Baijiu: The World’s Most Popular Spirit, Explained

If you lately happen upon baijiu (pronounced BUY-joe) as a cocktail ingredient at your favorite hot spot, take note. The latest weapon in the arsenal of the American bartender isn’t some small-batch, hard-won, under-the-radar potion, but actually the most widely drunk spirit in the world.Get more news about China Soy Flavor Liquor,you can vist our website!
What’s that now? But, but…vodka! You might insist. Or whiskey! And you would be well-reasoned to believe in either of those seemingly ubiquitous spirits. But despite the comparable hugeness of mother Russia, and the fact that it seems every country on earth is now producing whiskey (“e” optional), enter China, population 1.4 billion, and its traditional spirit of choice.
The rise of the American cocktail bar over the last decade has definitely produced a rise in profile for the spirits of the world, many of them with ancient history, that had long gone unnoticed or underappreciated by young, American tipplers. Spanish Sherry is no longer a thing of the past that sits dusty in the back of your grandmother’s pantry, but a mixed-drink rockstar capable of texture and nuance. If you made the rounds of the hottest cocktail bars in your city but never had a single drink anointed with absinthe, did it even count as a night out? Nowadays it seems your average American drinker not only has a strong opinion on London Dry versus New American style gin, but can also name at least two or three different amari, and also knows that the plural of Italian amaro is amari. And the recent emergence of baijiu beyond its motherland is definitely part of that same trend.
Baijiu is super hugely popular in China,” says Steaven Chen, owner of CNS Imports, an American company largely responsible for bringing various brands of baijiu to the U.S.

Baijiu, or shaojiu, is a distilled, white spirit whose name literally means “white alcohol,” but that drinks with more flavor and a much fuller mouthfeel than the other white spirits of the world. Baijiu is typically made from sorghum, and utilizes a starter culture for fermentation. If vodka is the white bread of the spirit world, then baijiu is the sourdough. Variables of production and mash bill produce a number of different styles categorized by their aroma, with the four most common being strong aroma, light aroma, rice aroma and, wait for it…sauce aroma.

Strong aroma tends to be sweet with notes of tropical fruit on the nose. Light aroma is light and clean, gently redolent of flowers. Rice aroma is made from a rice-based starter culture with light aromatics, and sauce aroma promotes a flavor that has the prized umami quality of fermented bean paste or soy sauce. According to Chen, strong aroma is most popular worldwide, while light aroma is the most approachable for novice drinkers. As for sauce aroma and its decidedly “earthy” quality? “You know Dale DeGroff? He loves sauce,” says Chen. “Some people love the sauce, and some people can’t handle the sauce.”