Maotai

Outside the window was August 1st Park, where he could see people playing chess by streetlight while he sat across the table from one of the most powerful men in China.

In the officials' room, they went through a bottle of Mao Tai each.

The liquor loosened their tongues.

Naturally, what they discussed can't be repeated.

I think another fun, surprising, not a food but a drink, was the maotai from Shenzhen.

Do you want to talk about the maotai?

Why me? I generally don't tolerate alcohol so well, but Maotai was easy to keep down, didn't have any after effects, and it was, I think they consumed it, in the room they consumed a total of almost 10 bottles of that stuff.

and it's not cheap either, but everybody was eagerly devouring and toasting each other, and I think it was well appreciated by everybody.

And the after effect, how did you feel? It had a cleansing effect.

I didn't feel anything really.

So normally I try to avoid alcohol in most spots, but Maotai actually stayed down pretty well.

So we were at a dinner.

Not because of us, not because of whatever, because that's just the way it is.

They don't drink cognac anymore, right? Some people drink Maotai, which is a very Chinese drink.

more for old school people.

Some buy a mix of local and non-local.

Also, alcohol is actually, you don't have to be 18 in China.

My grandpa was like, this is Maotai.

Have a sip, you know.

What do you think? Spicy.

Postal Bank of China is up 3%.

And consumer names are up on the day, including the likes of Maotai, which has had a months-long slide.

That's up around 40 basis points.

Even tech is steadying up a little bit, with Cambricorn up 2% on the day.

They were really horrendous.

Um, he also-- he was also, in 2022, he called the police because he found him- he was missing 40 cases of a type of alcohol called Moutai.

Yeah, isn't that like 50% or something alcohol?

It's 53% alcohol, so it's almost all alcohol.

So it's a, a ch- a well-known, apparently a well-known Chinese drink that's very expensive, apparently, called Moutai.

And he called the police because 40 cases of his prized Moutai [chuckles] went missing.

So he said it cost him $400,000.

This alcohol cost him as much as a house.

She said law enforcement was currently searching the couple's mansion, and already they'd found millions of dollars worth of assets, including antique sculptures and expensive bottles of alcohol.

There were crates and crates of Moutai, the pungent Chinese liquor that Guojun's former employees told me he liked to drink.

Authorities had also found multiple passports.

Guojun had one US passport in his office, another US passport in a safe downstairs.

But interestingly, at least, when I was in... shenzhen last year and guangzhou you're seeing a an increase in in people who are the demographics of the people who are drinking it so one thing i found really interesting that you don't see a lot around the world a lot more women drinking whiskey in shenzhen and guangzhou because in the western world right there's a connotation that men drink whiskey right it's in it's in the bond films it's in know it's growing up men drink whiskey women drink i don't know what you know rose or a cocktail or something like that that's just the connotation but in china nobody grew up with that connotation so one of the beautiful things i noticed was that without that i guess historical you know pretext uh women were sitting around you know four or five women having Having a wonderful whiskey.

And they do like that, obviously, stronger taste, kind of more similar to a Baijiu or a Maotai, etc.

So I guess, you know, I definitely can't afford you, obviously.

So I'll use this opportunity to get two minutes of free advice.