Walk down the soy sauce aisle of any Asian grocery store and you'll be confronted with a dizzying array of bottles, each with its own history, regional identity and dedicated following. Here we put five heavyweight brands head to head: ABC, O'Long, Tung Chun, Pearl River Bridge and Koon Chun. Each has its own personality, its own best use cases, and its own reasons why a cook might reach for it over the others.
ABC: the sweet rebel
If you're expecting a traditional salty soy sauce, ABC will surprise you. This Indonesian brand is best known for kecap manis, a thick, syrupy sweet soy sauce that's a staple of Indonesian cooking. Made with sun-dried palm sugar, ABC Sweet Soy Sauce is a rich, caramel-coloured sauce that's naturally sweet and aromatic. If you find the full-sweet version too much, ABC Medium Sweet Soy Sauce dials it back a notch.
Why choose ABC?
Kecap manis isn't a general-purpose soy sauce, it's a specific tool for specific jobs. It's ideal for marinating meats, glazing barbecue, and adding depth to stir-fries and fried rice. It caramelises beautifully while cooking and gives everything that unmistakably Indonesian flavour. If you're making nasi goreng, satay or semur, ABC is non-negotiable.
Why give it a try?
If you've only ever used Chinese-style soy sauce, ABC offers a completely different flavour profile: sweet, thick, almost dessert-like. It's a reminder that "soy sauce" is a broad category, not a single product. Just don't expect it to replace your light soy sauce for dipping dumplings.
O'Long: the Taiwanese traditionalist
O'Long (黑龍) is a Taiwanese brand specialising in black soybean soy sauce, naturally brewed in the traditional Taiwanese style using non-GMO black soybeans.
Why choose O'Long?
O'Long's black soybean soy sauce has a richer, rounder flavour than most commercial soy sauces, with a depth some describe as almost chocolatey. Because it's made from black soybeans rather than the usual yellow soybeans and wheat, it carries a deeper, more complex umami. The range is broad:
- Black Bean Soy Sauce, regular (秋菊, 400ml) and the thick version for everyday cooking and braising
- Premium Black Bean Soy Sauce, regular (春蘭, 400ml) and the premium thick for a step up in depth
- 2-Year Aged Organic Black Soybean Soy Sauce (壺底油), the connoisseur's bottle
- Gourmet Dipping Soy Sauce, Japanese-style and made for the table
- Seasoned Soy Sauce for Seafood, purpose-built for steamed fish
Why give it a try?
If you want a soy sauce with more depth and less brute saltiness, O'Long is worth seeking out. It's particularly good for marinating, dipping and finishing dishes where you want the soy sauce to shine rather than just add salt. The gift box in regular and thick also makes a genuinely nice present for a cook.
Tung Chun: the Hong Kong heritage brand
Tung Chun is one of Hong Kong's "Five Treasures" of the sauce industry, founded in 1876 in Dongguan and later moving to Hong Kong. This is a brand steeped in history, and it shows.
Why choose Tung Chun?
Tung Chun represents old-school Cantonese soy sauce making. The brand is especially famous for its Chow Mein Soy Sauce (干炒豉油王, 500ml), a blend designed specifically for Cantonese dry-fried noodles. It's rich in soy flavour and colour, which is exactly what you want when you're tossing noodles in a screaming-hot wok.
Why give it a try?
If your dry-fried noodles never quite taste like the ones from a good Cantonese kitchen, this is often the missing piece. A dedicated chow mein soy sauce does a job that all-purpose light soy sauce simply can't. While you're at it, Tung Chun's Black Bean Garlic Sauce is another Cantonese staple worth keeping in the fridge.
Pearl River Bridge: the Chinese workhorse
Pearl River Bridge is arguably the most recognisable Chinese soy sauce brand internationally. Established in 1958 in Guangdong Province, it's a leading brand in both domestic and export markets.
Why choose Pearl River Bridge?
