Those happy, friendly people at customs

[ObertonGluek]

Chocolate? Liquor?... Eurgh *shudders*

[icebear]

Phil, sounds excellent. I look forward to sampling some unique British spirits. I'd offer to bring the same from AK, but the illicit substances we're well known for, well... they most likely wouldn't make it past customs.

[teleplayer]

EL,
It has been almost 7 years since I lifted the shaker glass behind a bar as a pro and I don't go out much. Is the Mozart liquor equivalent/better than the Godiva Chocolate Liqueur? I used Godiva to make Chocolate Martinis. Don't really care to drink it though.

Ober, I was thinking AfterShock was now a staple. It's all over college towns in US, then again, I'm not in the Middle Kingdom. I would think the Carrefour, etc would have such. GenGrant?? Oh, and Southern Comfort....saw a pseudo ad a few days ago, Southern Comfort was "liquid panty remover."

[Escaped Lunatic]

I've tried both, and have to give top marks to Mozart. It's a royal pain to find (had to special order it at a liquor store once), and there's an even less well known Mozart Vanilla Liquor that I've only encountered once.



Jesus saves, Moses invests, but Buddha pays dividends

[Mr Nobody]

Sorry, seen none of the above except southo, which I consider halfway down to baijiu anyway.

You are lucky to get anything other then basic whiskeys, gin, vodka, and the like. Not really enough to stock a bar back home. Actually, you will get it one week, then not the next, so grab them when you see them. This is China, guys. The chocolate liquors probably can't get anywhere I have seen, including HK.

Get a few brandies though.

[ObertonGluek]

icebear said:

Phil, sounds excellent. I look forward to sampling some unique British spirits. I'd offer to bring the same from AK, but the illicit substances we're well known for, well... they most likely wouldn't make it past customs.

Snow? ... Ozzy Osbourne took that, and look what happened to him. He's a millionaire.

Damn! I gotta get some snow! ;D

Here is AfterShock:



... and a review I just found:

www.dooyoo.co.uk/drinks/aftershock-liqueur/297799/

I'll be bringing the red variety. I don't really like the others except the Blue and Red mix, which gives a cool purple colour and quite a wild taste.

[Decurso]

oberton said:

By the way, I've had cheap vodka and even the western variety of "cheap" makes me sick. I won't be touching any 8RMB bottle of vodka.

Do they have Southern Comfort there? I don't like beer, so I need replacements. Are these western liquors served in bars and restaurants? I hope so.

Hey now.Stoli is one of the finest vodkas in the world and it goes for 90 RMB in these parts.A perk sharing a border with Russia.

You should be able to find SC in Shenzen..I think I've seen it around a few times.Some bars will carry it(in Shenzen probably a lot actually) but in my experience most restaurants will only serve beer,baijiu and (sometimes)red wine.Then again..I don't exactly dine at 4 star establishments.

So yeah..you'll probably have to bring your own booze to most restaurants...which has it's good points and bad points.

[ObertonGluek]

You're allowed to take your own booze to a restaurant? I suppose the question should be, what exactly can one NOT do in China? haha.

[Escaped Lunatic]

>what exactly can one NOT do in China? haha.

That's actually an interesting point. I've seen a couple of general items that one should and shouldn't do, but haven't seen a list of what one can get away with.


"He who hesitates is a damned fool."
- Mae West

[ilunga]

Aftershock is lethal. Hold it in your mouth for thirty seconds and it's even more so. Never seen it in China unfortunately.

I have bad memories of carrying booze between countries. I thought it would be a good idea to take some bai jiu back last time. The 56% Er Guo Tou and some other assorted cheapo varieties. I had four bottles wrapped up in socks. Making my way from the taxi to check-in at Beijing Airport the strap on my bag decided to snap. Bit of a pain as it was heavy and I had to carry it by the handle. Even more of a pain was being asked to open it up upon check-in, then finding that two of the bottles had smashed. Red face time as hordes of nosy locals gathered round to see what the stupid laowai had been trying to smuggle out of the country. Worse was to come when I got to my friend's place in London. I opened up my bag and whooooosh the stench. He said it took him a month to get the smell out of his apartment. I managed to appease him by giving a cheap copy of Oceans Twelve. which him and his gf were well pleased with...........until they watched it.

[Newbs]

ilunga said:

I managed to appease him by giving a cheap copy of Oceans Twelve. which him and his gf were well pleased with...........until they watched it.

Yeah, I was going to say your friend was easily appeased.

[Justashooter]

icebear said:

With the availability of Western booze (and at decent prices) mentioned above, what liquors are especially hard to come by there?

most of the liquor you buy here will be fake, and not taste quite right.

i bring odd liquors as gifts in my 12 week cycles. one friend likes sambuca. another likes jaegermeister.

[Mr Nobody]

All the ones I have bought taste right. So far, anyway. But then, I buy the brands I know. If I bought a fake and I can't tell, then I don't care. I am sure I am fairly hard to fool, though.

And Jaegermeister is a cough syrup for hunters in rainy, dismal german winters. Some Germans I know use it as a hangover remedy.

[Crippler]

I have bought in China: Southern Comfort, Jim Beam, Jack Daniels, Bacardi light and dark, Captain Morgan, Jose Cuervo and too many other brands of tequila to recall, Irish Whiskey, several Scotches, Irish Cream, Gin and Vodka of many brands, Old Crow, several different liquers, and imported beers from many countries.. Not that I would drink any of them of course........

