste

The Kaki Shoyu looks like regular soy sauce, but it packs a ton of umami from oyster, kombu, and bonito and tastes like Sato Shoyu (砂糖醤油: soy sauce sweetened with sugar).

Although the umami flavor is similar to the sweetness of sugar, it mainly comes from oyster extract, and the taste is delicate and exquisite.

Ingredients

Specifically, based on the ingredients list on the side of the bottle,

the Kaki Dashi Shoyu consists of honjozo soy sauce, high-fructose corn syrup, reduced starch syrup, sugar, salt, brewed vinegar, oyster extract, protein hydrolysate (from nori seaweed), yeast extract, kombu extract, bonito, alcohol, and amino acid seasoning.

Uses

This oyster-flavored soy sauce is not that salty, loaded with umami, and goes well with various things, including Tamago-Kake Gohan, beefsteak, and cold tofu or Hiyayakko.

In many cases, it can be used in place of regular soy sauce and make dishes more flavorful and delicious!