Alcoholic drinks in China Alcoholic drinks in China Alcoholic drinks in China seem to precede the earliest stages of Chinese civilization. They include rice and grape wine, beer, and various liquors including "baijiu", the most-consumed distilled spirit in the world. ("jiǔ") is the Chinese character referring to any drink containing appreciable quantities of ethanol. Its Old Chinese pronunciation has been reconstructed as "*tsuʔ", at which point it was generally applied to drinks made from fermented millet. By the time of the first certain use of distillation during the Jin and Southern Song dynasties, the Middle Chinese pronunciation was "tsjuw". It is often translated into
Alcoholic drink Sake is a popular example of "rice wine". Sparkling wine like French Champagne, Catalan Cava or Italian Prosecco can be made by means of a secondary fermentation. A distilled drink or liquor is an alcoholic drink produced by distilling (i.e., concentrating by distillation) ethanol produced by means of fermenting grain, fruit, or vegetables. Unsweetened, distilled, alcoholic drinks that have an alcohol content of at least 20% ABV are called "spirits". For the most common distilled drinks, such as whiskey and vodka, the alcohol content is around 40%. The term "hard liquor" is used in North America to distinguish distilled drinks