Selling Japanese miso in individual portions called ‘miso drops’ seen as a way to keep small-scale breweries and tradition of fermented foods alive
- After trying traditional miso when she was sick, Motomi Takahashi was alarmed to learn that many of the small breweries in Japan that make it were closing
- She resolved to help keep them open and pioneered single-serve ‘miso drops’ in place of family-sized portions that are unsuitable for people living alone
Alarmed by the gradual disappearance of small-scale miso breweries that have been a key part of Japan’s tradition of fermented foods, an entrepreneur is on a mission to save such enterprises with her “miso drops” invention – balls of the soybean paste made the traditional way that can be easily made into individual soup servings for busy, health-conscious consumers.
The products are the brainchild of Motomi Takahashi, who was won over to the dietary benefits of miso made using traditional techniques when she was recovering from an illness that led to surgery in 2016.
The miso drops, produced by hand and sold in elegantly presented sets, are flavoured with vegetable stock. Just add hot water, stir and wait for 30 seconds.
Most miso soup products in Japan use soybean paste mass-produced at factories. According to Takahashi, their flavours lack the richness of miso matured in traditional wooden barrels at small breweries, which are often family-run enterprises handed down the generations.
“When I was recovering from the illness, I happened to get miso from a brewery in Tokushima prefecture as a gift and drank soup made from it every day. I was shocked to learn the difference in taste from that of instant products, and got well very quickly,” she says.