Kaoliang Liquor

[kguetzow]

I received a bottle of Kaoliang Liquor as a gift. Seems a little rough

How is this usually drunk, and or is this just designed to get you drunk. 106 proof and reminds me of rubbing alcohol.

Edited February 9, 2005 by kguetzow (log)

[Sartain]

Found this article on the web talking about the Taipei Chinese Food Festival:

So I guess you would just use it like Shaoshing wine?

edited to comply with the Copyright and Fair Use Policy...

Edited February 10, 2005 by Sartain (log)

[kguetzow]

So I guess you would just use it like Shaoshing wine?

←

No, definitely not like Shaosing wine. More like grain alcohol

[Ben Hong]

Great for use as a rubbing alcohol Absolutely horrendous to drink.

[kguetzow]

Great for use as a rubbing alcohol Absolutely horrendous to drink.

←

Thats what I thought, but it's amazing how the PR for the stuff pretends that its more than rubbing alcohol. Aged in caves etc. The brand I got is Tunnel 88, named after the cave tunnel its aged in. Seems more like it should be called Coma 88 for the number of hours suffered after drinking it.

[Sartain]

Goes to show - can't believe everything you read on the web.

[Shalmanese]

When we wen't to Taiwan last Christmas, we were invited as VIP guests and sampled some 18 year aged KaoLiang and it was indeed very smooth and slightly sweet and didn't burn much at all. OTOH, we also wen't to Kinmen and sampled some of the more common varieties and it was unmigitated crap, Harsh, abrasive and with no charecter whatsoever.

It's very much a case of a company using a prestige product to as a showcase in order to sell large quantities of a mediocre product. I also suspect the tanking of the Xinmen economy has probably drastically reduced QC in the last few years.

[His Nibs]

Ah... Kaoliang.... Brings back the memories of harsh hangovers.

It's like a high proof vodka and Taiwanese drinks it as such (usually in the form of a shot).

There are some high end stuff in Jin Men that the military makes (and they are aged in the aforementioned caves).

[chengb02]

so are we talking about baijiu here? Is Kaoliang like the Taiwanese version of Wu Liang Ye?

[Shalmanese]

Yes, KaoLiang is very similar to Wu Liang Ye and Mao Tai.