#baijiu

[i17iskillingmylife]

Sensei's Boy Slaves

Sensei slurs his speech and walks wobbly from the drink. but his little slaves can only follow...

[marilearnsmandarin]

I bought the cheapest the tiniest bottle of some baijiu today to try.

Damn the thing is strong.

Will come in handy if I need to disinfect a wound or run out of cleaning products.

But I tried adding it to my hot chocolate and it turned out pretty good.

[the-messhall]

Pickled Long Beans —

[aswiya]

Baijiu is a national Chinese drink that is distilled from fermented grains, usually sorghum, wheat, rice, sticky rice, and corn. Depending on raw materials, manufacturing process or starters, baijiu varieties can greatly differ in the final taste profile, but high-quality baijiu should always have a complex, full-bodied flavor.

Based on its aroma, the drink is mainly classified into four categories: rice, light, strong, and sauce baijiu. It is usually bottled at 50% ABV, and it should be served in small-sized wine goblets. Although baijiu has not seen success outside its native country, it represents an integral part of Chinese culture, since every social gathering or business meeting will feature a toast with baijiu.

[zhuilingyizhen]

imagine: a lan getting drunk off of alcohol-infused chocolates or baijiu gummy bears. it's the most disasterous prank yet.

[levynite]

The Baijiu Riddle: Learning to Love China's Infamous Firewater

I first drank baijiu when I was 12, at a banquet in Beijing during a family trip to China. I took a small sip and felt the liquor flame down my throat, setting my nasal passages and eyes on fire. The aftertaste was of hot trash. My body involuntarily tensed as if I'd just drank poison. How was it that this drink, so deeply woven into my parent's warmest memories and the Chinese collective unconscious, tasted foremost of kerosene and rot?

this was originally written in 2015 but still a good read

I finally had the opportunity to drink baijiu when I was 12, at a banquet in Beijing during a family trip to China. I took a small sip and felt the liquor flame down my throat, setting my nasal passages and eyes on fire. The aftertaste was of hot trash. My body involuntarily tensed as if I'd just drank poison.

How was it that this baijiu, so deeply woven into my parent's warmest memories and the Chinese collective unconscious, tasted foremost of kerosene and rot?  

I mean, that’s the impression we get in Malaysia too lol

There is a terrifically informative book on baijiu called The Essential Guide to Chinese Spirits, by Derek Sandhaus, that explores the history and production of baijiu in vivid and lively detail. Sandhaus traces the invention of baijiu back a thousand years, when either traders from the MIddle East or invaders from Mongolia introduced the concept of distillation to the mainland.*

* An alternative introduction: In an attempt to reinvigorate baijiu's fanbase, Maotai, a luxury baijiu brand, has released "a 43-part TV series about a legendary Qing Dynasty gunfighter-turned-winemaker who founded the baijiu industry."

The resulting liquor's high alcohol content—typically between 80 and 120 proof—and relatively low production costs made it the drink of the peasantry, and it quickly spread throughout China. The recipe and base grains changed from province to province, taking forms vast and varied, from fiery and funky Maotai to sweet-as-ice-wine Chu Yeh Ching. Thus the term 'baijiu,' which literally translates to 'white liquor,' became more of a catch-all category for Chinese spirits than a specific spirit itself. 

HOW MUCH PROOF?!

Baijiu became so diverse that in 1959, the Chinese Communist Party endeavored to standardize national liquor production. One remnant of this program was a classification system that is still in use today. Baijiu is identified by smell into four main categories: nong xiang (strong scent), qing xiang (light scent), jiang xiang (sauce scent), and mi xiang (rice scent). Zhou Enlai, the first Premier of China, was so taken with Kweichou Maotai, a sauce scent-style baijiu, that it was named China's National Liquor, requisite at state dinners. Due to limited production and popularity with the Party, Kweichou Maotai can now fetch hundreds of dollars a bottle. 

Phew!

I was made wary, for instance, of the company Byejoe's branding. The logo features an illustration of an Asian woman's face, eyes heavily lined, and markets itself in language that recalls the rhythm of communist-era propaganda: "Artfully distilled in the East using the finest red sorghum, and skillfully refined in the West using revolutionary patented technology." I told a fellow Shanghainese-American about it and she remarked that the name "sounds like something a Shanghai whore would say to a G.I. in the 1930s. Bye-joe...more like baijiu for bairen (white people)." 

