Written by: Jin Fujisaki / Published: 2026-01-14
When you think of soy sauce, you think black. Most people would agree.
And yet — it's transparent, but it really does taste like soy sauce.
That's the idea brought to life as "Clear Soy Sauce." This isn't some gimmicky condiment that simply had its color stripped away.
It's a "new kind of soy sauce" designed to honor the color and the flavor of ingredients at the same time.
- | What is Clear Soy Sauce?
- | Why this form?
- | How to use it: adding flavor without breaking the color
- | The taste and the experience
- | It's not just clear soy sauce — meet the "Clear Series"
- | Who is it for?
- | Conclusion | What you can see once the color is gone
- | Related links
| What is Clear Soy Sauce?
image Fundodai
Clear Soy Sauce is a colorless soy sauce with the dark pigments removed. Made from authentic brewed dark soy sauce as its base, it goes through a unique clarification process, resulting in a seasoning that is as clear as water in appearance, while preserving the saltiness and umami inherent to soy sauce.
In other words, it doesn't just lose its color — the flavor and aroma that define soy sauce remain firmly intact. This concept itself could be called a "reinvention of soy sauce."
| Why this form?
image Fundodai
Because traditional soy sauce is black, it has a way of masking the colors of the ingredients it touches. The vibrant hues of sashimi or vegetables get muddied by that brown tint — have you ever felt that something was off about how a dish looked because of this?
Clear Soy Sauce was born to answer the desire to show the natural colors of ingredients exactly as they are.
- It doesn't disturb the colors of ingredients
- It's less likely to stain clothes or the table
- It draws attention to the appeal of soy sauce beyond its "color"
These are new values that emerge simply by removing the color.
| How to use it: adding flavor without breaking the color
image Fundodai
The greatest feature of Clear Soy Sauce is that it adds flavor while preserving appearance.
For example,
- Sashimi and carpaccio
- Brightly colored salads
- Western-style pasta and fish dishes
- A secret ingredient in any cuisine — Japanese, Western, or Chinese
It's incredibly handy in any scene where you want a dish's colors to shine through as they are. Precisely because it adds no color, you can enjoy the vibrancy of your ingredients while fine-tuning the flavor.
You don't have to worry about the "color influence" that ordinary soy sauce inevitably brings — you just add the flavor. That is the strength of Clear Soy Sauce.
| The taste and the experience
image Fundodai
Just because it's transparent doesn't mean it's weak in flavor. Clear Soy Sauce is a seasoning that delivers both the saltiness and the umami of soy sauce. In situations where salt alone wouldn't pull a dish together, Clear Soy Sauce lets you add umami and saltiness at the same time.
It's an experience worth having — one that makes you reconsider the assumption that "the color is what makes soy sauce feel like soy sauce."
| It's not just clear soy sauce — meet the "Clear Series"
image Fundodai
Clear Soy Sauce isn't a product that stands alone. At Fundodai, with soy sauce as the starting point, they have developed an entire seasoning series built around the meaning of "being clear."
For example,
- Clear Ponzu
- Clear Dashi Soy Sauce
- Clear Truffle Soy Sauce
and so on — the philosophy of "adding flavor without adding color" has been extended across the whole lineup.
| Who is it for?
image Fundodai
Clear Soy Sauce isn't just a novelty seasoning. It resonates especially with people like:
- Those who care about how their food looks
- Those who cook dishes that highlight colorful ingredients
- Those who have moments when they'd rather avoid colored seasonings
- Those who want a fresh approach to the familiar soy sauce flavor
It's for these people in particular. The experience of cherishing the traditional taste while becoming free from the influence of color will quietly transform the impression of your everyday cooking.
| Conclusion | What you can see once the color is gone
image Fundodai
So, what did you think?
Clear Soy Sauce is a seasoning that overturns the long-held assumption that "soy sauce is black." The color is gone, yet the flavor remains, and it stands as a tool for bringing out the color and flavor of ingredients at the same time.
Not breaking the look of a dish also means not breaking its lingering impression and atmosphere. Clear Soy Sauce is the option that adds only the flavor and removes the "unintended assertion" that color brings with it.
In the cooking scenes of the future, Clear Soy Sauce is sure to quietly assert its presence as a free-spirited seasoning that perfects flavor and appearance all at once.
