Wikipedia Article About Red rice vinegar on Wikipedia Red rice vinegar is darker than white rice vinegar, and paler than black rice vinegar, with a distinctive red colour from Red yeast rice (红曲米), which is cultived with the mold Monascus purpureus. This vinegar has a distinctive flavour of its own due to the red mold. In Chinese cookbooks, ½ tablespoon of Western white vinegar is equivalent in strength to 1 tablespoon Chinkiang vinegar. Many Chinese people who grow up with rice vinegars take time to grow accustomed to the strength of Western vinegars when they start to encounter them.