Baijiu Essential Info

• Color: Clear, can be slightly darker if aged or flavored

• Region: China

• ABV: 30%-60% ABV

• Aged: Yes, can be aged for many years

• Made from: Any grain, often sorghum, rice, millet, wheat, etc.

• Commercial Examples: Maotai, Wuliangye

• Popular Cocktails: Often served neat, at room temperature in China

​

You may have never heard of Baijiu, but you will. The 5000 (plus) year-old Chinese liquor is having a—fairly delayed—moment in the U.S. and abroad, and not despite its intensity, but because of it.

​

The way other spirits are defined and refined, Baijiu is a renegade, distilled for centuries (well, millennia) from things like sorghum, rice, millet, wheat, and corn, fermented in mud pits, and distilled in big earthenware containers. In a spirits industry looking to a craft renaissance, nothing gets more “craft” than this.

​

If you have had Baijiu, you might know of its rough reputation—there’s a certain melon/cheesy/soy sauce funk to the spirit, but that’s not always there, nor is it always bad (think about the terms we use to describe good Islay Scotch, e.g. Band-Aid, seaweed, iodine). In fact, there are many ways to createBaijiu, and not many laws restricting creativity. The main, consistent theme is potency—an ABV of high 30s to 60%. Hot fire, with flavor. Which is why it’s also often taken with food. And interest has spurred a lot of distilling refinement and creativity. Final spirits may tend to taste like anything from cocoa and earth (a $160 bottle of Kweidrow Moutai) to the dry, hot pepper flavor of the ByeJoe Red ($30).

​

No Baijiu is (necessarily) created equal, but they’re all generally created potently, so be wary, and drink with food.