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Q: Has anyone tasted aged Baiju?
My friend offered to buy some for me. I thought it would be a nice gift to take home for my friends to rot there livers with.
Like a whisky aged in a barrel, pretty much the same.
I assume, like a whiskey it might have a smoother taste and be less like petrol.
I want to know what it tastes like because I will be drinking some!
I brought some home for my friends to drink over the holidays. They hated it. I laughed. Can't say if we're friends anymore.
wagon:
By the way, some of my friends came over to my wedding and drank the everyday swill. So, I told them this was the "good stuff." I drank it, too. Awful!
It'll taste less like young petrol, and more like aged petrol.
In America, you abuse alcohol. In China, alcohol abuses you.
Depends on the brand... more than the age.
In China, a lot of Bai jiu risks being fake in certain price ranges. I honestly, wouldn't risk buying Baijiu that isn't a well-known famous brand around 100RMB+. It has a better taste, and the distillation process is done properly.
This means less headaches, and less of a hangover. BTW - Baijiu (especially Fen jiu) tastes pretty good if you mix it with Sprite and a bit of red bull.
Try it! Good Bai jiu tastes like whiskey with an extra kick. I have drank all types of Bai jiu and in different ranges 35%-55%... the cheap stuff tastes like petrol that was run through the dirt...
Yeah, I'd like to try some high-class baiju. I've had the run-of-the-mill swill at dinner parties here and didn't find it that offensive. Reminds me a bit of patxaran, drunk in the Basque country of Spain or a light Italian grappa straight up.
Gonna have to research this.
Red_Fox:
Incidental question: Don't the Chinese call baiju "white wine"? I've never been clear on that...
Robk:
Well, they call it "white wine" in English because they don't really know what to call it in English.
Literal translation is "white alcohol"
I heard people translate it as "Chinese Whiskey" which is probably better considering the alcohol content is obviously WAY over wine. Calling it "wine" is deceptive to foreigners who have never tried... but maybe that is the aim. To get the unsuspecting foreigner drunk and then laughing their asses off at them haha.
Red_Fox:
@robk: Thanks for the explanation. I have always wondered (and never bothered to ask or research) what the Chinese consider "white wine". I mean, both you and I know what white wine is, right? Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio, etc. It ain't baiju, that's for sure.
White alcohol sounds about right. Interesting...
I listened to this podcast about Baiju
http://popupchinese.com/lessons/sinica/we-will-make-you-learn-to-love-ba...
the book mentioned would perhaps be a good read for anyone planning on getting drunk with baiju
For god sake just stick to gin, this is going to end badly.
Stiggs:
Baijiu is weird stuff.
I really enjoy the buzz you get off a baijiu drunk, it's different somehow to other liquors but oh god I hate the taste, I hate the way the taste lingers in your mouth and throat the way a mouthful of engine oil would because it has that same oily quality to it and I hate the way you can still taste it when you burp the next day.
And I hate the smell. When you walk into a restaurant and everyone is drinking it I always thought it smells like stale vomit or something and if you get really drunk on it the smell seems to be coming out of your pores the next day which, combined with the aftertaste you get every time you burp just makes me feel sick to the core. If I do drink it I have to breathe out as I drink because if I get a whiff of the smell it's all over.
Can't see it taking off outside of China unless they sell it for the same cheap prices they do in China. I had a friend that went full blown alcoholic and was drinking the cheapest stuff they stocked in the small shop near where he lived, it wasn't even bottled, it was in plastic bags and was just nasty. If they sold that cheap crap for the equivalent price all the drunks living on the street would be all over it but if it was a choice between a bottle of whiskey and a bottle of baijiu for the same price ... who in their right mind would buy the baijiu?
I had bottle (0.7 ml) of aged baiju in Bijie, Guizhou, at one party. Guizhou is the center of 'gourmet baijiu' in China.
'Aged' didn't impress me much, 'cause I am not into sweet liquors ... doesn't matter what.
