THIRSTY THURSDAY
During Richard Nixon‘s historic trip to China in 1972, the former president got schnockered on a Chinese firewater called maotai and became fascinated by the drink when his host demonstrated how it could be set aflame. As legend has it, he then took some maotai home, attempted to recreate the fiery show for his wife and daughters in the White House, and then accidentally set the tablecloth on fire when the bowl he was using cracked under the heat.
That might be the only experience with maotai that Americans are somewhat familiar with, but the potent alcohol has been part of Chinese drinking culture for ages. Named after a winemaking town in the Guizhou Province and distilled from fermented sorghum, maotai is said to have originated in the Han Dynasty around 2,000 years ago. In the 18th century during the Qing Dynasty, maotai production rose to 170 tons per year, making it the first Chinese liquor to be produced in a large scale.
Not long after being mass produced, maotai came to the aid of the Red Army as they passed through the Guizhou Province in 1935. Weakened by the ravages of World War II, the soldiers used the alcohol (which can reach up to 144 proof) to clean their wounds, regulate their digestive tracts, and soothe their shot nerves. Because of this decisive moment the strong stuff later became the national drink of China, served to foreign dignitaries (like Nixon) and enjoyed heartily by heads of state.
But enough with the historical anecdotes — the story of maotai unfolding today is even more interesting. Last year, the price per bottle shot up to around $200 in China due to a price increase for raw materials paired with heightened demand among Chinese elite. In essence, the alcohol that once washed the gore off of soldiers is now the ultimate status symbol in China, and people are willing (and in the case of the addicted, forced) to drop thousands of dollars on quality maotai.
If you find yourself in China soon, don’t be fooled by the knockoffs that have popped up in the wake of the price hike. It might be hard to tell the difference, though, because the taste of real maotai has been described as “rotten cabbage, ethyl alcohol, and paint thinner, blended and strained,” which we imagine is about the same flavor profile as the Chinese moonshine trying to pass as authentic. For those of you who think you can stomach the taste for the sake of a cultural experience, prices outside of China are remarkably lower, and you can buy traditional maotai online in the United States for about $50.
If the description doesn’t sound appealing, go ahead and get a bottle delivered anyway and use it as a flammable party trick at your next classy soirée — and if you pull a Nixon, you can Red Army the stuff over any open burn wounds. Now that’s what I call multifaceted!
Photo courtesy of salisasaki via Flickr (CC BY-SA)
