This New Australian Sesame Oil Is Nothing Like the Supermarket Stuff

You don’t even need to open a bottle of Toste to understand how different it is from supermarket sesame oil. 

Made from Queensland-grown sesame seeds that are roasted and cold-pressed in small batches in Melbourne, Toste’s single-origin oils range in colour from apricot to a mellow straw shade. Around half a kilogram of seeds is used to make a single 200-millitre bottle – and a slow roll shows off the oil’s high viscosity and disturbs the flavour-packed natural sediment that settles at the bottom.

“The aroma and flavour are beautiful and nutty,” says Toste co-founder Jin Kim. “You can smell it as soon as you open the bottle.”

Sesame cultivation is still emerging in Australia, so our sesame oil market is almost exclusively made up of imported products. China and India command most of the world’s production, with Sudan and Myanmar among the major seed-growing nations. The colour and viscosity of imported sesame oils can vary widely depending on the manufacturer. But Kim says if a certain product looks and smells a little burnt, that’s because it probably is.

“Burning the seeds at the factory level is common because it increases the yield, but it also makes the oil bitter and dark,” Kim says. “We only press our seeds once, but a lot of overseas factories press them two or three times. Sometimes they mix in cheaper oils or add food-grade solvents for bulk.”

Toste’s operation is in a 40-square-metre space at Jessica Market, a premium Korean grocer owned by Kim’s business partner, Jessica Min, in Clayton South, Melbourne. The small space includes a roaster, an expeller for cold-pressing, and bottling facilities.

“We can process six kilos of seeds at a time. The seeds are rinsed, roasted, cooled and put into the expeller for pressing. We filter it with a two-micron filter, and that’s the end product. It’s a natural process where the sediment becomes part of the oil and releases a beautiful aroma.”

Though it only launched in August, Toste has already turned heads. The brand won gold and silver medals for its heritage and first-harvest black sesame oils at this year’s Sydney Royal Fine Food Show. Acclaimed Korean diner Chae has also backed the brand. 

Kim, a government worker with a cheffing background, came up with the idea in 2017. “I started a project in Rockhampton working with universities, farmers, industry and government to develop higher-value crops. We saw a lot of potential in sesame seeds because they’re heat-resistant and can be grown with little water,” she says. 

A year later, Kim was standing in her kitchen roasting two kilograms of locally grown sesame seeds as a group of industry professionals, academics and farmers watched on. She pressed the freshly roasted seeds in her countertop expeller, poured the oil into plastic shot glasses and handed them around.

“I burned the seeds a bit,” she says, laughing. “But everyone could see the possibility.”

Kim hopes Toste will raise awareness of the Australian sesame industry’s potential while challenging the idea that the toasted, nutty flavour of sesame oil is strictly for Asian cooking.

“It’s not about a particular cuisine. It’s different from chilli or truffle oil because it doesn’t change the flavour – whether you’re dipping bread, finishing pasta, putting it on steak or salad, or even drizzling over vanilla ice-cream.

“Once you taste it, you won’t go back.”

toste.com.au
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