White Balsamic Vinegar substitute

Best substitute

White Wine Vinegar + Sugar

1 tbsp + ½ tsp sugar

Best for dressings for pale salads where the colour matters

Needs a tweakLikely in your cupboard

Per 1 tbsp of white balsamic use 1 tbsp white wine vinegar plus 1/2 tsp sugar, stirred until it dissolves. That covers both jobs, the acid and the sweetness, and it leaves the dish pale - which is the entire reason a recipe asks for the white bottle instead of the dark one.

Other white balsamic vinegar substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Rice Vinegar + Sugar
Needs a tweak
1 ½ tbsp + ½ tsp
The palest and gentlest vinegar on the shelf at 4-4.5% acid, so it needs half again as much volume and gives you the most colourless dressing of any option.
What changes
Likely in your cupboardveganvegetariangluten-free
Best for
the palest possible dressing, for slaw, cucumber or white fish, delicate leaves that a wine vinegar would overwhelm, when rice vinegar is the only bottle in a mostly Asian pantry
Taste
mild, sweet-sour
Texture
thin
Covers
Acid
Sweetness
Misses
Aroma & flavour identity — not covered
Do not confuse this with rice wine. Rice vinegar is a vinegar; mirin and sake are wines and will not do this job at all.
3Champagne Vinegar + Sugar
Needs a tweak
1 tbsp + ⅓ tsp sugar
A pale, delicate wine vinegar made from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes.
What changes
On flavour it is the finest match here; it is ranked below the household bottles only because most kitchens do not have it.
Special tripveganvegetariangluten-free
Best for
dressings for tender leaves, herbs and shellfish, fruit salads and anything with peach, pear or melon in it, when you already keep it and want the most elegant version of this swap
Taste
cleaner, finer
Texture
thinner
Covers
Acid
Sweetness
Misses
Aroma & flavour identity — not covered
If you own both, use champagne vinegar for raw leaves and fruit and white wine vinegar for anything cooked - the difference disappears once heat is involved.
4Apple Cider Vinegar + Sugar
You'll taste it
1 tbsp + ½ tsp + sugar
A 5% vinegar with its own apple fruitiness, which partly stands in for the grape - but it is amber, and that colour goes into the dish.
What changes
Likely in your cupboardveganvegetariangluten-free
Best for
slaws, bean salads and dressings for roast root vegetables, when the dish can carry a faint golden tint, barbecue-leaning dressings and marinades
Taste
fruity, appley
Texture
thinner
Covers
Acid
Sweetness
Misses
Aroma & flavour identity — not covered
Unfiltered cider vinegar is cloudy as well as amber, so a dressing made with it looks hazy rather than clear.
5Dark Balsamic Vinegar
You'll taste it
Use 2 tsp for every tbsp of white balsamic vinegar
The closest match on flavour and the worst on colour.
What changes
It is the same idea in a bottle that stains everything it touches brown.
Likely in your cupboardveganvegetariangluten-free
Best for
marinades, pan sauces and braises that are already dark, roast vegetables, mushrooms and grilled meat, when nothing about the dish's colour matters
Taste
richer, raisiny
Texture
thicker
Covers
Acid
Sweetness
Aroma & flavour identity
If a recipe simply asks for balsamic and does not specify, the dark bottle is what it means. The white one is a deliberate choice about appearance.
6Lemon Juice + Sugar
You'll taste it
1 tbsp + ½ tsp sugar
Pale, bright and roughly comparable in strength at 5-6% citric acid, but citrus rather than grape, and loud enough that you notice it.
What changes
Likely in your cupboardveganvegetariangluten-free
Best for
fruit salads, melon, and dressings for delicate white fish, when there is no vinegar in the house at all, dishes that already lean citrus
Taste
citrus, bright
Texture
thin
Covers
Acid
Sweetness
Misses
Aroma & flavour identity — not covered
Bottled lemon juice is the one to use for canning, where a guaranteed acidity matters, and the wrong one for a dressing, where flavour does.

Don’t use these

Mirin, Rice Wine or White Wine
Not for this
Bottles whose names sound close and whose contents are not. Mirin, sake, rice wine and white wine have roughly a twentieth of the acid of a vinegar.

Check your case

Does the dish have to stay pale, or is the colour free?

