Soup Soy Sauce

Soup soy sauce is a clear, light brown Korean soy sauce. It tastes intensely salty with a clean, focused umami and keeps broths bright rather than dark; cooks use it to season clear soups, light stews, namul, and delicate banchan, and it is sold in bottles much like regular soy sauce.

Known as guk-ganjang or Joseon ganjang, it originates from traditional Korean soy fermentations where the liquid drawn from aged meju and doenjang was refined into a seasoning. It remains central to Korean home and temple cooking and is produced both artisanally and commercially across Korea and the Korean diaspora.