Miso paste colors and flavors

And the Koreans do some tasty aged chilli/miso pastes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gochujang

There are three basic varieties of miso: rice, barley and pure soybean. Within each of these varieties are several types labeled according to flavor and color. As a general rule, lighter misos are sweeter and younger and contain less salt; darker misos are thicker and saltier and have been aged longer. Rice miso, or kome miso, begins with sweet white (shiro miso) and progresses along the color-age spectrum to mellow white (shiro koji miso) to light yellow (shinshu miso) to sweet red (edo miso) to red (aka miso).

Barley miso, or mugi miso, is aged longer than most rice misos and has just two varieties, mellow barley and regular barley. Pure soybean miso is most commonly found in the form of the highly esteemed hatcho miso, which is aged for two to three years to develop its distinctively deep sweetness and sharp flavor. Other special varieties are available, including namemisos, or finger-lickin' misos, and recent Western inventions, like chickpea miso, an American creation, and lentil miso, developed in the Netherlands.