As we consider how to popularize millets, perhaps a US based Baijiu-maker
would get more farmers to grow sorghum. Apparently, the sorghum based
spirit is the most consumed spirit in the world.
There must be a hipster distiller in Brooklyn looking for the next
ultra-cool spirit to introduce to Western cocktail aficionados.
https://plateonline.com/drink/cocktails/get-crash-course-baijiu-vancouver-s…
(article copied from Plate online)
Get a Crash Course in Baijiu at This Vancouver Speakeasy
Robin CatalanoJANUARY 2, 2024
[image: Photo: Courtesy of Laowai]
Dance Monkey baijiu cocktail at Laowai, VancouverPHOTO: COURTESY OF LAOWAI
<https://plateonline.com/drink/cocktails/get-crash-course-baijiu-vancouver-s…>
[image: Marketing & Technology]
<https://mtgad.com/www/delivery/cl.php?bannerid=4773&zoneid=104&source=sourc…>
In a narrow, warmly lit bar, under dozens of pale, papery phoenix suspended
from the ceiling, customers chatter while a musician taps out a ragtime
tune on the upright piano. A server glides past, pausing at a corner table
to deposit a pair of foam-topped cocktails and a tray bearing five shot
glasses filled with baijiu.
>From the secret location behind a faux dumpling house door to the crystal
chandeliers, and prime menu real estate occupied by China’s favorite
spirit, it wouldn’t be hard to envision this speakeasy in 1920s Shanghai.
But three-year-old *Laowai*, hidden away in Vancouver’s Chinatown
neighborhood, has amassed a loyal audience with an innovative cocktail
program that takes a storytelling-first approach in bringing to life a
forgotten era of Chinese culture.
*Lewis Hart* was an economics student and aspiring pro rugby player in
England, who parlayed his imposing size and gregarious nature into working
as a bouncer at bars. “I never had this idea of keeping people out. It was,
how do I make people happy coming in, especially when they have to wait in
line for three hours?” he says. After moving to Vancouver at 20, he worked
his way up through nightclub management to VP of operations.
He struck out on his own a few years later, choosing Chinatown, which had
entered the early stages of a revival, as his location. (Laowai means
“foreigner” in Chinese.) A self-described history nerd, Hart wanted to
honor Chinese culture while highlighting a lesser-known time period. He
landed on the Prohibition era, where famous American rogues like Al Capone
and Machine Gun Kelly had across-the-Pacific counterparts.
[image: Photo: Courtesy of Laowai]
The wall of a faux dumpling shop that leads to Laowai speakeasy in
VancouverPHOTO:
COURTESY OF LAOWAI
Laowai’s menu relies on these outsize personalities to bring baijiu to the
mainstream. Although the sorghum-derived spirit is the world’s most
consumed, thanks to China’s massive population, it’s rare in Western bars.
The pungent, high-proof beverage is unfamiliar to North American palates,
and can be acquired taste. Hart started by bringing in one of each of the
four main types of baijiu, which are categorized by aroma: light, strong,
phoenix, and sauce. “People loved it. They wanted to try more,” Hart says.
“They were bringing in their grandparents, telling us, ‘My granddad hasn’t
had this baijiu in 30 years.’” To meet the demand, Hart kept doubling his
selections.
The Laowai beverage list currently features 56 labels of the Chinese
spirit. For cocktails, the mixology team uses brands like Yanghe Baiju,
which are less intense flavors and more consistently available. They’re
also the most affordable, running between $20 and $50 per bottle. The next
tier, including popular Luzhou Laojiao, makes the jump to $80 to $150 per
bottle. Premium baijiu, such as Wuliangye and Maotai, costs between $300
and $600 per bottle.
Each Laowai cocktail menu takes about nine months to develop, beginning
with research into historical figures. Then the team gets to work on
pairing the 120-proof spirit with other ingredients that reflect the time
period and the person.
The esters in each aroma type dictate the best flavor combinations, says
Hart. For example, the fermented-pineapple flavor of strong-aroma baijiu
works well with tropical juices and stone fruits. Light aroma, which has
the undertone of a grappa, is a natural in drier drinks, such as martinis;
the bar team sometimes includes rice to help give the drink a bit of body
and prevent it from tasting too sharp. Sauce-aroma baijiu has the earthy
taste of soy and fungus. The mixologists lean into its truffle essence with
chocolatey flavors, including red wine. As for phoenix aroma, Hart says,
“It’s the bartender’s fernet. It’s got a lot going on, so we use it very
delicately.”
[image: Photo: Courtesy of Laowai]
Goodbye Marilou baijiu cocktail PHOTO: COURTESY OF LAOWAI
For instance, Don’t Let Them See You Bleed is based on W. E. Fairbairn, a
British marine who moved to China and joined the Shanghai Municipal Police,
which had one of the roughest beats in the world. (He’s believed by some to
be the inspiration for Q in Ian Fleming’s James Bond books; the libation’s
name derives from a snippet of dialogue.) Using a light-aroma baijiu,
Laowai’s bartenders homed in on a dry martini flavor, fusing it with
toasted rice to round out the body, and blood orange oil for a bit of zing.
Hart recommends a lighter hand when starting out with baijiu. “You’re
effectively pouring one and a half ounces to everybody else’s ounce,” he
explains. “As a businessman, I want people drinking more cocktails, not
getting wasted off two and then dipping out.”
