World acquires a taste for Chinese spirit

"When we first started selling baijiu cocktails around 2010/11, we were pretty unique," said Paul Mathew, owner of the Arbitrager and the Hide cocktail bars in London. "Things are definitely moving on, as lots of high-end bars are using baijiu in their drinks."

For the past few years, bars across London have been celebrating China's spirit with special drinks and menus for a "Baijiu Cocktail Week".

Sarah Lewis, one of the founders of Baijiu Cocktail Week, said the spirit has grown in popularity as drinkers look for something new and different. "They love the history, the unusual taste, and the design of the bottles," she said.

The first Baijiu Cocktail Week was launched in 2014 to raise awareness of the drink. In 2018, the week will coincide with the lunar Chinese New Year, which falls on Feb 16.

Aiming to give further exposure to this spirit, World Baijiu Day was launched in 2015 by Jim Boyce, who has run the night life blog Beijing Boyce and the wine blog Grape Wall of China for nearly a decade, and has written about China's wine industry for both trade and mainstream publications.