And now it has a variant homegrown in the UK.

The product, via Essex farmer Pete Thompson, uses 100% British grown sorghum grains and is launching on January 25 to coincide with Chinese New Year.

Thompson’s Baijiu has been made in partnership with the English Spirit Distillery. Fermentation using enzymes in the traditional way is followed by distillation, which raises the abv to a hefty 50%.

The Thompson family has been growing vegetables for the UK Chinese restaurant sector for three generations.

The fruit grower recently spoke to Harpers about the development of the family’s range of spirits, Reliquum, which has been made from left over food products which would have otherwise gone to waste.

The product is in step with a number of other ‘otherwise discarded’ NPDs that have hit the market recently, including William Grant and Sons’ Discarded coffee vermouth and banana peel rum.

“We’ve always made sloe gin like farming families do from apricots and plums,” said Thompson, who also makes an eau de vie-spiked gin and more recently, a Calvados-inspired apple brandy from apples leftover apples on his Essex orchards.

“We’ve always tried to work holistically. But recently, we’ve been looking at people who are doing all sorts of interesting things with preserves and fermentation. Really, you can do something with everything. With spring onions and cabbage, we could be making kimchi. And now there’s the Baijiu which we’re making out of our sorghum, as most of our core farming business goes to UK restaurants and Chinese supermarkets.”

Baijiu often tops the IWSR and others’ lists as the most-widely drunk spirit in the world thanks almost entirely to its popularity with China’s 1.4 billion-strong population.

It is largely unknown to British palates. 

Thompson however believes that there is a growing market in the UK, either as a sipping spirit in the traditional Chinese fashion, or as a cocktail ingredient.

“I would equate it to a really complex mezcal. Ours is smooth and malty and has a real unami flavour,” he said.

Thompson’s Baijiu carries an RRP £45 for 500ml with 50% abv.

It is available to buy online from the website with negotiations for a number on-trade and off-trade stockists currently underway.

For more on the growth of holistic farming and how it is leading to a new ‘upcycled’ drinks category, see the January issue of Harpers.

中国最受欢迎和历史最悠久的烈酒——白酒，在过去的一年中，通过新成立的总部位于伦敦的烈酒机构以及与保乐力加的全球合作伙伴关系，继续向国际市场进军。不过，英国本土生产的白酒也已经问世。

该产品由埃塞克斯郡农民Pete Thompson使用100％英国种植的高粱制成，并将于2020年1月25日中国农历新年期间推出。

Thompson的白酒与英国烈酒酿造厂（English Spirit Distillery）合作制成，以传统方法使用酶发酵之后进行蒸馏，酒精度达50％。

Thompson一家三代人从事蔬菜种植，供应英国中餐馆。这位果农最近与《Harpers》杂志谈到了该家族生产的Reliquum烈酒，这种烈酒是用一向被丢弃的食材作为原料制成。

以“否则要被丢弃的原料” 制成的酒产品并不鲜见， 近期投放市场的还包括William Grant & Sons的“咖啡渣苦艾酒”和“香蕉皮朗姆酒”。

“像农户们用杏子和李子酿酒一样，我们一直在酿制黑刺莓金酒，” Thompson说。他还酿造混合水果和香草植物的白兰地，最近又用艾塞克斯郡果园里的苹果废弃物制成了卡尔瓦多斯（Calvados）苹果白兰地。

“我们一直在尝试新的酒款，最近我们在寻求通过储存和发酵来制作各种有趣的东西。现在，我们有了用高粱制成的白酒，和我们的大部分核心农业产品一样，它们流向英国餐馆和中国超市。”

白酒经常在IWSR和其他酒类研究机构的榜单中位居世界榜首，这几乎完全归功于它在中国14亿人口中的受欢迎程度。但它是否适合英国人的味蕾尚未可知。

Thompson认为，白酒在英国市场正在不断增长，既可以作为中国传统烈酒净饮，也可以用来制作鸡尾酒。“我觉得它像一款非常复杂的梅斯卡尔酒，顺滑，有麦芽风味，还带有一种‘鲜味’。”他说。

Thompson的白酒建议零售价为45英镑（500毫升，酒精含量为50％）。该产品可以从网站在线订购，也可以通过几家目前在售的即饮和非即饮渠道购买。

原载于《Harpers》杂志