How many of you can actually take Chinese liquor?

[eatfastnoodle]

I'd admit that I'm not the biggest fan of Chinese liquor myself, too strong for me, I think most people would agree with it. That said, I do meet a girl from California who just went to China for one semester during her college year managed to have "plenty of fun time with bai jiu". This is a girl who burst into tears after tasting her first authentic Sichuan meal. As much as I was amazed by college kids being so serious about this whole "21st birthday" thing, I must say I'm kinda surprised to see an American girl from solid upper middle class family having a good time with Bai jiu. You know, I used to think bai jiu was for dudes who could kill tiger with bare hands.

[Don_Horhe]

Well, there's baijiu and baijiu. One type comes in transparent plastic bottles, pretty much like cooking oil, it's dirt-cheap (so the kill-a-tiger-with-bare-hands dudes can afford it) and of very bad quality and taste, while on the other hand you've got the 'good' stuff - it often comes in fancy bottles, doesn't smell like fermented frog feces and won't evaporate your liver.

[daofeishi]

When I lived in China, I would often be invited to banquets with local authority figures and other big shots. There would invariably be baijiu on the table, and as a guest it was expected that I would walk around the table and greet everyone, knocking back a small glass of baijiu for every person there.

I absolutely hated it. I thought, and still think, it tasted like liquid barf. I don't ordinarily drink that much either, but I have an alcohol tolerance few of my friends can parallel. I've only once ever been drunk off my feet, and that was because of said baijiu.

The whole escapade ended with me walking around the streets of Yinchuan with a makeshift robe pieced together from linen bedsheets and a paint-on unibrow, proclaiming I was Jesus looking for more baijiu.

I'd rather try killing a tiger with my bare hands than having to attend another one of those banquets.

[smokey]

After 2 spring festivals with my gf's family I've actually grown to like it. Even the cheap stuff goes down ok these days.

[gerri]

Might be I'm the odd-one out even here (certainly in a thread like this), but what about the opposite issue: What if you don't drink alcohol? What do *you* do to escape it?

(I've not been invited to high-falutin banquets or the girlfriend's parents yet, so haven't *had* to have baijiu, easily got by ganbei-ing with soft drinks, so to speak...)

[Lu]

I've been told that you can't really say you don't want to drink, but that it is possible to say you can't drink. You could also add it makes you sick (which is not really a lie).

I do drink, but also I'm a woman, which makes it very easy to get out of drinking, so I haven't tried this myself.

[Shi Tong]

There are a few types of Chinese liquor though, in my experience, and not just the cheap/ expensive ones you have had:

There is Taiwanese gao1liang2jiu3.. this is super strong, knocks your head off. It's a clear liquor and I think it tastes like eating fire of swallowing acid.. and yet it's supposed to be "nice".

There's also 米酒 mi3jiu3, which is generally the cheap cooking wine. This is what you're calling 白酒 bai2jiu3. This I can tolerate to drink.. because though it tastes like cack, at least it's only about 20%.

Then there is "绍兴米酒".. "shao4xing1 mi3jiu3" not sure if this is the right name or the right characters, but it's a coloured wine which you can serve with a plum in it and is served warm. This isn't too bad, mainly because it's not too strong.

Also, there's such a thing as 小米酒 xiao3mi3jiu3, which I really like. It's only a weak alcohol, but it's sweet and tasty and slips down a treat.

But generally I agree.. 米酒/白酒 which is strong and posh and comes in a special bottle tastes like someone's just dangled a snake down your neck.

[jbradfor]

My tolerance for alcohol in general has greatly decreased since I graduated from undergraduate (hummm, wonder why?), but I actually liked the taste of baijiu from the first time I had it. Yes, it tasted like burnt rubber, but it was GOOD burnt rubber!

The whole escapade ended with me walking around the streets of Yinchuan with

a makeshift robe pieced together from linen bedsheets and a paint-on unibrow, proclaiming I was Jesus looking for more baijiu.

PICTURES! WE NEED PICTURES!!

[daofeishi]

PICTURES! WE NEED PICTURES!!

If I had any they would be NSFW. And by NSFW I don't mean sexually explicit, but I don't think my future employer would be happy about them

[fanglu]

There's also 米酒 mi3jiu3, which is generally the cheap cooking wine. This is what you're calling 白酒 bai2jiu3. This I can tolerate to drink.. because though it tastes like cack, at least it's only about 20%.

These are different things. See 米酒 and 白酒.

米酒 is mainly used in the south for cooking. Apparently people do drink it, although I've never seen anyone do so. Its about 20% alcohol.

白酒 is higher in alcohol (at least 40%) and is not used for cooking, as far as I know.

[Baggerking]

There's also two distinct types of high liquor (38% and up) baijiu. One has a hint or tastes strongly of ethanol, and is most commonly found in the Beijing Er-a-guo-tou, most Mou Tai, and the brand that is famous for the Tiger Killing dude (usually comes in a fancy blue bottle).

