hidden roads
Hidden roads 秘径
Drinks sipped through bamboo straws, spirits aged with pork fat, wine buried for a daughter's wedding. The China nobody told you about.
玉冰烧 · 九江双蒸
The spirit aged with pork fat
Foshan, Guangdong 广东佛山
In Foshan, rice spirit rests for about three months on a block of pork fat. It has been exported since 1917.
✓ verified
咂酒 · 杆杆酒
Wine sipped through bamboo straws
Western Sichuan and Weining, Guizhou 四川 · 贵州威宁
One jar, a circle of people, long bamboo straws. You keep adding water until the wine runs out, then you eat the grain.
✓ verified
山栏酒
The wine that drips through banana leaves
Hainan 海南
Leaves pounded in a hollow tree trunk, rice wrapped in banana leaves, wine dripping slowly into a jar below.
✓ verified
九阡酒
A starter made from 103 wild plants
Sandu, Guizhou 贵州三都
Shui women make their wine starter from up to 103 wild plants. Parents once buried the wine when a daughter was born.
◐ partly verified
酒海
The 'wine seas' of wicker and paper
Fengxiang, Shaanxi 陕西凤翔
Giant baskets woven from mountain branches, lined with paper, sealed with egg white and beeswax. They hold baijiu for years, and they breathe.
✓ verified
慕萨莱思
The Silk Road wine made by boiling the must
Awati, Xinjiang 新疆阿瓦提
In Awati, grape juice is boiled down in a pot before it ferments, sometimes with saffron, rose and even pigeon blood.
✓ verified
马奶酒
Fermented mare's milk
Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang 内蒙古 · 新疆
The gentlest drink of the steppe: mare's milk, churned all day until it ferments to about 2% alcohol.
◐ partly verified
高山流水
The Miao wine waterfall
Xijiang, Leishan, Guizhou 贵州雷山西江
A line of women pours rice wine from one bowl to the next, until the waterfall reaches the guest's mouth.
🎭 today mostly staged
窨酒
The Naxi wine that turns to jelly
Lijiang, Yunnan 云南丽江
Sealed in jars underground for decades, this Naxi wine condenses into a small clear jelly you dilute with water.
✓ verified
三口一杯
Three sips, one cup, a finger to the sky
Tibetan plateau 青藏高原
Before drinking, the guest dips the ring finger in the wine and flicks it to the sky three times: for heaven, earth and the gods.
◐ partly verified
雄黄酒
The arsenic wine of the Dragon Boat Festival
Across China 全国
For centuries, Chinese families drank wine with an arsenic mineral at the Dragon Boat Festival, to keep evil away.
✓ verified
屠苏酒
The New Year wine the youngest drink first
Across China 全国
On New Year's morning the youngest drank first and the oldest last. The young gained a year; the old lost one.
✓ verified
女儿红
The wine kept for a daughter's wedding
Shaoxing, Zhejiang 浙江绍兴
When a daughter was born, the family brewed jars of wine. They were opened on her wedding day.
✓ verified
沉缸酒
Three times down, three times up
Longyan, Fujian 福建龙岩
A red rice wine named after its lees, which sink and rise three times in the vat.
◐ partly verified
红曲酒
The red wine that turns amber
Pingnan, Fujian 福建屏南
Made with red yeast rice, this wine is ruby red when young and turns amber as it ages.
✓ verified
马祖老酒
Wine jars in a tank tunnel
Matsu Islands 马祖
On Matsu, jars of rice wine age inside a 200-metre granite tunnel built for tanks.
✓ verified
金门高粱酒
The spirit born on the front line
Kinmen 金门
A Cold War general founded a distillery on a front-line island. Its classic sorghum spirit is 58%.
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红标米酒
The cooking wine that emptied the shelves
Taiwan 台湾
When a tax raised the price of Taiwan's cooking rice wine from NT$21 to NT$130, families hoarded up to 228 million bottles.
