By Jim Boyce | Carl’s Jr in Shanghai has launched a burger that—along with a patty, bacon, cheese, tomato and crispy onions—includes baijiu sauce. Perhaps that’s not so surprising given this company rolled out a Budweiser burger in the U.S. just a few weeks ago.
“There’s no beer taste or beer flavor in the cheese or anything like that,” one critic is quoted as saying. “It just tastes like a lot more cheese than usual.”
Anyway, the baijiu of choice at Carl’s Jr in Shanghai, reports TimeOut, is Anhui province heavyweight Gujinggong. And the verdict?
On first bite, we barely noticed the baijiu. There was a faint, sweet-edged whiff of it as we brought the burger closer to our mouth, but nothing like the lingering, all-consuming wave you get when you open a bottle of Erguotou.
After a few bites though, it became clear that our first mouthful had largely missed the sauce. The more we bit in, the more the unique flavour of baijiu came to the fore, unmistakably, if not entirely overwhelmingly.
Sounds like it would pair well with… more baijiu?
In any case, burgers are hardly the only food to get some baijiu treatment. Just looking at this year’s and last year’s World Baijiu Day, there is everything from ‘drunken shrimp pizza’ with seafood sauteed in baijiu to chocolates that include either light-aroma to or sauce-aroma baijiu or gummy bears made with baijiu liqueur. Plus baijiu that has had the living daylights deep-fried out of it (see below).
Anyway, if you’re into the spirit on World Baijiu Day in Shanghai, grab one of those burgers, then head to our partner venue, Dada (I’ll have details on the event there soon).
Founded in 2015, World Baijiu Day is held each August 9, with events in over 60 cities so far. Follow WBD on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And get in touch via spirit (at) worldbaijiuday.com.
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