A New Chapter for our Sweet Spicy Soy Sauce

Some things take longer than expected. Years ago, when we started making our Sweet Spicy Soy Sauce, we knew one thing for certain: someday, we wanted to grow the peppers ourselves. Not because it would be easier. Quite the opposite.

At Tomasu, we are always looking for ways to make it more personal. Partly out of curiosity, partly out of a desire for autonomy. We like to learn as much as we can about every ingredient that goes into our products, from its origin to its final expression.

For peppers, that journey turned out to bequite  a long one. Over the years, we experimented with countless plants, growing methods and pepper varieties. Some thrived, others did not. Seasons differed. Results fluctuated. We learned a lot, but producing enough peppers for a product we could offer all year remained just out of reach. Whenever we harvested our own peppers, we bottled them separately as a limited edition. Many of you came to know these releases through our Madame Jeanette Sweet Spicy Soy Sauce (that yellow bottle), a project that allowed us to share both our progress and our enthusiasm along the way.

But the goal was never a limited edition. Our goal was to make homegrown peppers our standard. Today, after years of testing, failing, learning and growing, we can finally say that we have reached that point. From now on, our Sweet Spicy Soy Sauce will be made with peppers grown by us (if everything goes according to plan). All this wouldn’t be possible with the help of Wageningen University, Zorgboerderij Beversoord and Sander and his team at Dutch Wasabi. This means that both the original Sweet Spicy Soy and the limited Madame Jeanette Soy will make way for a single product: our new Sweet Spicy Soy Sauce.

Inside the bottle, you will find the same balance of umami, sweet-heat and depth that has always defined the sauce. Besides the peppers, only two details tell the story of this new chapter: the pepper plant on the label and its color. Yellow replaces red, marking the shift from an ingredient we sourced, to one we now grow ourselves.

For us, this change represents much more than a new label. It marks years of experimentation, failure, patience and persistence. It reflects our belief that great products start with understanding every step of the process. And it brings us one step closer to where want to be: independent, curious and genuinely connected to the ingredients we work with.

There is one more thing to share. Our sambal is made from what remains of this same soy sauce, which is why it follows the soy instead of launching at the same time. We will tell you the moment is there.

We are incredibly proud of all of this. And we are glad to finally share it with you.

Enjoy.