✓ verified
玫瑰露酒
The rose spirit behind char siu
Guangdong and Hong Kong 广东 · 香港
A sorghum spirit infused with fresh roses: the secret aroma of Cantonese barbecue.
◐ partly verified
奶酒
The spirit distilled from milk
Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang 内蒙古 · 新疆
Mongolian herders turn the whey left over from cheese-making into a spirit, so nothing goes to waste.
✓ verified
青稞酒
Highland barley spirit and the Tu wedding toasts
Huzhu, Qinghai 青海互助
Fermented in pits of Kunlun granite and pine, and toasted with three cups 'to mount the horse'.
✓ verified
侗族糯米酒
If you can't make it, you're not truly Dong
South-east Guizhou 贵州黔东南
Dong starters use up to 60 plant species. One villager said: if you can't make the wine, you're not a true Dong.
✓ verified
封缸酒
The sealed-vat wine of Jiangsu
Jintan and Danyang, Jiangsu 江苏金坛 · 丹阳
Amber, intensely sweet and sealed for years. China lists it as heritage in urgent need of protection.
✓ verified
客家娘酒
The wine of coming home
Meizhou, Guangdong 广东梅州
Hakka families brew this sweet rice wine before New Year, for the relatives coming home.
✓ verified
菊花酒
Chrysanthemum wine for a long life
Across China 全国
Two thousand years ago, on the ninth day of the ninth month, people drank chrysanthemum wine to live longer.
✓ verified
摔碗酒
Smash the bowl
Chongqing, Hubei, Xi'an 重庆 · 湖北 · 西安
Drink from a clay bowl, then smash it on the ground. The more pieces, the more sincere. But it's newer than it looks.
🎭 today mostly staged
爱玲米酒
China's makgeolli
Yanbian, Jilin 吉林延边
In China's Korean community, a fourth-generation brewer makes milky rice wine, now also with mulberries and blueberries.
✓ verified
踩曲
The women who tread the qu
Maotai, Guizhou 贵州茅台
At the Dragon Boat Festival, young women tread blocks of wheat barefoot in rooms above 40 °C. Moutai calls it 'ballet among the qu'.
◐ partly verified
12987
1, 2, 9, 8, 7: Moutai's year in five numbers
Maotai, Guizhou 贵州茅台
One year, two grain loads, nine steamings, eight fermentations, seven distillations. Then five years before release.
✓ verified
老窖
Mud pits in use since 1573
Luzhou, Sichuan 四川泸州
In Luzhou, baijiu ferments in mud pits dug in 1573. The mud is alive, and it smells of pineapple.
✓ verified
地缸
Fermented in buried jars
Fenyang, Shanxi 山西汾阳
While Sichuan uses mud pits, Fenjiu ferments its baijiu in clay jars buried in the ground. No mud, a cleaner taste.
✓ verified
看花摘酒
Reading strength from the bubbles
Across China 全国
Before hydrometers, Chinese distillers judged a spirit's strength by its bubbles.
◐ partly verified
洞藏
Baijiu aged in caves
Erlang, Sichuan (Chishui River) 四川二郎 · 赤水河
Above the Chishui River, Langjiu ages baijiu in clay jars inside natural caves.
◐ partly verified
冬酿 · 开耙
Winter brewing and the masters of the rake
Shaoxing, Zhejiang 浙江绍兴
In Shaoxing, wine is brewed only in winter. Masters called 'the brains' decide when to rake the mash.
✓ verified
贾湖
The world's oldest known alcoholic drink
Jiahu, Henan 河南贾湖
About 9,000 years ago, people in Jiahu were drinking a mix of rice, honey and fruit. It is the oldest chemically confirmed alcoholic drink.
✓ verified
蒸馏之谜
When did China start distilling?
Across China 全国
A bronze still in a Han emperor's tomb. A 3,000-year-old owl-shaped vessel. Was baijiu born much earlier than we think?
◐ partly verified