Seasoned rice vinegar

Rice vinegar is a vinegar made from fermented rice in China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.

Chinese rice vinegars are stronger than Japanese ones, and range in colour from clear to various shades of red, brown and black and are therefore known as rice wine vinegar. Chinese and especially Japanese vinegars are less acidic than the distilled Western vinegars which, for that reason, are not appropriate substitutes for rice vinegars. The majority of the Asian rice vinegar types are also more mild and sweet than vinegars typically used in the Western world, with black vinegars as a notable exception. Chinese rice vinegars are made from huangjiu, a type of rice wine.

White rice vinegar is a colourless to pale yellow liquid, higher in acetic acid than other Chinese vinegars, but still less acidic and milder in flavour than Western vinegars.

Black vinegar is very popular in southern China. Chinkiang Vinegar, which originated in the city of Zhenjiang (Chinese: 镇江香醋; pinyin: Zhènjiāng xiāngcù) in the eastern coastal province of Jiangsu, is considered the best of the black rice vinegars. Normally black rice vinegar is made with black glutinous rice (also called "sweet rice"), although millet or sorghum may be used instead. It is dark in colour, and has a deep, almost smoky flavour. In addition to Zhenjiang, it is also produced in Hong Kong. This is different from the black vinegar popular in north China, which is made from sorghum, peas, barley, bran, and chaff and is most associated with Shanxi province.

Red rice vinegar has a distinctive red colour from Red yeast rice (红曲米), which is cultivated with the mold Monascus purpureus. This vinegar has a distinctive flavour of its own due to the red mold.

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Wikipedia