Monthly Archives: May 2012

The final countdown

All good things must come to an end. For my sake it’s fortunate that this rule also extends to prolonged grain-alcohol stunt drinking. On May 15, 2012 – a date which will live in relative obscurity – I finished the … Continue reading

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And we’re live … again

Yesterday, as some of you may know, WordPress decided to suspend my blog for no discernable reason.* I flatter myself to think that it was my hard-hitting analysis of the Dongbei distillery “findings,” or perhaps the world just wasn’t ready … Continue reading

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Miracle in Dongbei?

Last week Xinhua published a story whose headline announced, “Nation’s oldest brewery unearthed in northeast China.” The nation’s oldest brewery – Harbin – is indeed in Dongbei, but upon closer inspection this story was about the oldest distillery. The story … Continue reading

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Liquid swords

Ah, Chengdu in the springtime. The bugs, the humidity, that burnt-tire smelling je ne sais quoi outside my window. I’d been away a while and to celebrate my return, I wanted some quality local spirits. Jiannanchun 剑南春 (South of Sword … Continue reading

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Will baijiu kill you?

Question: “Will baijiu kill you?” Let me start by saying I know that this question drives most of my web traffic. By starting this blog I became a de facto guinea pig for everyone who’s wanted to journey into the … Continue reading

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