Self-confessed convert raises the bar for baijiu
William Isler's first encounter with the white spirit was nearly his last. Then he discovered its finer points and decided to spread the word
Baijiu, the "white liquor" always served at Chinese business banquets, is familiar to foreigners but few of them like its fiery taste.
William Isler, an American who has a day job with a beef cattle project in China, said he had a bad experience by being forced to drink shot after shot. However, his interest in and appreciation of baijiu have grown since that painful experience, and he says if he can change his mind, other Westerners can, too.
Capital Spirits - located in Daju Hutong, an old alley in Beijing's Dongcheng district - opened in early August claiming to be the first bar in the capital to specialise in baijiu. Isler and two co-founders - Simon Dang and Matthias Heger - say that by serving it in a Western-style bar in a comfortable setting, changing baijiu's image ought to be a cinch. Isler sat down for a chat with the South China Morning Post recently.
I hated it. I thought it tasted awful. That was in 2000 when I was a student at Tsinghua University. I met a Chinese gentleman at an outdoor BBQ restaurant who was drinking Red Star Erguotou (a famous Chinese white liquor with an alcohol content of 56 per cent), and he poured me a shot. I thought it was the worst thing I had ever drunk. It wasn't just because of the high alcohol content, as I have no problem drinking whisky that's 50 or 60 per cent alcohol. I just didn't like the taste and said: 'I don't want to touch such a thing again'. And I didn't until I got involved in an agricultural project in Hebei and Inner Mongolia a few years ago. I was exposed to baijiu quite often, and slowly acquired a taste.