A sweet-savory Kyoto miso infused with Tamba-grown sansho pepper — citrusy, gently tingly, and built to glaze, marinate, or finish any dish with depth.
Sansho Miso is a condiment-style miso from Tamba — Kyoto’s inland region where sansho pepper has grown wild since ancient times. The sansho used here comes from Ayabe, a farming community in northern Kyoto, where cool mountain air and mineral-rich soil produce berries with sharp citrus aroma and the clean, mouth-tingling sensation that makes sansho unlike any other pepper.
The base is Obata Miso, a reduced-sodium rice miso made from Koshihikari rice grown in the mountain fields of Tamba and fermented using the traditional cold-process method. Sweet by design, mirin builds the body while sugar rounds the edges. What sets this apart is the use of mi-zansho: whole sansho berries, not ground powder or extract. The berries are larger, more aromatic, and release their citrus-pepper character gradually through the sweetened miso base.
Ayako, Umami Curator at The House of Umami, visited Waira Tamba’s office and lab in Tamba, Kyoto and tasted through the range. Two things decided it. The sansho miso itself: whole mi-zansho berries worked into a sweet base, with an aroma more layered and expressive than anything she had tasted made with ground sansho. And the people behind it: a two-generation family operation, parent and child, working the same craft with quiet dedication. Both mattered. Most sansho products are finishers.
This one holds up to cooking. Brush it on salmon before sliding it under the broiler. Stir it into pan drippings with a small knob of butter for a fish or pork pan sauce. Fold it into compound butter for tableside finishing. Thin it with dashi and reduce slightly for a glaze with enough depth to anchor an entire plate.
