![]() So they had to use Moutai as a drug to numb from surgery.” Legend has it that members of the Red Army even used to turn to the drink to knock themselves out before surgery, said Hao Hong, head of research at BOCOM International, the securities arm of China’s Bank of Communications. During the Red Army’s “Long March” in China in the 1930s, soldiers used to pour Moutai on their feet to help disinfect wounds, Chinese state media has reported, citing a former army lieutenant general. Some say the story goes back even further in Communist Party lore. I think Moutai is that brand for China, and so I think that part explains why it’s so popular.”Ī Moutai representative declined requests to be interviewed for this story. You see Coke at when the Berlin Wall comes down. If you look at the way they’ve done their advertising over the past 50 years, they’re at pretty much every big event. “That’s the same reason why Coke has actually done so well from a marketing perspective. John Dominis/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Imagesīeing part of so many major public events in China “really set the brand in the national consciousness,” said Cavender, who likened it to another giant beverage maker, Coca-Cola, in that regard. President Richard Nixon toasting Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai at banquet in China in 1972. “Then, when I go back to China, we must take steps to increase our production of it,” Deng responded, according to an archived US government transcript. Once, at a state dinner in 1974, US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger told Deng Xiaoping, the future Chinese leader: “I think if we drink enough Moutai, we can solve anything.” Known as the favorite tipple of Mao Zedong, founder of Communist China, and as the “drink of diplomacy,” it was famously used to welcome former US President Richard Nixon on his historic trip to China in 1972, and again in 2013 when Chinese President Xi Jinping met with his US counterpart, Barack Obama, in California. Henry Kissinger, US Secretary of State, speaking in 1974 I think if we drink enough Moutai, we can solve anything.” The red-and-white bottles of its flagship product, “Feitian,” or “Flying Fairy,” are a staple at Chinese state banquets and business events. Moutai baijiu - the type of liquor the company makes - is a clear, potent spirit that’s been dubbed “firewater,” thanks to the fact that it’s 53% alcohol. Moutai has one unmistakable advantage: the drink is China’s national spirit. Valued at 2.7 trillion yuan, or $421 billion, Kweichow Moutai is worth more than Toyota, Nike and Disney, too.Īn employee displays China's leading liquor maker Kweichow Moutai at a supermarket in Nantong city, in China's Jiangsu province in 2018. Globally, its market cap has not only surpassed all other alcohol distillers like Diageo and Constellation Brands, but also Coca-Cola, which had long held the crown as the world’s largest beverage maker by market cap. The company, which is part state-owned and part publicly-traded, is China’s most valuable firm outside of technology - worth more than the country’s four biggest banks. The luxury spirit is so beloved in China, it sold out quickly.Įven amid a global pandemic, Kweichow Moutai, the company that makes the eponymous liquor, had a banner year: its stock surged around 70% on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 2020. That price represented a steep discount over Moutai sold elsewhere - that is, if you could get your hands on it. A fiery, throat-tingling liquor called Kweichow Moutai also flew off shelves.Īt 1,498 yuan, or $209 for a half-liter bottle, it might not sound like the kind of bargain Costco shoppers usually go for - but in this case, it absolutely was. When Costco opened its first store in China in 2019, it wasn’t just the hot rotisserie chickens and discounted Birkin bags that lured frenzied crowds.
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