BYE JOE! *waves handkerchief*

"Every baijiu we could buy from the distributor," Qifan Li, the bar owner, tells me. She moved from the peninsula city of Dalian to California seven years ago and previously worked as an interior designer and an event planner. She told me the first time she drank baijiu was a year ago, when she had the idea to open the bar. I was puzzled; didn't everyone in China drink baijiu?

"That's the problem," she said. "It's for older generations, not for younger people in bars and clubs. They like to follow Western trends." Western trends that appeal to young Chinese include speakeasies, clubs, Macallan Scotch, and gin. But not much baijiu.

No lie.

My father told me once that when he was a child, baijiu was sipped among friends as an intimate offering. I asked Qifan if that sounded familiar.

"That is how our families used to drink baijiu," she told me, "but maybe we'll drink baijiu differently." My heart skipped a beat when she included me in the 'we.'

It's hard to admit, but maybe all I really want out of baijiu is to feel included.

ow, my heart.

My father is equal parts bon vivant and academic savant. He can sweetly and thoroughly expound on the history and merits of Scotch while drinking you cleanly under the table. He has, unsurprisingly, a special expertise in baijiu, and in the past 10 years or so has amassed a very impressive collection, around 30 bottles bought here and there when he can find it in specialty shops.

It was about 8:45 a.m. on a Tuesday when he showed me to the dining room table, which was covered in a red tablecloth and stacked with at least 15 types of baijiu.

dayum, son.

"With baijiu, you don't shoot anything," Ba explained.

The shots I'd seen as a child weren't the correct way to drink Chinese liquor, he told me. As was, in his view, drinking baijiu during a meal. These were all absurd modern practices created by the Communist Party. Never mind baijiu cocktails.

"First you smell, and then you sip," he said. "It's not like being in college, where you take shots just to get drunk. You sit and drink with your friends, you talk."

He poured a glass of Red Star Erguotou, then a glass of nicer Erguotou and Luzhou Laojiao. They were arranged to sting most to least. Erguotou literally tastes like rubbing alcohol, but I did my part and swirled each booze in its tiny cup and smelled, held them on my tongue. Luzhou Laojiao came as a relief. Their fire was more pleasant—not offensive in the way Erguotou was—and they gave way to sort of dry, crisp sweetness.

"That's the benefit of baijiu made from rice," Ba said. "It's clean." We continued down the line.

Well, now I’m curious to try.

One bottle I loved immediately was called Chu Yeh Ching, a baijiu infused with medicinal herbs and bamboo, lending it a pale green hue. It's sweet, almost creamy, with absolutely no fire or musk. It's about 45% alcohol, which isn't terribly high in terms of proof, but dangerous in the same way, say, Smirnoff Ice is to a teenager, or something completely drinkable is to a woman who has been downing firewater since nine in the morning. My dad poured me two full mugs, which is where things started to get hazy.

By the time we got to the Maotai, I'd had a nap, a few cups of coffee, and I'd paced around the backyard for a while. Dad poured us glasses. We smelled and sipped.

"I still don't like it," I said, anticipating Ba's disapproval.

"Eh, I never understood Maotai very much, either," he replied. I was shocked. Maotai was The Luxury Baijiu, it wasn't even supposed to be an question whether or not someone, particularly, an old school Chinese man, liked it.

"People who like Maotai know nothing," Ba went on. "And you know, us Shanghainese, we don't like the fire so much, that's why we stick to the rice baijiu."

LOL SURPRISE

"It's missing the point. We Chinese drink baijiu for the smell of the alcohol, the xiang, that flavor that hits your nose. This—this is just vodka." 

Must have xiang!

A hundred people will tell you a hundred things about baijiu. And here is what remains: filling your glass over and over, chatting with your bartender, or your friends, or your Ba about how each tastes. It's not a potion or cipher at all. It's a koan. The closer one examines it, the more it escapes definition.

[redleafhaiku]

Mother makes sure the 

moutai in the hutch is kept 

wrapped in plastic bags. 

🍁 Red Leaf Haiku by © John Clark Helzer

[niubibeijing]

红星二锅头