How it's made
More than three years
We strive to do everything ourselves. Our soy sauce is the result of a journey that takes more than three years, from soil to bottle. We oversee every step, every detail. That’s how our craft, and our team, are built.
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Absolute beginners
We still see ourselves as absolute beginners, and we are. Ten years in, and we’re certain we haven’t brewed our best soy sauce yet.
Soil
Our starting point
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Our relentless search for flavour has led us to our soils which, in hindsight, seems obvious. Yet when we started, this wasn’t our initial motivation. The reason for growing our own produce was to be fully autonomous when it comes to our raw materials. We could never have wished for all the opportunities that came through that same door. We are strong believers in the connection between nutritional value and flavour. While looking into the nutritional value of our raw materials, we ended up in the soil
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Healthy soil provides nutrient-dense food. But what makes soil healthy? A healthy soil depends on the balance between three key elements: microbiology, minerals, and organic matter. Once in balance, the natural power of the soil is restored, allowing it to give what it has to offer. All of our farming principles are built to do just that. Discover more about this below. A healthy soil depends on the balance between 3 key elements being; microbiology, minerals and organic matter. Once in balance, the natural power of the soil is restored, allowing it to give what it has to offer. All of our farming principles are built to do just that. Discover more about this below.
Seeds
Seeds matter
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The start of life! Sounds a bit bombastic, maybe, but it’s true. For us, it has been the start of a journey fueled by curiosity. It’s the unknown that makes it so appealing. We basically started our journey with a search for the highest-quality seeds. A search that led us to all kinds of institutes. It enables us to test and grow varieties that hadn’t seen the light of day for decades, or even centuries.
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For us, it’s a never-ending work in progress, and it already has a major impact on our decision-making. We don’t grow for quantity; we grow for quality. And therefore, seed selection plays a significant role. In parallel, we can play and experiment with new and old varieties of seeds. Wheat and soybeans are two of our main ingredients, but the search doesn’t stop there. We try to grow our own sesame seeds, rice, peppers, and sweet sorghum too. All to become totally autonomous when it comes to our ingredients. We don’t always succeed. We fail (a lot), but it helps us better understand our core process.
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“What you grow, matters. We believe flavour can succeed where commodification has failed. ”
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Thomas Uljee
Founder - Head of Tomorrow
Farming principles
Restore and enhance nature
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The initial goal was to grow for quality instead of quantity and it still is. However, we’ve learned that when done right, both can go hand in hand. Our farming principles are ever-evolving. Many have tried to capture it and use all sorts of labels that mean more or less the same. We prefer to keep it stupid simple. Our goal is to leave more behind than we found, which results in a set of farming practices that work with nature instead of against it.
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This requires a more holistic mindset, genuine interaction, and a hyper-local approach. It’s not suitable for convenient checklists, audits, or certifications. We also don’t feel comfortable pointing fingers or telling people what they should do. We do what works for us and leave it up to you to decide whether that’s good or bad. Let your own eyes and ears be our certificate.
''Curiosity is what keeps things moving.''
Thomas Uljee
Founder - Head of tomorrow
Brewery
Never not learning
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Finally… you’ve made it! All the way down to chapter four, the actual process of making soy sauce, or shoyu if you like. We could settle for a pragmatic explanation of how soy sauce is made, but that’s something you can easily look up yourself. What’s more interesting to share is what we believe in.
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We brew our soy sauce with respect for traditions that are centuries old. However, we’ve learned by trial and error and in doing so, we’ve made the process our own. Some practices will sound familiar; others are simply the result of us trying to do the best we can. Listening to our senses is at the heart of everything we do. It’s all done by hand, and that personal touch is something we couldn’t do without. It helps us, step by step, to better understand what’s happening throughout the entire process.
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Traditional soy sauce brewing involves four main ingredients: soybeans, wheat, salt, and water. Fermentation is a vital part of the process, the longer the soy sauce ferments, the deeper and more complex the flavour becomes. Tomasu soy sauce is fermented and aged for a minimum of 24 months in former American white oak whisky barrels, specially sourced from some of the world’s finest distilleries. Using these barrels as aging vessels leads to a rich, truly one-of-a-kind taste.
We learn by doing. All by hand, guided by our senses.
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Piet van Westen
Founder - Head of Product
Attitude
Serious fun
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The very last, and least tangible part of our product is our interaction with the outside world. Everything we do is fueled by the sum of our interactions with real human beings. Not constructed but developed organically. We strive to be an open platform where we can invite, share, and learn with and from like-minded people.
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Our product is the result of a creative process. It’s all about the people who use and work with Tomasu. They help shape us, our team and our product. Whether you’re a multiple Michelin-star chef, journalist, researcher, student, farmer, artist, or hobby enthusiast… the door is open to everyone. We love to share what we have and what we don’t have, because those interactions are crucial in fueling our curiosity. Our strategy is pretty simple: if we like it (a lot), we’ll do it. And if not, we’ll politely say no. It means we’re only limited by our own personal taste and network. To be honest, this attitude has helped us surround ourselves with a crazy amount of like-minded people. It’s safe to say that this has been the most gratifying element of our journey.
“Fun always beats smart. A core principle we take very seriously”
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Bert Mulder
Founder - Head of Today
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