The cocktail menus—printed in slim, cloth-bound books, with a description
and original illustrations of the historical figures each drink is based
on—are the “most collectible item in the world,” Hart says with a laugh. “I
swear they have legs. We’ve gotten to the point where we have to do a menu
count at the end of the night, because so many go walking.”
Beyond their keepsake-like feel, the menus serve an important role: they
help articulate the bar’s concept without either the customer or the staff
having to remember all the details of each cocktail’s story.
The storytelling formula has been successful for Laowai, whose team
delights in the theater of mixology, and of walking guests through baijiu
tastings and cocktail selections to fit their palate and mood. “The best
bars in the world, they’re no longer just opening the doors and saying,
‘Hey, I would like your money, and you would like a good drink,’” Hart
says. “I think people are very cognizant of their spending power now, and
they’re no longer just choosing a good product. They’re choosing an
experience.”
*Robin Catalano is a travel, food and beverage, and conservation journalist
based in New York’s Upper Hudson Valley. *
--
*Robin Asbell*
*http://robinasbell.com/ <http://robinasbell.com/>*
Happy New Year 2024 to all of you! And thank you for your support during
the International Year of Millets 2023. (I understand that the official
closing ceremony for the Year is still ahead of us,so we'll have more
to say around that time).
NAMA is already working on plans for 2024 and beyond. Stay tuned!
Here are some technical notes of interest to subscribers:
* The Collab list will continue on this domain, millets2023.space. It is
not possible to port the archives to our destination URL,
milletsalliance.org, and so maintain full continuity. Therefore, we'll keep
Collab here for now. We'll continue this list in some form for as long as
it continues to fill a communication function (in tandem with other media)
for the millets interest & action community.
* Collab may be the only forum for communication about all millets across
all domains of activity, and with a North American focus (plus
international awareness, of course). It currently has about 80 subscribers.
* Since there have been a number of substantive posts about millets on
Collab since its start in January 2022, I have been spending some time to
make sure that messages are properly archived with Archive.org. In
addition, I am trying to see if the list traffic can be stored
on Mail-archive.com from this point in time on. All of this, again, to make
the content of this list more accessible now and later.
* NAMA also continues to use social media for communication - notably
LinkedIn, where we have a page (and 700+ followers) at
https://www.linkedin.com/company/north-american-millets-alliance-nama/
* We're also returning to the need for a proper NAMA website. To that end,
if you have strong skills with WordPress (including Elementor), and would
have time to lend a hand (no major commitment), please contact me offlist.
Thank you, and we look forward to the coming year!
Don
Don Osborn, PhD
(East Lansing, MI, US)
North American Millets Alliance, co-founder
don(a)milletsalliance.org
Here's a recent article on the potential for proso millet in the Pacific
Northwest, which includes thoughts from NAMA co-founder Joni Kindwall-Moore
on the potential of this crop in general:
"Year of Millets: Farmers willing, but market needs to develop," by Matthew
Weaver, Capital Press (Salem, OR), 26 Dec. 2023
https://www.capitalpress.com/ag_sectors/grains/year-of-millets-farmers-will…
I hope Joni won't mind my copying her additional comments on posting this
article to LinkedIn:
"Thank you Matthew Weaver at the Capital Press for doing a follow-up on the
work we have been doing to develop our domestic Millets (including Sorghum)
industry.
"We have made strides this year in pushing for education and promotion
thanks to the United Nations/FAO Year of Millets and several domestic
organizations like the North American Millets Alliance (NAMA), the United
Sorghum Checkoff Program, and Nate Blum's visionary work at Sorghum United.
"Hundreds of conversations with farmers have left me feeling confident that
there is a major yearning to plant more climate-resilient crops like
millets to diversify their rotations and transition to crops that require
less water, fewer chemical inputs and positively impact soil health.
"We can not fuel regeneration without the diversification of crops. But
this requires diversification of markets.
"Unfortunately, the markets are not developing as fast as we need them to
for a variety of reasons. Several factors persist that are hampering the
development of market segments that support crop diversity and the adoption
of millets.
"First and foremost, I will say that I am personally extremely disappointed
at the lack of interest in crop diversity and climate-resilient crops in
general from leaders in the Natural Products industry. We tried to raise
awareness and put millets on the topics of conversations at events like
Expo West and in buyer groups at leading retailers like Whole Foods Market
and Sprouts Farmers Market but they were stubbornly unreceptive to the
topic.
"Interestingly enough, the 3 retailers who wanted to hear about millets and
the potential role they play in the food system of the future were Walmart,
The GIANT Company and Market of Choice. I am so appreciative of their
willingness to lean in, take responsibility, and truly understand the
pivotal role that retailers will play in shaping the food system of the
future.
"They invited the conversations, they wanted to learn. I applaud them!
"While very positive conversations continue, I refuse to just sit here and
watch other nations lead the transformation toward a climate-resilient food
system, the sluggish adoption of the US markets is truly a shame.
"We will keep pushing these initiatives domestically because of the
critical role that climate-resilient crops play in the future of our food
system."
(Joni Kindwall-Moore at
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/joni-kindwall-moore-57a81014_year-of-millets…
)
Don
DO, EL, MI, US
NAMA
bcc: Matthew Weaver
