Black vinegar

[1] It is made from sorghum, peas, barley, bran and chaff and has a much stronger smoky flavor than rice-based black vinegar.

Black vinegar from Fujian is made using glutinous rice and colored red by the infusion of a special fungus.

[11] Initially extremely costly and used only by the elite, vinegar eventually spread into popular usage by the Han dynasty.

[9] Though the scale of the vinegar industry in China has greatly expanded since the country's industrialisation, production methods remain largely traditional due to a difficulty in regulating and controlling heat-sensitive microbial growths needed for the vinegar-making process.

[9] Some manufacturers have replaced the pottery vats and concrete pools with stainless steel tanks, as well as diversified their vinegar offerings to include different raw materials, including jujube, cherry, aloe, buckwheat, sea buckthorn fruit, fig, onion, and bamboo.