Baoning Handcrafted Black Vinegar, Aged 10 Years

Sichuan's Baoning vinegar is one of the Four Famous Vinegars of China and is the vinegar of choice for Sichuan dishes. We are the exclusive importers of two handmade Baoning vinegars, a 3-year blend and this super-premium Baoning aged for 10 years. 

Deep red-brown and full-bodied, its taste is more savory than sweet, and the multigrain composition—rice, bran, wheat, corn, sorghum and buckwheat—hits the nose and palate in unfamiliar but intriguing ways. Part of the intrigue also turns out to be its fermentation starter, which, uniquely among Chinese vinegars, is created from more than 60 Chinese spices and medicinal herbs. It then ages for years—the longer the better—in earthenware crocks that lend it additional depth. 

While eastern China's Zhenjiang vinegar is more well-known outside China, Baoning can be substituted in most Chinese recipes. Baoning is less sweet and slightly less sour than Zhenjiang. Go here to read more about both Zhenjiang and Baoning vinegars and their differences. 

The pride of Langzhong, an ancient city in northeastern Sichuan, Baoning vinegar traces its history to 936 A.D., during the Five Dynasties period. Its modern accolades begin with a gold medal at the 1915 San Francisco World's Fair, and since then it has racked up China's highest honors, including China Time-Honored Brand, Sichuan Intangible Cultural Heritage, and gold-medal Green Food, China's pollution-free designation.

While this kind of history for a food brand is kind of unfathomable in the West, we believe it can be tasted in today's product. It's hard to describe Baoning vinegar's smell, but whiffing a vinegar aged for 10 years smells a bit like walking into an ancient vinegar workshop and breathing in the centuries.

Baoning vinegar is used in almost all Sichuan cold sauces for noodles and vegetables and is a must-have ingredient for yu xiang and gong bao (kung pao) and other sweet-and-sourish dishes.

For more information on how the four famous vinegars are made and a thoughtful taste-test comparison, check out this video by our affiliates at Chinese Cooking Demystified.