Baijiu: China’s Most Feared and Loved Drink with a 5,000 Year Old History - Drink China (E2)
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- čas přidán 3. 08. 2024
- With an alcohol content that goes up to 70%, Baijiu is clearly not for the faint-hearted. Yet, the 5,000 year old spirit is China’s national drink. Bottles of the heady, strong liquor can be found at nearly any event in China - government banquets, weddings, business meetings, and even birthday parties. In this episode of Drink China, we find out what the different types of Baijiu are and why the country can’t live without it.
If you liked this video, we have more stories about China’s drinking culture:
This 300 Year-old Rice Wine Brewery Makes 2 Million Bottles a Day - Drink China (E1)
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0:00 Baijiu taste test
1:24 Baijiu 101
3:22 The Baijiu Golden Triangle
3:51 Inside a baijiu factory
6:45 The distillery’s rockstar
7:41 Baijiu in Chinese culture
8:34 Brands making baijiu hip and trendy
9:38 Making waves overseas
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Producer: Jessica Novia
Videographer: Guo Yong & Russell Chan
Editor: Nicholas Ko
Animation: Stella Yoo
Mastering: Victor Peña
Music: Audio Network
#China #drink #culture
Read more about baijiu here: gt4.life/baijiu1
There’s not enough press about Chinese alcohol. Thank you for getting this done!
Hell yeah 😝😁
I'm Chinese and still, I learned a lot from it. I'm glad this got made.
This is awesome! I'm a bartender and love learning about spirits and brewed beverages from around the world, but we just don't talk enough about Chinese food and drink out here in America. Thank you for your awesome content!
Thank you! Curious to know if you work much with Chinese liquors or spirits.
@@Goldthread I never have, but I will definitely try it!
If you’re a seasoned drinker of spirits, you probably won’t be scared by the alcohol burn and will be able to taste the nuances flavours. Start with Moutai, I think it’s the best gateway baijiu!
@@antonc81 but that stuff aint cheap lol
i'm chinese in beijing famous baijiu is 二锅头
the line from the distiller "you work so hard and you don't get much in return" was a bit out of context but says a lot.
Don't forget the awkward silence then hard cut lol.
I have personally visited the baijiu factory shown in this video (referred to as Jiangjin located in Baisha, Chongqing) including seeing those huge cauldrons of baijiu in person. I’m not traditionally a big fan of baijiu but I will say Jiangji is working hard to adapt the flavor to a more younger audience. Although not a baijiu, my favorite drink of theirs is Meijian, a type of Qing Mei Jiu, green plum liquor. It’s sweet and tastes great with ice but easy to get a hangover. Be careful! Haha
I used baijiu for cooking, the spirit goes well with stir fry veggies. I also used it to steam prawns, to make drunken prawn, which is my absolute favorite. I agree that baijiu is acquired taste, and probably fit for midnight drink, to end the night, LOL.
Those were some really exoensive steamed prawns.
Amazing content! You've outdone yourselves with this video.
Thank you so much!
Nice to see more stuff about 白酒 in English, thank you!
I am glad more affordable brands are being made. It's been hard to find here in Atlanta but if you ask nicely at a traditional Chinese resteraunt they get excited
This is awesome omg, I actually don't see a lot of videos outside of China about work ethic and artisanal stuff (you mostly see people talk about Japan) but seeing those workers work so hard even though they don't think they get compensated that much is kind of uplifting - they like what they do, but I wish they would get paid more for it!!!
i'm not sure if the worker was really referring to compensation, I prefer to take it literally: sweat a lot in the distillery, not so much liquor output compare to that
Just say a Chinese thing is Japanese and you see the woowaa
Just found a bottle in a Seoul liquor store and had to purchase it because of the scarcity. Very glad I did!
