Business | Schumpeter

The future of the Chinese consumer—in three glasses

What China’s biggest distiller, brewer and water-bottler say about its economy

Illustration of a man drinking from a glass, the drink is a dragon that's going into his mouth and coming out from his eye, breathing fire
Illustration: Brett Ryder

TO WESTERN PALATES baijiu is an acquired taste—and most never acquire it. China’s national fire water, at first whiff redolent of cheap potato vodka with a soupçon of fish sauce, is just too pungently unfamiliar. But whatever foreign investors plied with the stuff by their Chinese business partners make of the flavour, they appear to be lapping up shares in its makers.

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This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “A tale of three glasses”

From the October 5th 2024 edition

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