One kimchi, two versions

Baechu-kimchi: whole napa cabbage, salted, seasoned by hand and fermented for seven days in West Flanders. Raw, unpasteurised and packed the week it is made, in a standard and a vegan version.

What it is

Kimchi is napa (Chinese) cabbage, salted and layered with a seasoning of chilli, garlic and ginger, then left to ferment. Lactic bacteria do the work: they sour the cabbage, preserve it and give it a depth no vinegar pickle has. Ours is the classic baechu-kimchi — whole leaves, not shreds — made to a Korean family recipe and fermented here in Belgium.

It is a live product. We never pasteurise it and add no preservatives, so the cultures that fermented it are still working in the tub. That is what makes it taste the way it does, and it is why everything on this page comes back to keeping it cold.

How it is made

• One cabbage. Napa from local growers, picked for weight and a tight heart, halved down the core so the leaves stay joined at the root and hold their shape through the salt.
• Salt and water. A slow soak draws the water out and the seasoning in — hours, not minutes.
• Seasoned by hand. Chilli, garlic and ginger worked into every layer, leaf by leaf. A machine bruises the leaf.
• Seven days. Sealed and left to ferment. On day seven we pack it — raw, young, with most of its ferment still ahead of it.
• Out the same week. Chilled, by road, from West Flanders. It reaches you a week in, not a month.

Standard and vegan

Version	What it is
Standard	The classic recipe, with the seafood depth a traditional kimchi has. Contains seafood; we send the full ingredient list and allergen line on request.
Vegan	Apple, pear and kohlrabi where the fish sauce would be — the same seven days, the same hands. No known allergens, gluten- and lactose-free, 41 kcal per 100 g. Full specification →

Both versions come in every format and from the same weekly batch. If your shelf or your menu has to answer for allergens, the vegan version is the simpler one to carry.

Formats

Format	Suits
400 g	The shelf: supermarkets, delis, farm shops. Also a counter or a deli case.
1 kg	Small kitchens and bars, and anyone testing it on a menu before committing to a standing order.
2 kg	The everyday foodservice size. A busy service gets through one in a shift or two.
5 kg	Volume kitchens, caterers and meal prep, where it is a component rather than a side.

Larger formats, a spice level tuned to your customers, or your own label on the tub — on request.

Shelf life and storage

• Three months from packing, chilled and unopened. You receive it the week it is made, so the shelf life you get is the shelf life it has.
• 0–4 °C, always. The fridge slows the ferment; it does not stop it. It must never sit on an ambient shelf.
• Pressed under its own brine, tub closed between uses, clean utensil every time. It sharpens steadily once open — a different, sharper ingredient in week three than in week one, and still good.

Why the week matters

Most kimchi sold in Europe is packed in Korea and spends five to nine weeks at sea, fermenting in the container the whole way. It lands long past its best. Ours is packed on day seven and driven out the same week — young, bright and sharp, with the whole of its life in your fridge still ahead of it. That is the difference a customer can taste.