Linda Kennedy
World Baijiu Day is coming up soon. If you’re reading this outside China, baijiu is a powerful spirit. The name means ‘white liquor’. It’s a unit through which social status is earned, as the more baijiu you drink, the more impressive your toast boast. High-end baijiu is especially popular – it’s a bigwig’s swig.
Until now, I’d thought of baijiu’s future being within China, as the market of thirsty mainlanders is enormous, and growing online. Sure, I’d taken note of the industry for its amusing architecture: one brand, Wuliangye, has a building shaped like a baijiu bottle – a rare example of a property asset being liquid in China.
But beyond the People’s Republic, I felt baijiu faced too many challenges. Such as anyone being able to spell it. I could only foresee a global elevation should blood alcohol level ever be judged too confusing to determine sobriety. The new legal test would be to spell baijiu. If you could do that, you would be fine; you’d passed the baijiu-alyser.
But things, it seems, have been changing. Not only is there World Baijiu Day, Britain has had a baijiu cocktail week. And a company called ‘ByeJoe’, in the US, offers a cocktail named a ‘cup of joe’, which blends coffee and baijiu. (‘ByeJoe’ gets round the spellling issue; they also have an office in Shang-Hi.)
Could baijiu become the new cool drink? The next Aperol? Time for a muse about this booze.
To precisely model itself on Aperol, an issue immediately crops up. Baijiu Spritz sounds like what older men do on pavements in Beijing, in content and action.
To be a cool cocktail, it needs colour. Aperol is apricot tinged with titian. What about ‘Baijiu Bleu’ – mixed with Blue Curacao? Have an extra strong version, ‘Baijiu Taboo’.
Or is this aiming in the wrong direction, and baijiu should be taking a pot shot at hot shot tequila? Tequila is widely considered the top hangover manufacturer, but there is precedent for a lesser-known alcohol challenging and succeeding. Prosecco. It’s been squaring up to champagne to be the big bubble for a while.
There is much to learn here from a little study – and reasons to think the Chinese government could even get behind the baijiu-ification of the world’s bar menus. Earlier this year, it was reported the U.K. had reached ‘peak prosecco’, when sales growth slowed from double digits to 5%. (Prosecco no longer sees double, though you still will.)
With billions of yuan worth of baijiu sold in China every year, one might well ask: could China soon reach ‘peak baijiu’? It’s at such moments that the Chinese government tends to come up with solutions. The Belt and Road initiative, for example. Many see this as China out-sourcing its desire to build new stuff, given they’ve all the vanity bridges and empty towns anyone could need at home. So why not turn the Old Silk Road into a giant construction site? That’s the Belt and Road, baby.
Out-sourcing baijiu demand could become a part of this. Every construction contract might be required to include a British-style pub called ‘The Belt and Road’, which would serve only baijiu.
World Baijiu Day is August 9th. The eighth month, ninth day because 8.9 is ‘ba jiu’ in Mandarin and like ‘baijiu’. This presents another promotional possibility, should Western bars be persuaded to add numbers to their drink menus, like some Chinese restaurants. ‘I’ll have an 8.9, mate’. It skips the potential fiasco of articulating baijiu, which gets harder as the night goes on.
Maybe 8.9 Spritz will be the new cool drink.
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