A large tub of barley miso paste made of barley and gm free soy beans for all your japanese cooking needs miso is an essential ingredient in japanese cuisine made from soy beans fermented with salt and rice koji mould barley miso is different in that it is made not with rice koji but unblended barley which gives it a dark colour and a rich and salty taste the process of fermentation can take between one and three years and the longer it takes the richer the taste and darker the colour bar