Sichuan Handcrafted Soy Sauce + Black Vinegar (Small Batch Heritage Sauces)

For this collection, we have paired Sichuan's finest handcrafted soy sauce with the pinnacle of the province's aged vinegars. Both are China Time-Honored Brands that have been made for hundreds of years, and both are the top expressions of their company's craft.

Outside China these sauces are exclusive to The Mala Market, and even within China they are very small batch and difficult to procure. That's because both are still made the traditional way, fermented in large earthenware crocks. In the case of soy sauce, the crocks are exposed to the air and hand-stirred daily. In the case of vinegar, the young vinegar is fermented in a crock with 20 years of microbe growth. Both of these time-tested methods imbue the sauces with the inimitable taste of the local terroir over a long period of all-natural fermentation. No shortcuts are taken, and no stray ingredients or preservatives are added. 

Zhongba Handcrafted Soy Sauce, 24 ounces: This impressively large bottle of soy sauce is naturally brewed for one full year. Like all traditional Chinese soy sauce, Zhongba is made from water, soybean, wheat, salt and time. But it does have a secret umami ingredient: mushroom. The company sources a prized white mushroom that grows wild in northern China, which is infused into the fermented sauce, contributing its natural glutamic acid.

Zhongba does not taste like mushroom, per se, but this proprietary mix makes for a deep-red soy sauce with full body and mouthfeel and a compellingly complex flavor that is so much more than salty. We invite you to do a taste test with this soy sauce and any other you can find to understand the difference a long, natural brewing process and 200 years of experience make. 

20 Year Baoning Handcrafted Black Vinegar, 17 ounces: Sichuan's Baoning vinegar is unique among China's four famous vinegars in being an herbal vinegar. It is called so because its qu, or fermentation starter, is made from dozens of herbs and spices used in Traditional Chinese Medicine. It does not taste herbal, but it does have a distinctly savory taste and is less sweet than its fellow famous vinegars. It has a bill of six grains, and the lead grain is wheat bran. 

This very small-batch 20-year Baoning is the most complex and fullest bodied the company makes. Like the handmade soy sauce, it is not for stir-frying or high-heat cooking but is best used for cold dishes, dipping sauces and noodle topping.

Like most heritage Chinese products, Zhongba soy sauce and Baoning vinegar are named after their places of origin. Zhongba is a district of Jiangyou, a city in northern Sichuan that is part of Mianyang, and Baoning is the prior name of Langzhong, which is part of greater Nanchong.

Visit individual product pages to learn more about each sauce. 

Zhongba Producer: Sichuan Qingxiangyuan Flavoring Co., Jiangyou, Sichuan
Ingredients: water, soybean, wheat, salt, mushroom
Contains: soybean, wheat
Size: 23.8 ounces (705ml)
Non-GMO, Vegan, China-certified Green Food

Baoning Producer: Sichuan Baoningcu Co., Langzhong, Sichuan
Size: 500 ml (16.9 ounces)
Ingredients: water, bran, wheat, corn, rice, sorghum, buckwheat, sugar
Contains: wheat
Shelf Life: Naturally brewed vinegars do not expire; dark sediment is normal
Non-GMO, Vegan, China-certified Green Food