The collection was inspired by the core seasonings Fuchsia Dunlop recommends to cook most dishes from her 2026 book Five Tastes. The 10 essential products allow you to create the five classic tastes of Chinese food—sour, bitter, sweet, pungent or spicy, and salty, as well as the two modern taste additions, umami and numbing—along with an array of complex flavors made from combining them in infinite ways.
The book asks you to think about a Chinese pantry by identifying a product's taste and the flavor profiles you can create with it. For example, sweet-and-sour; sour-and-hot; sweet-and-spicy with garlic; spicy-and-savory; numbing-and-spicy; "fish-fragrant," etc.
Categorized by taste, the Salty and Umami category includes the most important Chinese ingredient, soy sauce, and related ingredient fermented soybeans. This collection includes a light soy sauce naturally brewed for one year and a dark soy sauce from Sichuan heritage brand Zhongba. The preserved blackbeans, or douchi, are fermented for three years by Sichuan heritage brand Tongchuan; plump and moist, they do not need rinsing or prepping before use.
The Sour category includes Chinese black vinegar, in this case one of China's Four Famous Vinegars, a rich, full-bodied Shanxi mature vinegar, age 9 years.
The Spicy and Pungent category is the largest in the collection, as many recipes in the book (and on our site!) are Sichuan-inspired, where complex flavors often include a spicy element. The essential foundation of Sichuan cooking is Pixian doubanjiang, or chili bean paste, which is a ferment of fava beans and chilies. This collection includes the popular Juan Cheng brand red-oil doubanjiang, a version with added roasted rapeseed oil that is ready-to-go for stir-fries.
Chili heat is also used in the form of dried chilies and chili oil. Zi dan tou chilies are the workhorse of Sichuan food, with intense fragrance and coloring ability and moderate heat. Our own Mala Market Chengdu Crispy Chili Oil is made for us in small batches in Sichuan and is the ideal match for Sichuan food and cooking, with enough free oil to dress noodles and cold dishes.
In the newer taste category of Ma, or numbing, is Sichuan's defining spice, Sichuan pepper, which is used extensively throughout western China cuisines. This collection includes the legendary and rare variety called Tribute Pepper, as it was the favorite of the emperors. It is a robust red peppercorn with exquisite fragrance and numbing power.
Along with the core tastes, there are a few other vital ingredients to a Chinese pantry. Chief among those are cooking wine and sesame oil. The appealing taste and fragrance of Shaoxing rice wine make it the favorite for marinades and meat/fish dishes. And roasted sesame oil is often the crowning touch of a stir-fry and a key ingredient in cold sauces for its nutty, toasty aroma.
All products in this collection are full size and all (except the dark soy sauce) have no additives or preservatives.
This collection is sold at a 10% discount off individual product prices. Purchase Five Tastes separately as your guide to the infinite number of flavors you can make with this collection.
Note that collections are not packed separately from other items in the same order.
What's Included
These 10 products comprise the basic pantry Fuchsia Dunlop recommends in Five Tastes, though we made one tweak and swapped out the recommended green Sichuan pepper oil for the fermented soybeans. This pantry is also ideal for cooking from her classic cookbook Every Grain of Rice (and any Chinese cookbook that includes spicy dishes among its recipes).
Use links above to see individual products on this site for more description of each one, including provenance, history, production methods, ingredients and nutrition facts.
If this is a gift, know that our shipments do not include any pricing info. The collection is packaged with red tissue paper and a product storage and usage guide. Collections are not packed separately from other items in the same order.
History + Honors
The chilies in this collection are grown in Guizhou Province, China’s chili breeding, growing and processing capital. The Tribute pepper is China's most storied Sichuan pepper, prized by a succession of emperors for its strong fragrance and numbing power. These single-origin spices are always from the most recent harvest. Please read more about our sourcing and testing on each product page.
The Sichuan Pixian doubanjiang, Tongchuan fermented soybeans, Zhongba soy sauce, Ninghuafu Shanxi vinegar and Cuizi roasted sesame oil in this collection are all made by companies that are designated China Time-Honored Brands. That means they have been in operation at least 50 years, though most of these companies trace their founding story and lineage back centuries.
Pixian chili bean paste, Tongchuan fermented black beans, Zhongba soy sauce and Shanxi mature vinegar have protected Geographic Indication (like French Champagne or Parmigiano Reggiano), meaning their places of production heavily impact their taste and authenticity. These branded products can be made only in the cities/districts of their origin.
Finally, the craftsmanship of Pixian doubanjing, Tongchuan douchi and Shanxi vinegar all have the status of National Intangible Cultural Heritage, indicating an artisan production process that is a living tradition passed down through generations.
Storage
All the products are shelf-stable and can be stored in a cool, dark pantry.
Optionally, once opened, we recommend refrigeration for doubanjiang, fermented soybeans and Chengdu chili oil.
Soy sauce, vinegar, Shaoxing wine and sesame oil do not require refrigeration but can be refrigerated to extend peak freshness.
Spices and chilies can be frozen for long-term storage.
This collection comes with a printed storage and usage guide.
Allergens
Products in this collection include soybean, wheat, peanut and sesame.
Most of the products are all natural, with no additives or preservatives; the exception is the dark soy sauce.
See individual product pages for a complete listing of ingredients and nutrition facts.
