In collaboration with the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), we held an event at the Twitter HQ building in San Francisco to promote the use of wooden barrel (kioke) soy sauce with ramen. This event was live- streamed on YouTube and we connected to the Yamaroku Soy Sauce brewery in Shodoshima, Japan via Zoom. The owner himself gave us a tour of the brewery facilities and kioke barrels currently in use. Participants asked many questions and the event was so exciting that we ended up going a bit longer than scheduled. The long-awaited soy sauce tasting was followed by a pairing with dishes using five types of kioke soy sauce (white soy sauce, dark soy sauce, organic dark soy sauce, tamari soy sauce and re-finished soy sauce), as well as kioke soy sauce ramen. We hope we were able to convey some of the differences between the soy sauces and the excellence of kioke soy sauce. We were honored to have distinguished guests such as the Consul General of San Francisco, guest chefs and members of the media in attendance. In the end, we were all very proud of our efforts and turnout.

Soy sauce is an essential component of ramen. We are happy that the delicious soy sauce made in traditional Japanese wooden barrels is becoming known around the world.