The other type of Baijiu is much easier to digest, and usually has no ethanol flavor to it. It's a little sweet, and can get up to 56% percent.

The prices of Baijiu are usually unrelated to taste as far as I can detect. In any case, if you find yourself drinking any kind of Baijiu, I recommend you do not try to mix it with anything but beer. The perfect chaser is crushed cucumber with old vinegar.

Sorry, I would research this more, but honestly, my main point is that hard Baijiu takes a lot of slack because Chinese have acquired a taste for the Ethanol-gasoline stuff, but there are some very good cheap types of Baijiu out there, and they are probably more responsible for your friend's good relationship with this cultural path to running around the street with an inventive clothing style.

[rezaf]

Once my father-in-law gave me a few very small bottles of some kind of very expensive baijiu(500rmb per bottle). After drinking one of them I can just say that I hate to think about openning the other ones.

[wushijiao]

The prices of Baijiu are usually unrelated to taste as far as I can detect.

I was going to say the same thing. I once had some homemade baijiu in Dongbei, that came out of a huge jar with lots of live ginseng. That baijiu was really nice and smooth. I think that's probably the way it was meant to be drunk, historically speaking.

The industrial baijiu is really nasty, and to some extent, I feel like the whole country is being Punk'd, or there some sort of "the emperor has no clothes" phenomenon going on when people pay ludicrous amounts of money for liver-destroying rocket fuel. Part of it has to do with pricing strategies though:

China often witnesses reverse price wars, during which rivals compete to increase prices so they can attract shoppers who will only buy the more expensive brands. For example, in 2004, a maker of baijiu -- distilled liquor that is a popular gift in China -- launched a new brand at almost twice the price of its nearest rival. Its sales soared, leading rivals to hike prices too. This war has sent the cost of premium baiju skyrocketing by around 300% in the last five years.

Generally though, I'd stay clear away from the baijiu, unless it's a special occasion. It can be fun to cheers people at banquets though, and from a language learning point of view, you can get a lot of comprehensible input (as their speech starts to slow and slur) and you get a lot of speaking practice as well.

[valikor]

I don't understand Chinese alcohol. I've had perfectly tolerable bottles of Baijiu that I bought for 10 RMB and under. They are not good compared to good American/European alcohol that I've had, but they're no trouble to drink.

But, I currently have a bottle of baijiu that I received as a gift, and it is about 300 RMB for a small bottle. It doesn't seem much better than the 10 RMB bottle (slightly better, but not much)

红星二锅头白酒 , though, is the only brand (very popular/common in Beijing) which I find absolutely foul. I am amazed when I see groups of men in restaurants at lunch drinking large quantities without any other beverage to wash away the burning scum taste.

[eatfastnoodle]

红星二锅头 is for the REAL man... at least in the minds of a lot of people who actually drink it. It's kinda a blue collar drink. I know an American girl whose Chinese husband went to Flushing, New York specifically to buy 红星二锅头 for his own consumption, which kinda bummed his wife out.

One of my friend in college, if I remember correctly, basically drank one small bottle of 红星二锅头 every other night, which kinda bummed me out as I don't drink much and never truly understand the appeal of alcohol even though I'm not a teetotaler.

[xiaocai]

I think Bai Jiu is fine as long as you don't binge it like what you do with beer. My father always keeps a few jars of home brewed corn or Gao Liang Bai Jiu bought from my uncle (who also runs a small tea farm as well). They taste quite smooth and pure, well, of course, when consumed in small quantities. He also makes flavoured Bai Jiu by soaking random fruits in it. But I have to say the mulberry one is surprisingly nice.

I also drank it when we had get togethers with school mates since they were cheap, easy to find, and some of them are surprisingly nice for the price you pay. 红星二锅头 is one of them. And I don't think you have to be a man to drink it... But that was back when I still doing undergraduate back in Sichuan.

If allowed, I wouldn't mind having a bit of those branded ones like 五粮液 and 茅台. But strictly speaking they are not Bai Jiu but Qu Jiu, which have much stronger and unique aromas probably from the Jiu Qu used in brewing (not really sure about this though). However they are too expensive for casual drinking and normally they are only for more formal meals.

[valikor]

"He also makes flavoured Bai Jiu by soaking random fruits in it. But I have to say the mulberry one is surprisingly nice."

I wonder if this works well for normal baijiu purchased at the store? Any recommendations?

[xiaocai]

"He also makes flavoured Bai Jiu by soaking random fruits in it. But I have to say the mulberry one is surprisingly nice."

I wonder if this works well for normal baijiu purchased at the store? Any recommendations?

Do not use those ones with strong flavours such as aforementioned 五粮液 and 茅台 (let alone the high price), which will just overpower the light refreshing taste of the fruits. Also you can add a bit of crystallised sugar in it to your taste if you prefer sweet liqueur.

[xiaocai]

I can't delete my own post...?

[天人合一]

The teste of 红星二锅头 is horrible. But it can be accepted drink it with Sprite.

The proportion of 红星二锅头 and Sprite is 1:4.

Shake it before drink