Chinese Vinegar

Chinese rice vinegars are made from huangjiu, a type of rice wine and range in colour from clear to various shades of red and brown.
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. For this reason, Western vinegars are not appropriate substitutes for rice vinegars.
Red rice vinegar is darker than white rice vinegar, but paler than black rice vinegar. It gets its distinctive red colour from red yeast rice, which is cultivated with the mold monascus purpureus. This vinegar has a distinctive flavour of its own due to the red mold.
Black vinegar is inky-black and aged for a rich, mellow, malty, woody, and smoky flavor. It is very popular in southern China. Chinkiang vinegar, which originated in the city of Zhenjiang 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. Black vinegar has been used as a full-flavored but less expensive alternative to traditional balsamic vinegar.
Some promote black vinegar for its medicinal properties, as a tonic which may lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels.