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如果有一个站点在乔丹·波特（Jordan Porter）最高的地方脱颖而出Chengdu Classicstour—aside from a heavily spiced, and deeply savory, heap of shredded, barbecued rabbit—it's the alley that's full of the longtime expat’s favorite pungent and pickled foods, including peanuts, mustard greens, garlic, radishes, and a fermented tofu that strikes fear in the hearts of most Westerners. Even more novel in the flavor profile department is a nearby stall that specializes inpaojiu，一种DIY形式的注入Baijiu。对于那些不熟悉的人来说，Baijiu是一个清晰而复杂的精神，自明朝以来在中国的饮酒文化中发挥了重要作用。发酵的高粱通常是其秘密食谱的根源，尽管其他谷物（包括大米，小麦，玉米和小米）在全国各地的专有混合物中都散发出来。
学分：成都美食之旅 - 安德鲁公亚搏电竞园的照片
由于其独特的气味，Baijiu被其花束分类。强壮，轻巧，酱汁（如大豆）和大米香气构成了大部分市场。paojiu软化四川用糖和果实（酸李子，樱桃，柿子），药用草药（人参，肉桂，生姜）或更多野兽添加剂（如蚂蚁，蛇和动物的阴茎）稳定的浓香气baijiu（酸李子，樱桃，柿子），药剂（人参，肉桂，生姜）稳定饮食。除了使baijiu更可口（它们通常将ABV的百分比降低到强葡萄酒的水平）外，这些输液通常会牢记更大的健康益处亚搏电竞chito aiding digestion after a marathon meal. Think of it as a tincture that gets you twisted, but everyone's writing their own prescription.
“Baijiuhas an undeserved reputation among non-Chinese drinkers," says New York bartender Justin Lane Briggs. "That reputation certainly has some of its roots in ignorance and fear of the unknown, which is a real problem (and arguably linked to racism). Thankfully, I think people are starting to investigate some of their assumptions about 'other' places. Mainstream America has become more and more comfortable with broadening their palates, and with that, there has been a huge emphasis on food and drink that reflect a place, a people, a culture."
A similar line of reasoning could explain the meteoric rise in the Stateside popularity of mezcal in recent years—while it once occupied the domain of a very particular palate, it's now something everyday customers expect on left-field drink lists and major cocktail menus. Baijiu has a similar appeal: it's a spirit that tells a story—and evokes an environment.
One way to get a handle on how baijiu differs from other spirits is to see how it's made firsthand. Most visitors do this by requesting an English-speaking guide atShui Jing Fang。The only distillery located in the heart of Chengdu—most baijiu comes from rural and/or remote areas—it's essentially a living museum, with spotless exhibition spaces in front and a closely monitored workspace out back.
几个月前，我们在Luzhou Laojiao的主人是明河这是一个在美国和欧洲发行的新品牌，但在公司秘密校园的某个地方生产。在我们走的过程中，我们能够观看Luzhou Laojiao的标志性“ 1，000年，10，000年的土豆泥”过程。它始于当地采购的高粱。将谷物留在冷却下，与先前蒸馏的高粱一起擦拭，并撒上qu, a unique blend of bacteria, yeast, and other naturally occurring microorganisms that converts starch to sugar and sugar to alcohol at the same time. Also known as solid-state fermentation, this procedure is only found in baijiu factories, and it's what sends the spirit on its way to achieving spellbinding flavors.
Once everything is properly mixed, the mash of fresh and spent grain is shoveled into sealed mud-lined pits—four of which date all the way back to 1573—and left to ferment for two to three months before undergoing distillation and the rest of baijiu's production routine.
桑德豪斯解释说：“它们形成了共生关系。”“The pit itself starts participating in the fermentation process, as it absorbs more yeast and microbes from the mash. With pits this old, you can achieve flavor combinations you can't get anywhere else really, because there’s nothing else as old as these pits.”
He pauses, smiles, and adds, "I hope that wasn'ttooconfusing."
