Posted on 01/04/2022 6:58:21 PM PST by BenLurkin
Taiwan’s government is sharing cocktail recipes with the public after it reportedly bought 20,400 bottles of Lithuanian rum bound for China amid a row between Vilnius and Beijing.
The state-owned Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor (TTL) said it made the purchase in December to support Lithuania after learning the shipment was going to be blocked by Chinese authorities.
“TTL stood up at the right time, purchased the rum and brought it to Taiwan,” the company said in a statement reported by the South China Morning Post. “Lithuania supports us and we support Lithuania – TTL calls for a toast to that.”
Lithuania is in an ongoing diplomatic dispute with Beijing, and has been hit with trade and other restrictions since it announced it would establish mutual diplomatic posts with Taiwan.
The South China Morning Post said Taiwan’s finance ministry, which wholly owns TTL, and the de facto ambassador to Lithuania, Eric Huang, had learned China was going to reject the shipment, and informed TTL.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
Xi’s (she’s) gonna be pissed!!
Rum is made from sugarcane molasses or sugarcane juice. Is Lithuania a sugarcane producing country? Isn’t most rum from the Americas?
YO, HO, HO....
Lithuanian rum? Were they all out of Bahamian vodka?
I was wondering that, too. Not like it’s difficult to make rum, but where does Lithuania buy sugar cane?
"Siamese vodka???"
Rum from Lithuania? Highly unlikely, if you consider geography and climate
Ha, ha. In 2004, I was in Warsaw at a force generation conference (set up troop rotation for Iraq). There was a cocktail party that served a nice “apple wine.” I went to a Polish major that I worked with and told him that the Polish apple wine was exceptional. The major got a surprised look and told me that there was no wine made in Poland. When he tasted my drink, he told me that it was vodka and apple juice. I told him that it didn’t seem to have much vodka in it. He took a sip and laughed and told me that it was 3/4 vodka 1/4 apple juice. Later in the evening, the major was talking to his general and later the general talked to me. The general asked if American Marines drank much. I replied that not all but many did. The general chuckled and said, “Well, from what the major told me, I know which category you are in.
I think I remember reading that back in the day, cane molasses from Jamaica was shipped to New England (Massachusetts?) where it was made into rum. So maybe Lithuania only makes the rum, but gets the sugar from somewhere else.
Many countries sell sugar cane, and it can be raised in northern climates aa boutique crop, but I’d guess this was made from molasses derived from sugar beets. (That makes it technically NOT rum in a lot of places, but is likely indistinguishable from the real thing).
Yes I suspected the sugar beet thing. Poland produces a LOT of them. It’s probably safe to say since Lithuania is not too far from Poland it could well be sugar beet rum.
Might be made from Sugar beets.
YUK!
Lithuania rum export quantities
The volume of rum shipped by Lithuania in 2020 was 868 metric tonnes. In 2019 Lithuania sold 610 tonnes of rum. In 2019 alone, the interest in Lithuania rum (processed category) has escalated, recording a change of 8.929 pc compared to the year 2018. Between 2017 and 2019, rum’s exports went up by 73.3 pc netting the country US$2.86m for the year 2019.
Tidbit: Lithuania is the 10th largest importer of sugar beets.
This is, indeed, curious. Rum cannot legally be called rum unless it is made from sugar cane. However, given its climate and geographical location, I would think sugar cane production in Lithuania is about as robust as navel orange production in Finland. Lithuania produces sugar beets, from which a distilled spirit is made, but it is not called rum and apparently is a lot different.
Confucius say country that reject rum drunk with power.
Should’ve posted the one asking “where has the rum gone?”😁
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