Frequently Asked Questions

We don’t use a Promo Code box, but we do offer free samples with every order. After you’ve put whatever bottles you’d like to purchase in your shopping cart, tell us what you’d like for the two free samples. The place to tell us what the two 1.6oz samples should be is called Order Notes. You’ll find the Order Notes box at the bottom of the Checkout page, just below where you’ll type in your email address. Just tell us the names of the two freebies and we’ll include them with your order. Remember, if you go back to shopping on our site, copy anything you’ve typed in the Order Notes box. Any notes will disappear if you go back to look at anything on our site. If you miss the Order Notes box, you can send us an email at orders@californiabalsamic.com to tell us what you’d like for freebies.

No, the mail-order promotion is just another name for the Chef AJ promotion. It was really difficult to tell who was and wasn’t meaning to use the special, and we decided to open that special up to the general public with the new website under a different name so that everyone ordering from us online gets the two freebies with their order.

Yes! Every balsamic vinegar and oil product we make is gluten-free.

Yes! A product is labeled sodium-free if it contains, by F.D.A. order, no more than 5 mg of sodium per serving. at 2 mg per serving, our balsamic vinegars and oils are in fact sodium free and even our spice-blended flavors such as the 7-Herb Italian are made using sodium-free seasonings we buy from our friends in the SOS-free community.

All of our products list their ingredients in their product page and label, every product on our “Balsamic (Oil-Free)” page is oil-free. To help minimize confusion for our SOS-free friends we moved all of our olive oil and vinaigrette (vinegar + oil) products to their own page, “Vinaigrettes and Oils.” If you are unsure if your product contains oil, just check the ingredients list on the product page or label.

No processed or cane sugars are added to our balsamic vinegar to sweeten it, anything grown from grapes has the natural sugar of the grape juice. Our balsamic vinegar is a concentrated product with the consistency of a syrup, meant to be used in teaspoons rather than tablespoons. This is achieved by reducing the balsamic vinegar by boiling the water off to make “grape must” which concentrates all the remaining ingredients allowing it to be used in much smaller quantities. Our Premium Dark and Premium White balsamic vinegar bases both have 7 grams per tablespoon of the naturally occurring sugar of the grapes, and are meant to be used in teaspoons per serving to finish recipes.

Here at California Balsamic we aim to ship everything as eco-friendly as we can. Our philosophy over here is to re-use as much material as possible, our packing peanuts are biodegradable and can be disposed of the any compost bin as noted in the FAQ and on the packing slip in every box. the bottle wraps we opt to use are corrugated cardboard sheets we actually make from the glass bottles cases themselves, both re-using every as much of our supply line as possible as well as eliminating the need for a plastic bubble wrap bag around the glass bottle. Any air pockets or foam that we use comes from a neighbor facility that installs solar panels and batteries for renewable power in our county. Those solar cells and batteries are shipped to them in the hard foam to protect them as the solar cells are delicate and the batteries are dangerous if damaged, if we do not step in and re-use those supplies they go straight to landfill. By re-using that foam we can make sure that the materials are re-used, as well as more safely pack our glass. As a small company doing flat-rate shipping, minimizing our break rate is essential as every broken bottle we have to pay for and then pay to re-ship. Re-using that Styrofoam that would otherwise go to landfill from that solar installation company was for us a perfect compromise between protecting our bottles, and giving plastic already headed for landfill one last use protecting glass.

If you would prefer for us to send your items using only biodegradable packing peanuts in the future, we can always accommodate this. The best way to do so is to add “biodegradable supplies only” in your order notes along with your samples and promotions. If you do that, then the only materials in your box that wouldn’t be able to be recycled/composted would be the packing tape and and rubber bands.

Balsamic vinegar carries lead picked up from the earth during the agriculture of the grapes before the grapes are boiled down and the vinegar thickens. Regulatory policies generally require a safety margin of 1,000 fold which means that foods have to be listed as containing lead if they have lead levels more than 1/1,000th of the level that causes an effect in humans. Our premium dark and light vinegar bases come in via lab analysis at a lead level of 19.7 parts per billion, an average person would need to consume 1 to 2 cups of our balsamic vinegar per day for an extended period of time to even reach the Proposition 65 lead level minimum threshold here in California which includes a 1000-fold safety margin from there before it becomes hazardous to humans. in other words, incredibly low.

Fermentation naturally causes the production of sulfur dioxide, commonly referred to as “sulfites.” This is a naturally occurring by-product of the fermentation process used to make all wines and vinegars and most other fermented products. The sulfur dioxide present in balsamic vinegar is naturally occurring from the fermentation process, whereas the much higher levels of sulfur dioxide found in dried fruits for instance is often added as a preservative. Our balsamic vinegar contains an average of 200 parts per million from the vinegar process (20 milligrams per 100 grams). For reference, the levels found in most dried raisins and prunes off the shelf is between 500 and 2,000 parts per million. If you are extremely sensitive to sulfites there are a variety of balsamic vinegars that will label themselves “sulfite free.” They almost always achieve this by adding hydrogen peroxide to their product to neutralize the small amount of naturally occurring SO2. As a matter of practice we avoid adding any chemicals to our products, especially ones that we believe should stay in the first aid cabinet and not the kitchen.

No, our 1.6oz sample or 3oz travel bottles are made of a durable PET plastic that is not made using BPA. We do these two smaller sizes in plastic instead of glass to provide a convenient “squeeze” bottle portioning of our thick rich balsamic, as well as to reduce breakage in shipping.

Our balsamic vinegars have an acidity level of 4%, making them shelf stable without refrigeration. Just keep them sealed with their airtight lid in a cabinet out of sunlight to minimize degradation. We generally suggest using our balsamic vinegars within 18 months for the best quality, using our rice bran oil vinaigrettes within 18 months, and using up our olive oil products within 12 months of opening.

Our balsamic vinegar base is non-GMO, but not certified organic. Some of our savory flavors use organic ingredients such as organic garlic, those ingredients are listed as such in the ingredients.

Our products are not certified Kosher. Because the grapes for balsamic vinegar are sourced from various vineyards across Modena and the adjacent regions we cannot guarantee that every vineyard that grows grapes for balsamic has also had their facility certified kosher.

Every balsamic vinegar and oil product we make has it’s nutritional information form on it’s product page, look underneath the photo.

We are always happy to customize an order with a gift card. To do so, simply include the message “Gift card note: ‘_______'” in your order notes during checkout. Remember to copy the note if you plan on doing anything other than proceeding directly to checkout, as leaving the checkout page there will delete your message. You can always check your order confirmation email to make sure that your note is in the “note” section. If you are concerned that the note did not make it in, simply email us at orders@californiabalsamic.com promptly and let us know so we can take care of it for you. 🙂