Have you ever heard the name "Torii Sauce"? In Nagoya, "Komi sauce" is the mainstream, so you may not be familiar with it. There are various sauces such as "Bulldog" and "Otafuku" all over the country. Among them, Hamamatsu's "Torii Sauce" has a strong fan base. Torii Sauce, which was born in Hamamatsu in 1924, continues to make sauces that are particular about handmade, keeping the old-fashioned method.

This time, we visited the head office factory in Hamamatsu and approached the appeal of Torii Sauce.

Torii Sauce's head office and direct sales store is about a 20-minute walk from JR Hamamatsu Station.

At the direct sales store, there are always more than 20 kinds of sauces, including products that can only be purchased here.

Birth of Torii Source

Daisuke Torii, the 3rd generation representative who we interviewed for this time.

-First, we asked about the history of Torii Sauce.

Representative Torii: "The company was founded in 1924. Torii Sauce was started when my great-grandfather and grandfather began making sauces. Sauce, which was known as Western soy sauce, became more and more in demand as Western food culture spread throughout the country. Our company was also born out of such a trend of the times.

At that time, Worcestershire sauce was the mainstream sauce, and concentrated sauces such as chuno sauce and tonkatsu sauce were born after World War II. During the second generation's time (the period of rapid economic growth), when a stable supply of food was in high demand, we also manufactured sauces with food additives."

Sauce without food additives

Representative Torii: "When my generation took over, we shifted to taking a manufacturing method that does not use food additives. Also, we originally focused on sauces for business use, but about 15 years ago, we started manufacturing sauces mainly for home use. We now have seven types of sauces, and we also manufacture and sell our own vinegar.

The first thing we developed after shifting to a home-use sauce was a completely additive-free ’sauce for omelet rice’. This sauce inspired me to continue developing products that are additive-free. ”

Box-shaped package that looks good and works efficiently

Representative Torii: "In creating the sauce for home use, we have renewed our branding. The order is backwards, but we actually changed the packaging first. For the original sauce, we applied the label by hand, but that would have taken a lot of time and effort.

It was time-consuming and there were concerns that the labels could easily be misaligned, so we decided to use a boxed package, although it would cost a little more. The boxed package can be done by anyone without mistakes, and it also looks more conspicuous. We are happy to see that it has been well received by our customers.

A label type sauce that has not changed since its founding.

The box-shaped package is very eye-catching when it is lined up in the store.

Commitment to sauce

- Please tell us about your commitment to making sauce.

Representative Torii: "The main characteristic of Torii Sauce is that we use fresh vegetables. Many other companies use pureed or powdered vegetables, but we have been preparing sauces from fresh vegetables since our establishment.

We also place importance on local production for local consumption, so we use vegetables grown in Hamamatsu as much as possible. As for the spices, while it is common practice to mix powdered spices into the sauce, we marinate the spices in their original form and flavor the sauce with the flavors that ooze from the spices.

In addition, we use wooden vats for maturing for at least one month. This produces an even mellower and more flavorful sauce."

In fact, I was really surprised to find that when I put the Torii sauce in my mouth, the flavor of vegetables spread in my mouth. Which means the sauce we usually eat doesn't taste like vegetables. Many people may not even know that the sauce is made from vegetables.