I went on a tour of a miso factory today and learned about how it's made!
What surprised me the most was that shiro (white) miso and aka (red) miso are both the same mix of soybeans, salt, and rice malt but fermented for different periods of time. As the miso ferments for longer, its color becomes darker while its flavor becomes milder and more complex. Beyond 3 years of fermentation, you get diminishing returns as its flavor becomes too acidic.
After the tour, we got to sample some of the naturally fermented 3 years old miso, and it was easily the best I've ever had. Most miso you can buy in a grocery store is created through forced fermentation over a few months, so if you ever get a chance to try naturally aged miso I would highly recommend!
Same as white, green, yellow, black, pu erh tea, and all of their different varieties within those categories, it's all the same leaves, just different processes.
Well, not exactly in that there are cultivars and farm differences. In that way it is a little bit like grape wine, where different processing can produce very different wines from the same grapes, but there are also differences in grapes that can come through within a style.
In a way, yes; Wuyi rock oolong will be different than a high mountain Taiwanese oolong. But what most people think of as green vs black tea, they don't realize that it's the same exact plant. Camellia sinensis has only 2 cultivars, var. sinensis (the main one) and var. assamica.
This is quite incorrect. Of the top 10 planted wine varietals in the world [0], all ten are red grapes to red wine or white grapes to white wine:
Top grape varieties by planted hectares
1. Cabernet Sauvignon - red grape, red wine.
2. Merlot - red grape, red wine.
3. Tempranillo - red grape, red wine.
4. Airén - white grape, white wine.
5. Chardonnay - white grape, white wine.
6. Syrah - red grape, red wine.
7. Grenache Noir - red grape, red wine.
8. Sauvignon Blanc - white grape, white wine.
9. Pinot Noir - red grape, red wine.
10. Trebbiano Toscano / Ugni Blanc - white grape, white wine.
There are some wines which are produced with red grapes which are not left on skins so there is no impartation of red colour, but they are really not common and the result is most of the time a bit closer to a light rose than what would be considered a white wine. Perhaps the only style that would be semi-frequently encountered are some French Blanc de Noirs wines, various champagne examples being the most common of these. (And of course standard champagne itself, but I am not sure if that is really considered a white wine). Still, rare. It is also not possible to produce a red wine with a white grape, there is no colour in the skin to impart.
What surprised me the most was that shiro (white) miso and aka (red) miso are both the same mix of soybeans, salt, and rice malt but fermented for different periods of time. As the miso ferments for longer, its color becomes darker while its flavor becomes milder and more complex. Beyond 3 years of fermentation, you get diminishing returns as its flavor becomes too acidic.
After the tour, we got to sample some of the naturally fermented 3 years old miso, and it was easily the best I've ever had. Most miso you can buy in a grocery store is created through forced fermentation over a few months, so if you ever get a chance to try naturally aged miso I would highly recommend!