A pale dish where brown streaks would show - potato salad, chicken or pasta salad, coleslaw, a dressing for white fish, peaches, melon or mozzarella.
This is the case the white bottle exists for, and dark balsamic is the wrong answer here no matter how close it tastes. Use 1 tbsp white wine vinegar plus 1/2 tsp white sugar per tablespoon, and reach for rice vinegar if you want it paler still.
Jump to White Wine Vinegar + Sugar or Rice Vinegar + Sugar
A marinade, a pan sauce, a braise or roast vegetables - something already brown.
Colour is doing no work here, so dark balsamic is genuinely the closest thing on flavour. Use 2 tsp of dark balsamic per tablespoon of white, and leave out any other sugar the recipe adds, because it is sweeter and thicker.
Jump to Dark Balsamic Vinegar or White Wine Vinegar + Sugar
It is being drizzled on raw - over strawberries, peaches, tomatoes, burrata or ice cream.
Nothing is hiding it, so the mild grape smell of the bottle is what you are actually tasting, and a vinegar-and-sugar mix reads as exactly that. Use half as much real white balsamic if there is any left, or dress the plate with lemon juice, good olive oil and flaky salt instead.
You are pickling, canning, fermenting or curing.
Do not substitute anything. Use the exact vinegar the tested recipe names, at 5% acidity or higher and undiluted - see the safety note below.

Ask what the white bottle was chosen for. If the recipe could just as well have used dark balsamic, use dark balsamic at 2 tsp per tablespoon and stop reading. If the dish has to stay pale - potato salad, slaw, a cream dressing, white fish, peaches - then colour is a requirement and not a preference, so the answer is a pale vinegar with the sweetness added back: 1 tbsp white wine vinegar plus 1/2 tsp white sugar per tablespoon, or rice vinegar at 1 1/2 tbsp. Keep the sweetener white, because brown sugar and maple undo the whole exercise.

Don’t substitute white balsamic vinegar here

When to keep looking rather than swap

A pale dish - potato salad, chicken salad, coleslaw, a dressing for white fish or mozzarella - swapped with dark balsamic.
Dark balsamic is the closest match on flavour and the worst on colour. Its pigment turns a pale or creamy dressing grey-brown within minutes, and colour cannot be taken back out of a dish.
Instead. Use 1 tbsp white wine vinegar plus 1/2 tsp white sugar per tablespoon, or rice vinegar, which is paler still. Keep the sweetener white too - brown sugar and maple put the colour back.
Pickling, canning, fermenting or curing, or swapping white balsamic in for the vinegar a tested recipe names.
Acidity in a sealed jar is a safety control against Clostridium botulinum, and those recipes were tested on a specific vinegar at a specific strength. White balsamic's sugar, its thickness and its labelled acidity are not what was tested.
Instead. Use the exact vinegar the tested recipe names, at 5% acidity or higher and undiluted, and follow a current tested recipe from the National Center for Home Food Preservation.
Drizzled raw over strawberries, peaches, burrata or ice cream.
There is nothing to hide behind. The mild grape smell of the bottle is the whole point of the dish, and a vinegar-and-sugar mixture tastes like vinegar with sugar stirred into it.
Instead. Use half as much real white balsamic, or dress the plate with lemon juice, good olive oil and flaky salt and serve it as the dish it now is.
Using mirin, sake, rice wine or white wine because the name sounds close.
Those are wines rather than vinegars. They have roughly a twentieth of the acid, so the dressing has no sourness in it at all and tastes sweet and flat however much you add.
Instead. Rice vinegar is the bottle you want: 1 1/2 tbsp plus 1/2 tsp sugar per tablespoon of white balsamic.

What is White Balsamic Vinegar?

White Balsamic Vinegar is a pale, sweet-tart vinegar made from white Trebbiano grape must blended with white wine vinegar and aged in neutral barrels so it never darkens; bottles are usually labelled at around 6% acidity, and often sold as condimento bianco.