[kzel81]

What about girlie liqueurs (ie, Baileys, Kahlua, Midori, etc)? Are they available, or would it be best to bring some over with me?

[Dr. Gonzo]

Bring some from duty free , but most imported booze is available in the bigger centres at supermarkets [Carrefour etc]. Prices were lower than home for most stuff.

[Becster79]

Man, they are just ridiculous at Shanghai Airport.....I came back to China this year with a wooden fan I receieved as a gift last year (it was hot and useful!), did the right thing by writing it on the dec card, headed over to the red zone, 2 bored women sitting at the entrance, I walked in towards the xray machine, the women looked over at me then ignored me, I ended up waiting for about 20 minutes for someone to come fire up the machine, got fed up and walked away! I could have been carrying bombs and other explosives for all they knew!

Decided not to test my theory next time though.....

[Ruth]

kze - Kahlua is available here. Not here in my small city, mind, but I can get it in any of the bigger cities I've visited. If you are within shouting distance of Suzhou or Shanghai you won't have difficulty. Do you mean Baileys Irish Cream? If so, yes, also available here.

[teleplayer]

And you can make your own Kahlua, will, Coffee Liquor. The internet has recipes and if not, I'll post one. Vodka will be your source, you'll need to find a passable instant coffee or just brew very, very, very strong coffee and sugar. It's too easy. Then again, given price of kaffe in Zhongguo, perhaps buying might be a better way to go. Oh, and the well kahlua in the saloon is the homemade stuff with Baijiu in stead of Vodka. Raoul has a dedicated rusting enamel pot just for the process.
There are recipes for making cream liquors as well. In USANIA last year I found a wine-based (not brandy but just wine) cream liquor. It was okay in Coffee but I didn't find it as good as Bailey's or Carolan's.
Given many of these were all invented to disguise bad bathtub gin, there should be many recipes for girly liquors.

[Mr Nobody]

You can also get flavourings for vodka these days that are really good, too. Bringing them into the country would be easier. Two litres of these should alst you for a couple of years.

[Escaped Lunatic]

>You can also get flavourings for vodka

And of course, there's my new FAVORITE dessert - Vanilla ice cream with chocolate vodka.



“I have spent most of my life unlearning things that were proved not to be true.”
- R. Buckminster Fuller

[Mr Nobody]

Maybe I should have said that better. You can get stuff that you add to vodka or any pure raw spirit properly diluted to make it the flavour of your choice. Damn near anything, and it tastes pretty close, especially the norwegian or swedish (I forget which) ones, which are brilliant. For one 750ml of 50% spirit takes about 50ml or 100ml depending on the brand. There are methods for aging it instantly or making it taste indistinguishable for most brands as well, especially with mixers.
They even do stuff like irish whiskey or drambui that are good, although I admit that I can tell myself, even if many can't, if you don't do the advanced mixing methods, involving mixing about 10-25% real spirit with the fake, but then, really hard to tell. And I used to work for food and wine magazines, tasting this stuff.

[Lotus Eater]

This is not quite customs related - but is airport check-in related.

My cousins headed for Beijing today - one cousin 30kgs in overweight luggage, the other 15kg. (I know really good places to shop!). Got to the check-in counter at the airport. Check-in guy looked at the 1st cousins pile of luggage - 5 cases in all, and said you'll have to pay excess and you can't check it all through. She said I will pay the excess, but I do want to check it through, no cabin luggage for me thanks.

So I had a bit of a discuss with him, chatted about what they were going to do, and he agreed to let her check it all in. Then - you'll have to pay excess 50Y per kilo. So he totalled it, told her - she was prepared to pay it. BUT - I smiled my best smile, put on my best bargainers voice - and asked him for "yidianr pianyi". He grinned at me, said, I like Australians and cut back the cost to well less than half!!

Next cousin was only 15 kilos overweight, and only had 2 (big) bags to check through - so he didn't charge her at all!!

China can be great! Wonder if Qantas will be as nice when they do the international leg??

[Newbs]

Well, I'll go out on a limb here Lotus and say I reckon Qantas won't be quite so kind. Qantas is cracking down on baggage limits applying the rules as they are spelt out. I'm no fan of Qantas, believe you me, but this is one time when I think they get it right. I'm gonna be happier knowing that I'm flying with an airline that applies baggage limits and knows, as accurately as they can, how heavy a load they are trying to get into the air.

Good on your cousins for getting a discount, and I'm not saying that the airline they flew with is disregarding safety. Let us know how they got on in Beijing.

Hamish, any comments?

[Lotus Eater]

By cracking down do you mean they are just making people pay extra or saying "No you can't take it at all"? If they are just asking for the money, then they are still prepared to fly with it - only gathering more profits for the Board members to increase their salaries and spread a little very thinly to the investors.

If it is no, can't take it at all, then it might be safety factors.

Only plane I have been on where we actually had to off load luggage was flying back from Palm Island in really bad weather on a little 10 seater, and they asked us to leave all of our briefcases and bags behind. Ended up one person decided to stay the night and come back next day.

Americans flying to China are given almost double Australian baggage limits.