I followed the instructions, with a few add ons, and here are the results.
First off – I think the instructions aren’t good. I am new to this product, but I don’t need to be experienced to know that this powder alone will not produce great kimchi.
It’s too salty. You really need to drain the salt water, and then rinse it off, and maybe soak it a bit in water to leach out some salt. In the future, I’ll just use 2.5% by weight of the cabbage, and salt it by hand (not in brine), and then press it.
You need to add the following, at least: sliced brown onion, sliced green onion, a few cloves of garlic (peeled and cut in half), maybe a tiny bit, like 1tsp, of sugar. You also need to add mild chili flake (the Korean kind), so it looks more like a homemade recipe.
Then, you add the orange powder and mix. It creates a kimchi similar to Akiyama’s.
Put the kimchi into jars. It goes in a bit “dry”, but I added plain water to dilute the salt.
You really need to let it age at least three days in the refrigerator. It’ll develop a fizz, and taste better.
I know sugar is forbidden, but in this case, a lot of the sugar gets consumed by yeasts. The fermentation increases the carbonation.