Okay, you win! I’m going to look for a bottle of Luzhou Laojiao at my nearest BevMo, or maybe I can ask a Taiwanese friend to bring me a bottle of Kaoliang on their next visit to the States…
I made exactly the rookie mistake the Diplomat describes, when I first tried baijiou in Taipei back in 1987: an Absolut fan at the time, I thought baijiou was the harshest vodka ever bottled.
Now I’m a single-malt fan, with more mature palate. Time to give baijiou a second chance. ;-)
I’m glad my words got at least one person to reconsider! It is an acquired taste, but like most acquired tastes, it’s one worth acquiring. I dare say what you love about single-malt, you might find a LOT of it in baijiu.
lived and worked in China. speak basic Chinese. looove Chinese people, culture and food. drank far more of all kinds of alcoholic drinks in my life than was or is good for me for decades now.
the one thing far too few westerners know or understand about baijiu is that you should very much not drink it like a good brandy or scotch, viz. smell-sip-taste-swallow. you should do like the chinese: pour out a small amount in a tiny cup, then gulp-taste&smell. more elaborately: the trick is to quickly let it run over your tongue and into your throat and only then enjoy the smell and taste.
in my experience, if you just let new-to-China westerners taste baijiu w/o explanation they will do it all wrong and will almost certainly hate it. explain (and show) how it's done and most *will* enjoy it.
This is like saying Grappa requires a well-trained palate. Or White Lightening can be quite subtle, if you know your grain alcohol...Nah. Every culture has its get-hammered-fast drink that's cheap.
Okay, you win! I’m going to look for a bottle of Luzhou Laojiao at my nearest BevMo, or maybe I can ask a Taiwanese friend to bring me a bottle of Kaoliang on their next visit to the States…
I made exactly the rookie mistake the Diplomat describes, when I first tried baijiou in Taipei back in 1987: an Absolut fan at the time, I thought baijiou was the harshest vodka ever bottled.
Now I’m a single-malt fan, with more mature palate. Time to give baijiou a second chance. ;-)
I’m glad my words got at least one person to reconsider! It is an acquired taste, but like most acquired tastes, it’s one worth acquiring. I dare say what you love about single-malt, you might find a LOT of it in baijiu.
lived and worked in China. speak basic Chinese. looove Chinese people, culture and food. drank far more of all kinds of alcoholic drinks in my life than was or is good for me for decades now.
the one thing far too few westerners know or understand about baijiu is that you should very much not drink it like a good brandy or scotch, viz. smell-sip-taste-swallow. you should do like the chinese: pour out a small amount in a tiny cup, then gulp-taste&smell. more elaborately: the trick is to quickly let it run over your tongue and into your throat and only then enjoy the smell and taste.
in my experience, if you just let new-to-China westerners taste baijiu w/o explanation they will do it all wrong and will almost certainly hate it. explain (and show) how it's done and most *will* enjoy it.
This is like saying Grappa requires a well-trained palate. Or White Lightening can be quite subtle, if you know your grain alcohol...Nah. Every culture has its get-hammered-fast drink that's cheap.