白酒

Baijiu, written 白酒 in Chinese, means white alcohol: bái (白) for clear or white, jiǔ (酒) for wine or spirits. The character jiǔ appears on oracle bones from the Shang Dynasty around 1200 BCE, making the concept among the oldest named drinks on earth. The distillation process that creates modern baijiu developed during the Song Dynasty (960-1279 CE), when Chinese distillers refined the use of qu, a fermentation starter of mold and yeast pressed into brick form.

Early baijiu was produced in earthenware pits sunk into the ground, a method still used in Sichuan today. The pit fermentation encourages specific microbial communities that give each regional style its character. By the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), distilling workshops had spread across Sichuan, Guizhou, and Shanxi, each producing spirits with distinct aroma profiles classified as sauce, strong, light, or rice.

The word baijiu entered global English vocabulary slowly. Western merchants in Shanghai during the 19th century called it samshu, from the Cantonese saam-siu, and treated it as a curiosity. The 1949 founding of the People's Republic standardized production and state-owned distilleries consolidated the market. Premier Zhou Enlai poured it for Henry Kissinger in 1971 and for Nixon himself in 1972, which marked the beginning of its diplomatic identity.

By volume, baijiu is the world's most consumed spirit annually, outpacing whisky, vodka, and rum combined. Most consumption is domestic and concentrated in China, where baijiu appears at wedding banquets, business dinners, and Spring Festival tables. Its alcohol content ranges from 38 to 60 percent, and the highest grades of sauce-aroma baijiu age for three to five years before bottling.