Call me old fashioned, but the sight of mixing maotai with all that stuff makes me want to cry
If you are chinese, I have a question. Are there any belief in China that baijiu is good during diarhhea? In Mongolia, baijiu isn't popular, it is rarely drunken for recreational purposes(like kumiss, vodka or beer), yet viewed as medicine. An Inner Mongolian brand named "Caoyuan Baijiu" used by rustic, old school men who spend long periods outside home like truck drivers, hunters, etc. Some say not only that brand but baijiu as a general class have medicinal properties for preventing food poisoning and digestive system problems. My dad advices me to keep with myself canteen of baijiu fishing trips. Once I had heavy diarrhea in the wilderness took medicine, plus er guo tou as adviced by an old companion and overcame it. Ain't sure on which of drug or baiju helped (after initial dose of drug diarrhea continued so took second tablet+shoot of baijiu).😅
Now I wanna hear opinion from real chinese guy. Does similar old men's tale exist in China?
Luv LuV LUV the stuff!
I've tried about a dozen different kinds of baijiu and spirits and I've only found 1 stinker so far.
Love from Nebraska!
Hello!
Amazing video, so interesting to learn and see all of this.
Super Interesting... Very Insightful video about China Wine Business
Much respect. Fantastic.
Baiju if left unattended will fill the room with aroma. That’s the defining characteristics. No other liquor can do that.
Fun and excellently made video
As a Chinese, one tip for you guys:
DO NOT try 江小白 as shown in the video. The brand calls itself white liquor for the young but what they make is not as good as the old school distillery's product, and it's expensive for its quality.
Just ask any random Chinese you know for the suggestion, for me, I actually drink scotch more, but if you really want something from me I would suggest 梦之蓝 XD.
Slainte/干杯！/Cheers, to everyone. And drink, responsibly.
江小白 became popular because of marketing. They must have sponsored this video.
Very nice!
excellent!
Great video. Baiju is powerful stuff!
I went to a Mongolian party one time and the Qinghua Lang bottle broke during travel so they poured it into a water bottle temporarily and one of the Chinese guests ate some Ma po tofu and in his emergency for finding relief ended up pouring a good amount before choking violently and fell on ground holding his throat . They gave him dark chocolate to soothe his throat then after 20 minutes he was passed out for almost a full day after . I visited a few days later he was still recovering lol .
Lol story to remember
i've tasted wu liang ye on my business trip to shanghai, best liquor I've drank ever
I would definitely try it
I've seen it when travelling in the east but didn't know what it was. Looks interesting. Must be a little like Italian Grappa.
小酌怡情,大饮伤身。
Ten and Tonic looks awesome. This makes me want to drink right now.....but its a work night.
Have a few bottles of moutai, very good drink.
Something that always blow my mind about our "taste." We always say we love the taste of hops in beer. But if we love that spice so much, how come we never add it to anything else like food or any other drink? Well it turns out that hops was added as a preservative that people then "acquired" the taste for it.
@Chrome Vaper rather be american than anything else though.
I describe it best as whisky-vodka. But the cheapest nastiest shit you can imagine. My partner is Chinese, so I have had a few pretty good go's on it! Also, they sell it in Chinatown markets disguised as cooking wine for super cheap (to avoid alcohol tax).
to be honest, bajiu for my favorite part is the aroma inside the meal room while open bottle, all the scent and aromatic came out from the bajiu, when i sipped , was a hell strong taste,cant even taste anyting since bajiu was not always to mixed or diluted.
Then senior china manager, told us, it shouldnt open your mouth while you did the sipping process, just swallow it until the bajiu flew through your tongue , throat and stomach, then you only breath... i must said there was a huge satisfied after taste and kick back.
during interview with cheryl wu from shandong - bajiu culture, shandong locals were so proud, and keep mentioned shandong is Confucius hometown ,that why ,during meal drinks session, there were so much of culture and manners to be followed. shandong treat these as non materialistic legacy passed down by Confucius.
Brazil shows up with some limes: "Baijiurinha anyone?"
Wait that sounds good actually
Maluco, tu agora quer encachaçar os Chineses?
1000/1000, lil liquor history 🤘😋🤤😎
with the introduction of beer to China witch they say has just recently taken hold and has just begin to go from bland to quickly evolving with micro breweries i wonder if this will happen to such a traditional drink as Baijiu, because those same people will most likely see if they can create a unique new flavor of this traditional drink. I'm sure it would find a market in the U.S. if it was introduces with the right commercial.
Only booze i regularly drink now besides beer.
And only those with at least 50% alcohol vol.
