Japanese Soy Sauce Ice Cream by Kamada Shoyu

I had tried miso ice cream before and thought it was marvellous. I think there is something special when the rich complex flavours of fermented sauces such as miso mix with salt and creamy milk. It's probably why salted caramel is also such a winning combination - although the complexity comes from the heat/burning of the caramel.

So when I saw shoyu ice cream at Meidi-ya, I pounced on the chance to try it.

And I was right! The umami and salt of the shoyu went perfectly with the milky cream and egg yolk! If you have tried rich Japanese shoyu, you'll notice that the flavor is very complex, almost winey, which could be why a lot of dashis pair shoyu with some form of Japanese wine.

This particular ice cream was made not by an ice cream specialist, but by a shoyu specialist. Kamada Soy Sauce was apparently established in 1789. More than 200 years of brewing! Nonetheless, it was manufactured in Hokkaido with 100% Hokkaido milk.

There was also honey in the ingredients list, so quite a lot of gastronomic pairing skill probably went into it, which explains the excellent execution of the flavour. It tasted very premium indeed.

I got this at the Millennia Walk Meidi-ya in January 2023, which has many other interesting gourmet ice cream flavours from niche Japanese manufacturers, so the stocks come and go. If you visit, you might not always see the same products, but there'll probably be something else interesting.

For other interesting ice cream flavours, check out these posts which include Japanese red snow crab ice cream, herbal ice cream and seaweed ice cream.