This is the all-purpose Chinese soy sauce that professional kitchens lean on, and it's versatile enough for dipping, stir-frying, marinating and stewing. The range covers the main jobs:
- Delicious Light Soy Sauce (特級鮮味生抽) for seasoning and dipping, where you want salt and savour without darkening the dish
- Superior Dark Soy Sauce (老抽王) for colour and a molasses-like depth in braises and red-cooked dishes
- Mushroom Flavoured Superior Dark Soy Sauce (草菰老抽) for an extra umami layer
- Lite Soy Sauce (低鹽醬油) if you're watching sodium
Why give it a try?
If you're cooking Chinese food and want something reliable and genuinely versatile, Pearl River Bridge is a safe bet. Keeping both a light and a dark on the shelf is the single easiest upgrade to home Chinese cooking, since the two do completely different jobs.
Koon Chun: the chef's secret
Koon Chun is another Hong Kong heritage brand with a cult following among professional chefs. Its soy sauce is fermented in the sun, a method that adds complexity and softens the saltiness.
Why choose Koon Chun?
Koon Chun Thin Soy Sauce (生晒頭抽, 500ml) is a Cantonese-style light soy sauce, sun-dried and raw, more flavourful and less harshly salty than many competitors. It has a notably simple ingredient list, and it's the bottle to reach for when soy sauce is a primary flavour rather than background seasoning.
For dishes needing both flavour and colour, such as soy sauce chicken and braised meats, reach for Koon Chun Black Soy Sauce (老頭抽, 600ml) or the more concentrated Double Black Soy Sauce (雙老頭抽). The Gold Label Soy Sauce (金標醬油) is the everyday all-rounder of the line.
Why give it a try?
If you're a serious home cook looking to elevate Cantonese dishes, Koon Chun offers a depth of flavour mass-market brands can't match. The brand's wider pantry range is worth knowing too, from hoisin and chee hou sauce to ground bean sauce and red vinegar.
The verdict: which brand should you choose?
| Brand | Origin | Style | Best for | Why try it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ABC | Indonesia | Sweet soy sauce (kecap manis) | Indonesian cooking, barbecue, marinades | Unique sweet profile, essential for authentic Indonesian dishes |
| O'Long | Taiwan | Black soybean soy sauce | Dipping, finishing, marinating | Richer, almost chocolatey depth |
| Tung Chun | Hong Kong | Traditional Cantonese | Stir-fries, chow mein, noodles | Heritage brand, purpose-built for dry-fried noodles |
| Pearl River Bridge | China | Light and dark soy sauces | Everyday Chinese cooking, dipping, braising | Versatile and widely trusted |
| Koon Chun | Hong Kong | Thin soy sauce (sun-fermented) | Cantonese cooking, braising, soy sauce chicken | Complex, less salty, a chef favourite |
So why choose one over the others?
- Choose ABC if you're cooking Indonesian food and need that signature sweet, syrupy glaze.
- Choose O'Long if you want a deeply flavoured black soybean soy sauce with a richer profile.
- Choose Tung Chun if you want a taste of Hong Kong heritage and you're cooking classic Cantonese noodles.
- Choose Pearl River Bridge if you want reliable, all-purpose bottles that cover light and dark duties.
- Choose Koon Chun if you're serious about Cantonese cooking and want sun-fermented complexity and tradition.
And why give another brand a try?
Because soy sauce is not a monolith. Each brand reflects a different culinary tradition, a different fermentation philosophy, and a different set of flavour priorities. Trying a new one isn't about replacing your favourite, it's about expanding your pantry's range. You might find that ABC's sweet soy sauce transforms your barbecue, that O'Long's black soybean sauce elevates your dumpling dip, or that Koon Chun's thin soy sauce makes your soy sauce chicken taste like it came from a Hong Kong restaurant.
The best soy sauce is the one that's right for the dish you're cooking. So next time you're stocking the pantry, pick up a bottle you've never tried before. Your kitchen, and your taste buds, will thank you.