Posted on 01/17/2020 4:04:43 PM PST by DUMBGRUNT
Some say it takes 300 shots to learn to love baijiu. Beijing loves it so much it recently spent three times its defense budget on the drink.
Newcomers to China are usually horrified by their first encounter with baijiu, the fiery spirit consumed at banquets and family dinners, typically comparing it to jet fuel, paint stripper or drain cleaner. Even long-term expatriates often shudder at the stuff.
... cracks open a bottle of National Cellar 1573, made by Sichuan’s Luzhou Laojiao distillery. “This was not simply a magnificent baijiu,” he writes. “It was a magnificent drink. Period.”
Usually made with sorghum and bottled at up to 140 proof, baijiu—literally “white wine”—is packed with flavors that complement Chinese cuisine. Airborne yeasts are used to ferment the grain, meaning that each distillery’s product is unique and not transplantable. Even the time of year of production affects the flavor, so the master blender’s job is crucial.
He believes that cosmopolitans will embrace authentic Chinese baijiu if it is presented in a familiar form. To that end, he promotes the creation of baijiu cocktails. It’s a gutsy bet, especially by one who initially thought baijiu “smelled as if someone had wrung a garbage bag of soiled gym shorts into a bucket of fish sauce, stirred in an equal measure of Drano, rotten fruit, and blue cheese, and left it to marinate a few days.”
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
not in the same session silly.
“Beer requires REAL water, with NO pollutants. So beer is the safest thing to drink anywhere. “
At a fine establishment in Mombasa I was treated to Tusker beer.
The label said Barley Malt, Hops, Yeast, Water and...
Permitted Water Correctives and Stabilizers.
Still, I was not brave enough to drink anything not sterile. Nor eat anything not cooked.
And the Wildebeest is excellent cooked just medium with baked Yam and steamed greens of some sort.
What a great line!
Contracted out a significant home remodeling project. Turns out one of the project managers was an alcoholic.
By the time we realized it every one of my liquor bottles had been drained, except the baijiu which was untouched.
I just came back from vacation in China for college reunion. I bought Baijiu or Chinese liquor. 3 top brands: maotai, wuliangye; Luzhou Lao Jiao 1573. I already drank last two. It’s for everyone. Whoever can drink Russian vodka can give it try. It’s personal thing.
How do these “newcomers to China” know what jet fuel tastes like?
A relative in the beverage industry was deeply involved in bring Malort to its new manufacturer in Chicago.
Yes, now made in Chicago.
With real wormwood!
The cooked chicken is pretty good. It's one thing almost all countries have and that won't make one sick.
“Beer requires REAL water, with NO pollutants. So beer is the safest thing to drink anywhere.
Cooked chicken will kill no one. Otherwise who knows what’s in some kind of stew.”
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Omgosh! That could pass as good instructions for Flint, Michigan!
My daughter spent some time in Asia at some third world countries and she said the same thing. To this day she refuses to drink Heineken light since it’s all she drank for a week or so.
“typically comparing it to jet fuel, paint stripper or drain cleaner”
an apt description indeed ... i tried a sip in 1981 when i was in the PRC at the invitation and expense of the PRC, and those were the first words that came to mind ... i also declined to taste so-called “thousand year old eggs”, but pretty much ate and drank everything else put before me throughout the country ...
Lol. Can't say that I blame her. But...it sure beats the heck out of being sick as a dog. NOTHING ruins a trip like the trots.
Omgosh! That could pass as good instructions for Flint, Michigan!
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Lol. I don't believe it!
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