学分：Shuijingfang-安德鲁·帕克斯（Andrew Parks）的照片
不过，这就是Baijiu的事情。由于有很多方法可以从接种谷物堆到一瓶大胆的酒，所以能be confusing. Especially once you start drinking it. When we visited the GuShu distillery in Qionglai—a mountainous region west of Chengdu known for white-label baijiu (raw distillates sold to other factories for blending)—we weren't struck by the centuries-old science of distillation. Aside from such modern innovations as cranes and cooling fans, and an enormous facility that felt like the world's yeastiest airplane hangar, GuShu was following the same fermentation steps as Shui Jing Fang and Luzhou Laojiao. The main difference was its business plan: as one piece in a major pie of baijiu conglomerates.
Or as Sandhaus put it, "I was talking to this distiller once who sold a standard baijiu at $100 and the next step up at $3,000. I said, 'It's just you and me here; let’s be real. There can’t be a qualitative difference between what you’re selling for a hundred dollars and what you’re selling for three thousand.' And he was like, 'You don’t understand; when I price something at three thousand dollars, I get calls from customers who say it's not expensive enough. Putting a three thousand dollar bottle on the table is saying这我多么喜欢你。''
Lordrew Jor has a unique perspective on this. He grew up in the Sichuan city of Kangding, but studied and worked in Canada for six years before moving back to China and starting a new career in Chengdu. In late 2017, Jor co-founded a brewpub called纳门这是一个具有讽刺意味的举动，考虑到他的家人拥有50岁的Baijiu品牌Tan。
“有两个原因为什么白酒喝了啊lder people," he says. "One: The alcohol level is very high, usually around 45 to 53 [ABV]. Two: Great baijiu is usually very expensive. For instance, my favorite brand, Moutai, is around $250 per bottle. Young people simply can't afford that. The market needs to lower the price without sacrificing quality. They also need to figure out what young people want in baijiu; it could be something as simple as package design and a little twist in flavor, or something as complex as making baijiu the next cocktail spirit."
Capital Spirits是最早在北京做这件事的酒吧之一，向外国人提供了航班，这些外国人想向中国顾客提供直截了当且平衡的鸡尾酒，以寻求一种新鲜的精神。现在成都的两家高端酒店现在也在酒吧提供Baijiu鸡尾酒：立方体在费尔蒙特和Jing在寺庙的房子里。我们最近尝试了后者，发现了两个新饮料吧经理Layla Wang正在为农历新年开发。虽然一个是曼哈顿的黑暗而繁殖的，但另一个是果味和花香，带有甜味和奶油草莓的味道。当我们指出在不掩饰拜朱乌的情况下喝酒有多容易的地方时，她笑着微笑着说：“我不躲藏起来；它被称为balance。”
A similar approach has taken hold in the U.S. over the past year, as emerging stateside brands like Ming River and Ganbei join Portland's nearly decade-oldVinn酿酒厂追求该国最开放的消费者。
图片来源：美朱河 - 安德鲁·帕克斯（Andrew Parks
Vinn总裁Michelle Ly说：“当我们刚开始时，将Baijiu放入鸡尾酒中是一个外国想法，因为这在我们家庭中从未做到。”“但是我们很幸运能见到一位创造性的调酒师（Botanist Bar PDX所有者罗比·威尔逊（Robbie Wilson））对如何在鸡尾酒中混合水稻烈酒有深刻的了解。当然，这是一个开眼界。他的鸡尾酒并没有隐藏我们的baijiu的味道。它展示了它。”
Ganbei's founders, Andrew Hoogerwerf, Alec Fotsch, and Kockyo Xiong, launched their strong aroma baijiu in the Twin Cities at the tail end of 2018 after nearly two years of product development and searching for a distiller that could toe the line between accessibility and tradition. They eventually found the latter in the autonomous Chinese region of Inner Mongolia; led by a master blender named Hetao, Ganbei's production team honed its recipe down to a "full-bodied, fruit-forward spirit with subtle, earthy tones, notes of stone fruit, anise and elderflower, and a crisp, light finish."
他继续说：“不过，所有使它成为挑战的一切都是使其与众不同的。led to baijiu. It's one of my favorite things to put in front of people because it’s a button-pusher. People have strong opinions for and against it, but a lot of the people who love flavor in particular are really challenged by it. That’s not something we get to experience much anymore."