Cooking tips

White balsamic exists for one reason: balsamic's sweet-tart balance without the colour. If the dish is already brown, use dark balsamic at 2 tsp per tablespoon and save yourself a bottle.
Rebuild it as 1 tbsp white wine vinegar plus 1/2 tsp sugar per tablespoon. Keep the sweetener white - brown sugar, maple and molasses put the colour straight back.
Rice vinegar is the palest common vinegar and the mildest at 4-4.5% acid, so use half again as much: 1 1/2 tbsp per tablespoon of white balsamic.
Rice vinegar and rice wine are not the same bottle. Mirin and sake have almost no acid and cannot do this job at any amount.
White balsamic does reduce into a syrup, because it has real sugar in it - but it turns amber as it goes, so it stops being pale at exactly the point it becomes a glaze.
Dress pale salads at the last minute. Even a colourless dressing wilts leaves and browns cut apple and pear within about half an hour.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best substitute for white balsamic vinegar?

One tablespoon of white wine vinegar plus 1/2 tsp of white sugar for each tablespoon of white balsamic. Both are pale grape vinegars of similar strength, so once the sweetness is back the mixture behaves the same way in a dressing or a marinade and, crucially, leaves the dish the same colour. Use white sugar rather than brown, or you have undone the point.

What is white balsamic vinegar, and how is it different from regular balsamic?

It is made from white Trebbiano grape must blended with white wine vinegar, cooked gently and aged in neutral barrels so it never takes on colour, and it is often labelled condimento bianco. Dark balsamic is cooked harder and aged in wood, which is where its colour, its thickness and its raisiny flavour come from. White balsamic is milder and cleaner, and the reason to buy it is that it keeps the dish pale.

Can I use regular balsamic vinegar instead of white balsamic?

On flavour, yes - it is the closest thing there is. Use 2 tsp of dark balsamic per tablespoon of white, since it is sweeter and more concentrated, and cut any other sugar in the recipe. On colour, no: it turns potato salad, coleslaw and any creamy dressing grey-brown within minutes, and that cannot be undone. Use it freely in marinades and on roast vegetables, and never in a dish that must stay pale.

Can I use rice vinegar instead of white balsamic vinegar?

Yes, and it gives the palest result of any option. Rice vinegar is 4-4.5% acid against white balsamic's roughly 6%, so use 1 1/2 tbsp plus 1/2 tsp sugar per tablespoon; a level tablespoon leaves the dressing tasting watery. If your bottle says seasoned rice vinegar, leave the sugar out because it is already in there.

Is white balsamic vinegar sweet?

Yes, noticeably - the cooked white grape must leaves real sugar in the bottle, which is what balances its roughly 6% acidity. That sweetness is why swapping in a plain white wine vinegar on its own tastes harsh, and why every substitute on this page pairs the vinegar with about 1/2 tsp of sugar per tablespoon.

Can I use white wine instead of white balsamic vinegar?

No. White wine, rice wine, mirin and sake are wines, with roughly a twentieth of a vinegar's acid, so a dressing made with them has no sourness at all and tastes sweet and flat. Use rice vinegar or white wine vinegar with sugar instead. If mirin is genuinely all you have and the dish is cooked, use 2 tsp mirin plus 1 tsp of any vinegar and leave out the recipe's sugar.

Can I use white balsamic vinegar for pickling or canning?

Not unless the tested recipe names it. Acidity is the safety control in a sealed jar, and white balsamic's sugar and labelled acidity are not what those recipes were tested on. Use the exact vinegar the recipe specifies, at 5% acidity or higher and undiluted, and follow a current tested recipe from the National Center for Home Food Preservation. For a quick refrigerator pickle you eat within a week, the rules are looser, but nothing sealed and shelf-stored should be improvised.

Can I make a glaze from white balsamic vinegar?

You can, because it has enough sugar to thicken: simmer it over medium-low heat until it reduces by about two-thirds. The catch is that it turns amber and then brown as it goes, so a white balsamic glaze is not a pale glaze. If the point of the dish was that it stay light, brush it with the vinegar unreduced and add 1/4 tsp of honey per tablespoon for gloss instead.

Related substitutes

More alcohol & vinegars substitutes

White Balsamic Vinegar substitute

Other white balsamic vinegar substitutes

2Rice Vinegar + Sugar

3Champagne Vinegar + Sugar

4Apple Cider Vinegar + Sugar

5Dark Balsamic Vinegar

6Lemon Juice + Sugar

Mirin, Rice Wine or White Wine