Appreciating Baijiu: China's favorite spirit tries to break into global market

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Moving from one tradition to another. A motley crew of aficionados are trying to promote China's baijiu globally. Their mission is to win over new-world palettes with this old-world spirit. But first, they had to win over our very own New York correspondent Liling Tan.

Baijiu is the most popular liquor in the world, thanks to China's massive domestic market. But in New York City, only a handful of bars and restaurants carry the spirit like Kings Co Imperial in Manhattan's Lower East Side.

I'm here to meet baijiu expert Bill Isler, who developed his taste for the liquor from living in China for fifteen years, where 12 billion liters of baijiu were consumed last year.

LILING TAN NEW YORK "And this is more than the amount of whiskey consumed around the world."

BILL ISLER CEO, MING RIVER SICHUAN BAIJIU "More than the amount of whiskey and vodka COMBINED consumed around the world."

So why isn't this liquor popular outside of China Part of it baijiu's reputation. It's perceived as a drink favored by middle-aged men, it's an acquired taste, and it packs a powerful punch, as I'm about to find out.

BILL ISLER CEO, MING RIVER SICHUAN BAIJIU "Baijiu is not really one spirit, but it's a whole family of different spirits, with over ten thousand distilleries in China, twelve recognized styles, and then four main styles. We're having the four main styles today."

They are rice aroma, light aroma, strong aroma and sauce aroma.

LILING TAN NEW YORK "So this is the Vin baijiu and it is made from brown rice. It's a style of rice aroma, 40 percent alcohol."

BILL ISLER CEO, MING RIVER SICHUAN BAIJIU "That's correct. This is also the only baijiu that's 100 percent made in the United States of America. It's going to be the closest to a vodka, although it's going to have an aroma and a flavor kind of like a sake."

B: "So the next one is going to be a bit more challenging. This is called jin men gao liang. It's from an island called jin men. So this is called a light aroma baijiu, made from sorghum, not from rice. And this is going to be much punchier. It's a lot more alcohol so 58 percent alcohol by volume now, so it's going to be sharper."

L: "Wow, this is a lot sharper. I'm not going to gan bei this one."

B: "Now we're going to have Ming River."

L: "This is your brand."

B: "This is our brand. So Ming River's what's called a strong aroma or Sichuan-style baijiu. This is going to be quite tropical on the nose."

L: "It's very fragrant. Wow. It's also very strong. How many percent?"

B: "This is 45."

B: "This is going to be Moutai Prince. And Moutai is probably the most famous brand in China. It's the state liquor of the People's Republic of China. So it's served at state banquets. This is what's called a sauce aroma baijiu. Sauce meaning reminiscent of soy sauce. And completely different again from the other three."

B: "So this is what we do every day."

L: "Drink baijiu."

B: "With people and have them learn about the differences and different styles because while we are selling Ming River, our main mission was to open people's minds to the idea that baijiu is not one thing but it's a whole other world of spirits."

Bill Isler and fellow aficionados are widely known for opening the world's first baijiu bar in China, serving the liquor by the glass instead of by the bottle, and mixing it with cocktails.

They're taking that concept to Germany, Los Angeles and here in New York, by partnering up with restaurants like Kings Co Imperial. Here, their Booze Guru Justin Lane Briggs made me two of his baijiu cocktails, and co-owner Tracey Young talks to me about the customer reception.

TRACY YOUNG CO-OWNER, KINGS CO IMPERIAL "I think people are excited to try something new. We have a lot of strong spicy components to some of our food here. Where some of the more mild spirits, or wines or beers might be overpowered by some of our food, I think the baijiu really stands up well to it."

My verdict: Most of the baijiu I tasted earlier would take some getting used to. But these cocktails - which Justin calls Ming River Mantis and Monkey Writes A Poem - I liked very, very much. You can check out his demos on our website, and give it a shot.

Liling Tan, CGTN, New York.