If you think baijiu is a little bit too hard for you, then try "huangjiu". A different Chinese liquor and the important part, it's sweet, not so hard and still has that special fragrance of corn in it.
:)
anyone likes vodka would love Er Guo Tou (二锅头), probably the most affordable Baijiu.
Super interesting. I had heard baijiu was pretty rough but maybe I'd start trying to appreciate it with the milder Southeast style.
People are sleeping on Baijiu... Its super complex and nuanced
I love anything about alcohol !!
So sad seeing and hearing about the working conditions inside the baiju brewery
I went to a wedding in China and they were serving this liquor in tiny little wine glasses. Way way, way smaller than a shot. Maybe like half a teaspoon. I threw it back like a shot and everybody looked at me like I was crazy for such a largeamount at once. Stuff was gross, but I tell you what wasn’t was the local rice liquor the indigenous Chinese would make. They would make it in the villages, and the women would carry these large clear jugs onto buses and into big cities. You can stop them and ask them to fill up your water bottle. Each woman’s batch tasted very different from the last, and I found some that I would probably drink every day. Trick is to ask the locals in each village to find out who makes their local liquor. Each village has a different style.
My wife went to China for work and I’m like please get me a bottle of Moutai. Cost £90 and it’s worth £450 here in UK. I want to try it but can’t my bring myself to opening it 😂
This is cool. i can't stand the smell of some types like Wuliangye, but it's good knowledge for comparison to yellow rice wine.
Stay tuned for more episodes of Drink China!
To all who doesn't know. The Shang dynasty emperor loves to drink alcoholic drinks. During that time ancient Chinese dynasty like the Shang dynasty used bronze drinking cup. Before Mongols went to china, ancient Chinese people was already loves to drink alcoholic drinks. Shang dynasty emperor died at an early age as he loves to drink alcoholic drinks and used bronze cups
My grands were from China. They drink baiju packaged in porcelain vases like in the old movies. When I first tried them, I was expecting that it would be like vodka.
Found out later it was like 50 to 60 percent alcohol. And the smell and taste... Like "peach". I didn't like that fruity taste. Ugh.. . It's spicy. Strong. The opposite of smooth. And there is hint of savory that was weird too
It is like they decided to put everything everyone else did not want in a spirit.
i just get that nasty red star stuff. Great fun
wonder if they got any 100+ year old baijiu in storage haha
Before 500 years of recorded history, rice wine or Huangjiu was the national drink, similar to Japan's sake.
I spent a week with little appetite after drinking half a bottle of this during a Chinese feast 😂😰
Half a bottle? No sir, I will need to see proof of this claim.
The current Baijiu does not have a 5,000 years history in China, it was brought in by the Mongols in the 13th century. It was despised by noble class throughout Ming and Qing dynasty and became widely accepted only in the 20th century. Traditional Chinese wine has a much lower alcohol concentration and does not go through the distillation process.
Technically, baijiu only became a common thing in China around about the Yuan dynasty when the Mongols took over. So it's only got about 500 years of history. The alcohol that chinese people drank before was rice wine like sake
Looks like you only listened to what others was telling about Chinese liquor. You are not educated well on how Chinese people loves to drink alcohol.
Chinese alcohol beverages are not refined like sakes or whiskey. So it is consumed locally.
I never thought of the Chinese as an alcohol producing people, any Chinese people I drank with had a very low tolerance to it, maybe mainland Chinese are different, you learn something new everyday, I want to try Baijiu now.
yup, southern chinese(which is more likely to be abroad) is not all that tolerant to alchol. but nothern chinese and some minorities usually are pretty tolerant to it.
Well at least it isn't Everclear. Which is 95%. I swear 190 proof alcohol should not be measured in proof anymore but in octane.
The western guy, categorised the baijiu nicely
It smells and tastes like a Chinese grocery store... Especially the dried fish and shrimp section.
(I bought a bottle years ago, as curiosity... and another last year for laughs. Both of different brands and of 60% alcohol content. Trust me. Both tasted the exact same. The smell of a Chinese grocery store is a very peculiar smell... but to get it in a concentrated alcoholic form, that's a flavour that is the most pleasant.)
The distilleries are so old school. Everything is man powered, like they do 3000 years ago.
lol your fancy red wine is done in the same way too, if you haven't realize.
