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.
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.
All the anti-baijyou in the comments on your Note recently means that the cheap stuff is everywhere! Nixon was clearly served a better distillation, or he would have joked about how awful it was, not how potent and seductive it was…
I’ll let you know what I think when I find some of it myself!
Living in a half-Chinese household as I do, there have been many a night (usually in late January or early February) that involve baijio, usually (but not always) the cheaper variety. My first experience of it was a business meeting with my partner’s father and his associates in Shenzhen where a bottle of Mautai was had and…well I don’t remember much beyond the food being great.
Unfortunately no, though I haven’t ruled it out (and I know some words and phrases and can pronounce names better than 99% of other laowei). Funny enough whenever my lady’s father is in town we tend to just drink various whiskeys since that’s his favorite, but baijio is never ruled out lol
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.
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.
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.
All the anti-baijyou in the comments on your Note recently means that the cheap stuff is everywhere! Nixon was clearly served a better distillation, or he would have joked about how awful it was, not how potent and seductive it was…
I’ll let you know what I think when I find some of it myself!
Exactly. Lots of ergotou floating around, it seems.
Living in a half-Chinese household as I do, there have been many a night (usually in late January or early February) that involve baijio, usually (but not always) the cheaper variety. My first experience of it was a business meeting with my partner’s father and his associates in Shenzhen where a bottle of Mautai was had and…well I don’t remember much beyond the food being great.
A half-Chinese household? You're a lucky man. Have you picked up any 普通话?
Unfortunately no, though I haven’t ruled it out (and I know some words and phrases and can pronounce names better than 99% of other laowei). Funny enough whenever my lady’s father is in town we tend to just drink various whiskeys since that’s his favorite, but baijio is never ruled out lol
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.
When it comes to baijiu, the get-hammered-fast stuff is ergotou, which I mention in the piece. But the top-shelf stuff is as good as fine single-malt.