Jottings from the Granite Studio

Anyone who has been to China has heard “The List.” The long itemization of all things great, small, and wonderful that the Chinese invented before Europeans could figure out which part of the spear was the “pointy/useful end.” On those thoughtless occasions at dinner when I make some critical comment about Chinese food, good friends never fail to gently chide me that, “the Chinese people were cooking banquets for emperors when your people were picking pine cones off the ground and saying: ‘that’s real crunchy.’” You sigh and nod and hold your tongue and then pick up your chopsticks to wolf down another piece of whatever the hell the cook could knock unconscious long enough to pan fry it. Criticism is not wanted. Whatever it is, the Chinese did it first. And better. And still do. And to be fair, in some cases, they’re right.

But now it appears we must add to “The List”… tequila?

From an archaeological site near Chengdu, comes the discovery of four cooking pits, two of which date back to the Qing dynasty.

“People found an unusual round object at the Qing Dynasty site; at first glance it looked something like a well. Eventually, archaeologists concluded that it was used to produce tequila in China. Back then, a large ‘tian guo’ was supported on the pedestal, and it had two layers. Cold water was put in the upper layer and the yeast was put on the lower layer. When the yeast was steamed, the gas containing alcohol cooled to a liquid and flowed out from a pipe. This liquid was a form of tequila.*

Experts deduced that in the Qing Dynasty, tequila was produced at the site, and that the old technology is very similar to the new. The experts examined the animalcules in the cellars, separating red yeast and rhizopus. Archaeological studies show that China had developed mature tequila distilling technology in the late Yuan Dynasty or early Ming Dynasty. (ed. note: 14th century) There are three types of Chinese tequila — one is very fragrant, the other is only mildly scented and the third is soy-flavored. The liquor brewed in Shui Jing Fang was the very fragrant variety, which is widespread spread in China. The most unique characteristic of the Chinese distilling method is that the liquor is brewed in earthen cellars. This type of liquor originated in the Chengdu Plain and Sichuan Basin.”

I’ve had tequila in Beijing. One of the “attractions” of the notorious (and now defunct) Pure Girl bar on the old Sanlitun nanjie was its 5 yuan tequila shots. If tequila really is a Chinese invention, they need to go back and work on the recipe because the stuff I had would char your liver to unusable cinder within minutes.

A cursory glance at the Internet suggests that tequila wasn’t distilled in the Western Hemisphere until the 16th century when the conquistadors ran out of brandy, looked at the agave plant, and pondered the timeless question: “Think it’ll get us buzzed?” Perhaps the Chinese were first (ahem), certainly they wouldn’t deny it if you asked them.
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Epilogue: This discovery has actual economic implications. One of the disputes when China entered the WTO was over Mexican concerns of cheap, Chinese tequila being produced in Sichuan and exported to the lucrative US market. The climate in some places in China could support the agave cactus and the cost of labor in China is lower than in Mexico. I can hear the conspiracy theories already being spun across the web: China is once again using history to support spurious contemporary claims. Ah, how the worm turns.

*Update 10/19/06: As zhwj pointed out…the People’s Daily chose “tequila” as their translation for 蒸 馏酒 which should, in fairness, refer to any distilled liquor. (Original article here courtesy of zhwj.) Still, it’s a pretty random choice of translation (talk about the weirdness of trans-lingual signifiers). Perhaps giving creedence to the “screw Mexico” conspiracy whispers? (Ahem.) Thank you to zhwj for the tip.