I like the old school brewing method. The taste is more flavorful
@@blardymunggas6884 nothing quite like indentured servitude to make a beer taste better, huh? Its a sad state of affairs for the working class in china. "You work so hard and you dont get much in return."
@@DatBoi-mo9vc I’m an expat in China so I think I’ll know better than you. Although I make a small fortune here but I do feel embarrassed seeing how many latest Ferrari on the roads here. The chinese people seems to be having a good time in all honesty. Spending 2-3k usd on weekend for party is quite normal here
Distillation wasn't a thing 3000 years ago.
Kinmen Kaoliang rocks!
I had a friend bring me back a couple of cheap brands from China & they were rank. Unfortunately I can’t compare it to the high end stuff as locally they only stock one brand & its $500 a bottle. That’s 21 year old scotch money!
One thing I’ll say for baijiu: it’s pungent and funky, which I like in a shot.
my kinda sponsored content!
I'll have to try other brands, it seems. This guy says it smells of flowers and grass but the one I tried smelled like a farm and tasted like the water they used to wash the pigs with.
As a native Chinese person, born and raised, who has been through hundreds, if not thousands of Chinese celebratory events, my advice would be, if you're not Chinese or an alcoholic, then don't try it. That shit is strong as fuck!
🤣😂thanks for the warning!
When I started doing business in China I almost died daily.
Actually distillation technology in China is less than 1000 years old. When ancient text mentioned baijiu it actually meant white alcohol made with rice that were not distilled, kinda like the Japanese sake (actually they learned the sake from the Chinese). But when the distilled, stronger baijiu was developed, it became popular and replaced the original ones.
你可以查查中国出土的白酒最早是几千年以前的。
yes i agree😊
In Brazil we have a drink with 100% alcohol
here is the tip. either drink while eating stuff that is packed with flavor (spicy stuff, greasy stuff, etc), or shoot it down. dont do cocktails, maybe sip it a little bit to have a taste. you think bourbon packs a kick? better buckle up.
I love maotai. But it's so expensive now.
Thought he was using the legit Moutai to make mixed drinks lol.
Baijuu can be so expensive too
Apparently this can turn a elementary school kid into a high school kid
"5000 years old" is the most abused phrase about China. Everything is so Old.
The truth is, distillation was invented during Islam golden age (about 1300 years ago), introduced to Tang China. The technology became common during Song Dynasty (about 900 years ago). Only became accepted by general public when Mongols ruled during Yuan Dynasty (about 700 years ago).
The title is certainly very misleading. For all those thousands years, Chinese mostly drink crop brew and wines as alcohol drink. Most of Chinese really have forgotten the true Sinitic traditions.
in china, most people don't really know the difference between spirit and wine, they call them both baijiu for some reason
@@ShuusakuSama Baijiu is only referring to twice distilled crop alcohol produced in China. ‘Jiu’ is all beverage alcohol in general. Due to strong influence of Bordeaux, almost all wines are referred as ‘hongjiu’ (red alcohol). When we serve white wines in China, we have to emphasise it is ‘white grape wines’. Though I have to say average Chinese has basically no understandings on wines at all. (I am a Wine Educator)
@@KiwiImpactSaint ya, I think I get what you mean. You are explaining what "baijiu" suppose to mean, but I am trying to say the word is being incorrectly used by many in China. Not to the point where they can't distinguish 白葡萄酒 and 白酒，but many call colorless wine as 白酒 too. For example, they think in the story 武松 is drinking 白酒，but he is probably drinking some form a wine (I guess 米酒 of some sort，since distillation process isn't available at that time).
That Singapore guy looks like an asian Dave Chapelle. xD
Can't unsee
I tried the strong aroma baijou yesterday for the first time. I was not pleased. The sorghum distillate smelled like an infected wound. The flavor was at first intense, but then pleasant. However, the smell is just awful. And yes, I have tried a lot of crap homemade liquor, being from the Balkans.
I find baijiu to smell and taste like the essence of a Chinese grocery store.
So basically 12 minutes to not say moonshine?
