Thanks for the quick reply, SugarcubeOD. Actually, I don't know definitively that caramel color is a sugar. I know that sugar or starch is an ingredient. But I don't know if the net result is still sugar. Yes, one kind of caramel color is sugar cooked down into caramel. But that's only one of the four classes of caramel color used as food ingredients, and it isn't typically used in vinegar because it breaks down in the presence of acid.
Similarly, I know that all kombucha is made with sugar. Despite that, all kombucha that doesn't list sugar as an ingredient is allowed. There's been an of