The King of Beers
MEMORIES
On our last trip to the motherland back in 2005, Stef (my then fiancee) and I led a group of Americans on a “cultural exchange” trip in Sichuan province. It was extremely exciting and hard work. We tended to most of the logistical stuff, like what to eat, where to go, who to meet, etc… But of course we had to worry about “safety” and “tastes” when it came to where to go eat. So we played it pretty safe for most of the trip by staying with big restaurants and well known places and ordered pretty safe stuff so that everyone wouldn’t be grossed out. We made sure things were clean and didn’t expose the group to any unnecessary risks.
SHAOKAO
Us on the other hand, after tucking everyone into bed, snuck out of the hotel and wandered the streets of Chengdu. We found a “hole in the wall” on the side of the street and had the most delicious shao kao.
XUEHUA (SNOW)
To top it off, we had ourselves two bottles of XueHua (literally snow flower or snow flake) Beer. And those were 620ml bottles. Anyways that was probably the most memorable meal we had in china during that trip. The two of us, sitting on the side of the street, chewing chunks of meat off a stick and drinking beer. The smells of Sichuan spices and the night time summer air was so good.
Even to this day, I still remember fondly of that night drinking xuehua beer. It was the best tasting beer I had ever tasted… perhaps it was the food I was eating it with or the company I had, but my memory has kept me thinking of that beer. I never had xuehua until I went to Sichuan. Beijing had an assortment of beers, but the people’s brand was Yanjing Beer. My first exposure to Xuehua was on the streets of Chengdu.
PRESENT UPDATE
I did a search on Google to see if there were any imports in the U.S. Everyone talks about Tsingtao, but a large majority of people have not even heard of Xuehua. But it happens to be very popular in Sichuan province and the people there claim it to be their provincial drink…
Apparently SABMiller did a joint venture with Xuehua a few years back and it is being marketed as “Snow” Beer. It has also become the world’s biggest selling beer in terms of volume with over 61 million hectoliters.
My fondest beer has overtaken Bud Light as the KING OF BEERS.
If you ever get a chance to visit China, ask for Xuehua… or if you know of any distributors in the U.S., please, PLEASE, let me know :)