Those mixed drinks near the end totally defeat using baijiu. Way too many ingredients. Especially the Moutai one. Man, using a $200 bottle of booze and covering up all the complexity. Start drinking it straight, neat. Maybe do some mixed drinks with 2-3 other ingredients that won't overpower the baijiu.
Do you think the bartender doesn't know what he's doing? Spirits like moutai are simply too ornery and idiosyncratic to be tamed with '2-3 other ingredients', any more than you can keep a tiger in a petting zoo; it'd simply devour its companions. You can disagree with the idea of mixing it, but not with methods borne from experience.
Thats a huge pan to get a sample from. Is he going to finish that? He drank from it. I'd be totally wasted before noon
I wonder why they can't be more industrialized though, I heard a tale before those people from other countries try to copy the taste and then sell back to china but even they successfully got the recipe, they still can't make the same thing. maybe there's a lot of little things that go into this it'll make the effort moot.
Baijiu is truely better than anyother alcohol if you drink so many. You will found the baijiu make the least damage in your body.
Ye
While in Beijing for work in 1997, my colleagues had me try a strong drink during lunch and told me it was sold as medicine outside China (maybe just the U.S.). Could this possibly be what I drank?
劲酒？
@@yaozhang9789 I don't remember what it was exactly (it was a long time ago). I do remember it was very strong! 😁
@@ddoucette ｒｅｄ ｃｏｌｏｒ ？
@@yaozhang9789 yes!
I have A Bottle that i got from my chineshe family member and it has a pear in it does anyone know if its rare or not ?
You can't drink Baijiu as you would vodka. It's not a party drink to be shot down. You have to sip it slowly as you eat. I cringe so hard when I see Americans torturing themselves by downing Baijiu, then they act as if it's not that bad because they don't want to make you feel bad for not liking your culture. Like slow tf down.
@Chrome Vaper It's not about the price.. Sure if you are celebrating you can toast it but I was talking about simply drinking without toasting. Are you going to toast yourself every time? My grandfather drinks alcohol alone almost everyday with his meals. There is no downing it, he sips.
well, I dont know why Baijiu is described as a freaking old drink. In fact, Chinese drink different types of rice wine for thousands of years. Yellow wine is one classic example (Chinese also use yellow wine as the base of cooking wine). Around 13-14 centuries distillation technique was passed to china and then primitive baijiu was invented.
Chinese soy sauce drizzle on top of bok choy is delicious!
Grapefruit juice mixed with moutai … that’s terrible waste of very expensive liquor.
the secret source of jiangxiaobai baijiu: man sweat and athlete feet. 😛
And then filtered through dirty gym socks and dead bodies.
Montoku, Lihing, Talak, Bahar.
*Sigh, you drink baijou with FOOD, not by itself! It makes everything taste better! And probably make you eat a lot more than you need but hey...
anything over 40% alcohol is a poison to me ; D
Had fen chiew. Never this one.
Not 5000 years, the title is misleading. Baijiu actually has a relatively short history. Not only Baijiu, but all of the distilled spirits also have short histories.
The oldest Chinese alcohol on record has a green colour and an alc. %wt of about 5-10%.
It's a nice video to introduce Baijiu, but please do your research before making videos.
You have included Indian state Arunachal Pradesh as part of china starting 3:10 till 3:18, Correct it or edit and remove the wrong map.
Distillation is the key to make Baijiu's high alcohol content, but distillation of alcoholic beverages was introduced to China only until the 12th century, based on archaeological evidences found in HeBei. It's definitely not 5000 years. The "5000 years" notion about anything found in China is a cliche. This video again shows how Chinese indulges themselves into these myths.
As Chinese most of us know baijiu doesn't have that long history. The oldest Chinese alcoholic beverages are more like some kind of sweet rice wine which are still made in some area. This is just this channel doesn't know the actual history.
江小白，其实是最近几年通过金钱包装起来的新产品而已，并不具有代表性，并不好喝，中国国内没多少喝它的
Do promote more chinese liquor, wines etc so long it is safe for human consumption and passed all the necessary approvals both locally and internationally. Also ensure it is in English so a greater can comprehend and appreciate. Thks
Baijiu was brought by Mongolian to China has like little over 800 years, how you came out 5000 years
Close enough.
white guy looks like riker from TNG