Baijiu - does anyone like the taste?

[roddy]

I'm currently drinking baijiu. Now, to my taste buds, it doesn't taste very nice. I've always assumed before that someone must like it though. However, thinking about it, I'm not so sure.

I don't think I've ever seen anyone actually drink baijiu because they like drinking baijiu. It's either because they're toasting someone, or because they want to get drunk very quickly (for which the 3Y plastic bottles with the sports caps are very handy). I've never seen people sip it or savour it, like you might do with some nice wine or a decent whisky.

Does anyone like drinking baijiu? I hope so, because if they do I can continue drinking this bottle in the hope that I learn to enjoy it.

Roddy

[Quest]

Here people drink baijiu when there's tasty food on the table. Yes people do enjoy drinking it. There are different brands, ask the experts which brand is best. There is cooking baijiu that does not taste too good.

[roddy]

But do they actually enjoy it for the taste?

Roddy

[Guest Anonymous]

roddy.....of course there r ppl enjoy the taste of baijiu........ur qeustion is pretty infantile.........just like beer.....alot of ppl (including me) dont like the bitter taste of beer (because of the hops they added to it to prevent bacterial actions).........it's just a matter of adaptation....if u drink alot of it......u will eventually get used it.......

ps: just u dont like it...doesn mean it's bad and no one else like it.....

[roddy]

Thanks for that friendly answer. How do they drink it, and what brands would you recommend? Oh, and don't worry about the beer - you'll get used to it.

Roddy

[Guest Anonymous]

lol.....................sry .....i regret it now........when i first saw ur comment.......i felt almost physically sick about it..........irrational, incoherent........lol............ .....anyways......i dont drink them both...so i dont no what brand should i recommend u...

[smithsgj]

In Taiwan there's great baijiu... here it just means "white wine", just like hongjiu means "red wine"!

[Quest]

I can name you some famous brands since ancient time in China -- 山西的汾酒；四川的五糧液，劍南春，瀘州老窖；貴州的董酒；绍兴的黄酒(yellow wine)－花雕/女儿红，状元红，孝贞酒/竹叶青，桂花酒等等。 绍兴的女儿红，状元红，竹叶青 are well known all over China.

[roddy]

Smithsgj, that's cheating and you know it. What an infantile response . . .

Quest, thankyou. I shall continue my research . . .

Roddy

[ChouDoufu]

baijiu is pretty gross. I kinda like jingjiu. it's also clear like baijiu but it smells sort of fruity. It's still pretty strong and has an aftertaste, but it's a better choice than baijiu IMO.

[smithsgj]

Excusez-moi monsieur le gendarme, but wtf *is* white wine called in China then?!?

[roddy]

白葡萄酒， so there!

To be honest, I've never heard of anyone talking about white wine, so I don't know what it's usually called. I think if you called it baijiu people would get confused.

Don't people in Taiwan get their 白酒 and white wines mixed up then?

Roddy

[smithsgj]

> Don't people in Taiwan get their 白酒 and white wines mixed up then?

They call it gaoliangjiu. But I've never seen anyone drinking it except at weddings (and that's usually shaoxingjiu which is tea colour -- the bridegroom gets refills of tea so he doesn't get too pissed to thank all the guests).

[Quest]

> Don't people in Taiwan get their 白酒 and white wines mixed up then?

They call it gaoliangjiu. But I've never seen anyone drinking it except at weddings (and that's usually shaoxingjiu which is tea colour -- the bridegroom gets refills of tea so he doesn't get too pissed to thank all the guests).

gaoliangjiu is one kind of baijiu, it is made from gaoliang 高梁.

Different kinds of ingredients/catalysts brew different jiu. e.g. flowers, leaves, sugar canes, rice, etc. shaoxingjiu 绍兴酒 as I said in my last post is actually "yellow wine" (a unique chinese invention), that's why it's tea color. For weddings, 绍兴女儿红 is the top choice, because of its name. People usually drink wine in festive or happy occasions together with tasty food.

[wix]

I am a non-drinker but I have observed the liquor consumption habits of Chinese people closely on numerous occassions. Baijiu, hongjiu, pijiu or whatever I don't think they really care too much about the taste. Warm beer in small plastic cups, red wine mixed with lemonade (I guess this is necessary to make Chinese red wine drinkable) and baijiu which would be good for getting your car started on a cold morning.... Need I say anymore?

[cuthbert]

like swallow fire

[smithsgj]

I went to one of these awful Taiwan seaside banquet seafood places the other day. The food was fine, the prices extortionate, the atmosphere non-existent and the toilet foul. The sort of place where in China you spit everywhere and put you beer bottles on the floor, but about a zillion times the price.

Anyway we had 'qingjiu'. It's like Japanese sake. Is sake=qingjiu=baijiu, or all they all separate things really.

[keikei]

Janpanese sake is similar to 黄酒。 Japanese sake is also called 大米洒酒 or 日本米酒.

[smithsgj]

Oh yeah they have 米酒 in Taiwan too but it's for cooking, not for drinking. Perhaps that's the equivalent of 白酒.

[niubi]

i thought the 黃米酒 (from yunnan) on the train from beijing to kunming was decent - well after the train ran out of beer it was the only thing left to drink.