What The Hell Is Tamari?

There I was sitting on the couch minding my own business - which is none of your business - when the wife pops by and pours something into my palm, which has opened up all by itself in a reflex to catch whatever it is that she is pouring.

Almonds. Yeah, whatever.

Try it. It's flavored. Yeah, whatever.

Hmmm. Mmmmmm. What the hell is it?

It's Tamari-flavored almonds.

Now, for some reason, I've been eating these damn things for about two weeks now, and not once did my curious mind ask - what the hell is tamari?

And then it did.

Tamari is a Japanese soy sauce - only it's not a soy sauce. Y'see, after soy sauce became a commercial product one could buy rather than something one made in one's own home back in the 17th century - the new commercialized soy sauce was different from the old style soy sauce which was called tamari sauce.

Soy sauce was cut like cocaine, becoming 50% soybean and 50% wheat. After fermentation - shoyu, aka soy sauce, aka soya sauce.

But... the old school tamari is all soybean providing a smoother, balanced and complex flavor. I can vouch for that. These almonds are sweet - and fricking addictive.

Cheers
Andrew Joseph