The SEMPIO brand in Korea makes two types of YANGJO (naturally brewed) soy sauce. Sempio 501 and Sempio 701 are both naturally brewed soy sauces that most households use on a daily basis. SEMPIO 501 is the best-selling soy sauce in Korea because it is naturally brewed and economical. SEMPIO 701 has 0.2% more Total Nitrogen (amount of protein) value than the 501 but also costs a bit more.

Explanation of Korea’s SEMPIO brand Soy Sauce:

Sempio (#1 Soy Sauce brand in Korea)
501 and 701 are both YANGJO GANJANG.
YANGJO: Refers to the “natural brewed” fermentation process.
GANJANG: Korean word that means SOY SAUCE.

Sempio’s 701 is the better product compared to 501.

You may know that from the Sempio brand, YANGJO GANJANG is the preferred healthier option (read about the differences between JIN GANJANG vs YANGJO GANJANG here). The 501 and 701 are YANGJO GANJANG.

The less expensive JIN GANJANG basically has a miniscule portion of YANGJO GANJANG (sometimes as little as 7%) mixed with completely chemically-made “soy sauce”. It is illegal to sell 100% chemical soy sauce to consumers- although it’s allowed to be sold to restaurants. Very shady practices. Chemical soy sauce should technically not even be called soy sauce. It doesn’t go through any fermentation and is just formulated with additives to look and taste like the real thing. I guess the marketing team decided against being honest about it and labelling it “FAKE SOY SAUCE”. Sorry, rant over.

Although YANGJO GANJANG from Sempio (and most other brands, unfortunately) is made from defatted soy meal (not whole soybeans), it is still brewed and fermented for 6 months. So it is seen as the best available commercially processed soy sauce that is still relatively inexpensive. It is good to cook with as well as to use for dips and dressings straight out of the bottle.

Okay, so back to why there is SEMPIO 501 and 701. This is such a simple answer, it’s rather embarrassing, but here we go. The quality of soy sauce is rated by a TN number. It is not familiar thing to look for outside of Korea and Japan- In fact, US packaged Korean soy sauces don’t even list this on the label.

TN stands for Total Nitrogen and it measures how much protein is in the product.

The higher the number = more protein = is considered the better quality.

T.N. 1% is the lowest value (Sempio’s JIN GANJANG S contains TN 1%)

T.N. 1.3% ~ 1.5% is Premium

T.N. 1.5%~1.8% is “Super Premium” (obviously thought up by some very bright minds)

Sempio’s YANGJO GANJANG 501 has a TN 1.5%

Sempio’s YANGJO GANJANG 701 has a TN 1.7%

SEMPIO 501 has a T.N. value of 1.5% and SEMPIO 701 has a T.N. value of 1.7%. Fantastically clever, right? So aside from all this boring information that doesn’t add much value to our every day lives, all you have to know is the following. Sempio’s YANGJO GANJANG 701 is considered a Super Premium product. You will probably see this reflected in the price. However, keep in mind that Sempio’s YANGJO GANJANG 501 is the best selling choice of most households, so you can decide whether to save or spend those few dollars elsewhere.