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In order to find the best, we ordered the 13 most popular bottles of vinegar from Japan’s e-commerce giants (such as Amazon and Yahoo Shopping) and tested them all. We also invited three certified seasoning sommeliers and asked them to taste each product. The three experts then compared the following:
※For those that are unfamiliar with seasoning sommeliers, they are professionals that have passed an exam proctored by the Japan Seasoning Meisters Association.
Megumi is a certified wine and Japanese sake expert as well as is a vegetable sommelier, seasoning sommelier, vegetable and fruit beauty advisor, junior food education meister, food coach, IFA olive specialist, and Edo Tokyo vegetable concierge. She wears many hats, crafting and publishing family-oriented recipes, writing columns, teaching at a cultural center, running the Aomori Vegetable Marché, and making radio appearances.
She's a cooking professional that holds many certifications, including that of vegetable sommelier and seasoning sommelier. She works to share the joy that comes through food and cooking with children, who are our future. She conducts short courses for elementary schoolers and above.
mybest US' editing team consists of experienced members who have backgrounds in writing, editing, translation, and more. We are dedicated to researching what makes a product or service the best to users in the US in order to create top-quality articles. From skincare, to kitchen appliances, and to DIY supplies, our mission is to find the best ones for you.
The expert oversees the Buying Guide only, and does not determine the products and services featured.
Table of Contents
Sushi vinegar can be astringent or mellow; it can contain other underlying flavors or be clean and plain. Actually, there’s a lot you can tell about the flavor of a vinegar from simply reading the labels. In this section, we'd like to introduce one thing you should definitely look out for when picking out sushi vinegar.
It's natural to think that all bottles of sushi vinegar would have more or less the same ingredients, but it turns out that that’s not always the case.
Depending on the brand, you can get all sort of flavors: bottles of vinegar where acidity is prized over mellowness or where sweet and sour is perfectly balanced. You can even find sushi vinegar that’s been infused with kelp or honey.
If you’re worried about buying vinegar that’s too sharp, or if you want a softer, more layered flavor, then get a bottle that includes kelp stock.
Sweet vinegar is well suited for marinades and Chinese food. It’s often used to pickle vegetables or to tamp down sharper-tasting produce, such as onions, since vinegar that’s too sour will mask the delicate flavors of your veggies. Sweet vinegar is also used for Chinese dishes like sweet-and-sour pork..
However, you don’t want to use sweet vinegar in sushi. If your rice gets too sweet, it will overwhelm the umami of the fish. So when you make sushi, rolls, or chirashi bowls, you want to avoid sushi vinegar that contains kelp stock and honey.
Products | Image | Click to purchase | Price | Key features | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Marushima Foods Hokkaido Sushi Vinegar with Kombu Dashi|300 ml. | $10.52 High Mid | An Exquisite Balance of Sweet, Sour, and Salty | ||
2 | Uchibori Brewing Sushi Vinegar|360 ml. | $2.40 Low Mid | Just the Right Amount of Acidity to Bring Out the Umami of Rice | ||
3 | Seikatsu Club Gensen Sozai Sushi Vinegar|360 ml. | $2.80 Low Mid | Has a Sourness to It that Whets the Appetite! Also Goes Well with Rice | ||
4 | Marushosu Jozomoto Sushi Vinegar|300 ml. | $7.43 Mid | Just the Right Amount of Acidity and a Refreshing Aftertaste | ||
5 | TOPVALU Sushi Vinegar with Rishiri Kelp|360 ml. | $1.78 Low Mid | A Skillful Balance of Kelp and Sweet and Sour Elements | ||
6 | Fuji Sushi Vinegar|360 ml. | $19.10 High Mid | Mellow and Smooth on the Tongue, Almost Like Yogurt | ||
7 | Uchibori Brewing Mino Tokusen Sushi Vinegar|360 ml. | $9.83 Mid | It’s Got a Refined Taste, but Little Acidity | ||
8 | Ohyama Foods Sushi Vinegar|500 ml. | $5.77 Mid | The Acidity’s a Bit Weak, but Good for Sweet Lovers | ||
9 | Uchibori Brewing Amakuchi Sushi Vinegar with Dashi|360 ml. | $22.82 High Mid | Slightly Sweet and Could Be Good for Kids |
This is a perfectly seasoned bottle, where the spices complement, rather than mask, the flavor of the vinegar. The refreshing sourness also helped in bringing out the flavor of rice. If you were to pair this with raw fish, the umami of all the ingredients would only be further enhanced.
After picking out the 13 top sushi vinegars, of which some didn't make the cut, from e-commerce sites such as Amazon and Yahoo Shopping, we tested each for the following two things:
First, we tested how well the sweet and sour elements in the vinegar balanced each other out. A lot of people think that the more fragrant and sour a vinegar is, the better it is, but that's actually incorrect. The truth is that if the vinegar is too strong, it could overpower the natural umami of the foods you’re trying to season.
We had our three experts grade each bottle of vinegar on both the fragrance and how well sweet and sour were balanced on a scale from 1.0 to 5.0. They smelled each vinegar before tasting it. They then tasted each and shared how well they thought the sweet and sour flavors played together.
Sweeter bottles of vinegar pair well with vegetables but not with rice, so for the purposes of this test, they tended to fall at the bottom of our ranking. After all, when the vinegar is too sugary, the light natural sweetness of your rice can’t come through.
On the other hand, bottles that brought out the natural fragrance and acidity of vinegar tended to do well during our tests, seeing as they pair well with rice. The main takeaway is this: if you plan to season rice, do not get sweetened vinegar.
We then asked them to grade the vinegar on a scale from 1.0 to 5.0, depending on how well it paired with rice.
In fact, the bottles that let the natural flavors of the vinegar shine through were so good, our experts said they could eat them with just rice. Sour vinegar also tends to feel lighter on the tongue, and it both enhances the light sweetness of rice and brings out the umami of fish.
Sushi isn't made up of just the vinegar—you'll be needing various condiments, tools, and, of course, rice! Check out the links below to find more products that'll help you start gathering ingredients to make the delicious dish.
No. 1: Marushima Foods|Hokkaido Sushi Vinegar with Kombu Dashi|300 ml.
No. 2: Uchibori Brewing|Sushi Vinegar|360 ml.
No. 3: Seikatsu Club|Gensen Sozai Sushi Vinegar|360 ml.
No. 4: Marushosu Jozomoto|Sushi Vinegar|300 ml.
No. 5: TOPVALU|Sushi Vinegar with Rishiri Kelp|360 ml.
View Full RankingThe descriptions of each product are referenced from content available on manufacturer, brand, and e-commerce sites.
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