[quote=“Mother Theresa”]Who cares about whiskey? Big deal. One can buy a half-dozen decent brands at any store in Taiwan, including 7-11!
But why the hell is there no rum on this island? No one carries a single bottle (except Costco and they only have one choice, Bacardi light). I’m guessing Taiwanese are so damned phoney that they’ve got all these Macallans and Laraguellins and Grougalleans and other hoitey-toitey scotchs and whiskeys, because they think if they drink it they’ll appear sophisticated, the same as they think driving a black mercedes or drinking a starbucks will do, but they’ve never even heard of rum, it carries no status with them at all, so they’re not interested. Bunch of heathens.
Anyway, my Bacardi I picked up at Costco has run dry, so it looks like time for another Costco run since no one else can help me out. Pathetic.[/quote]
I’ve realized that I have a better ‘shopping experience’ and often save money by going to my favorite liquor store rather than the big chain stores. I go to a liquor store here in Kaohsiung and the prices are lower than Carrefore and Costco. Plus, they know me so that’s always fun. They know me VERY well. They have an outstanding scotch selection, but little in the way of bourbon. Makers Mark, yum. Been to their distillery. Apparently they sell their oak barrels to one of the big Scottish or Irish distilleries AFTER they’ve used them to age their brew. I can’t remember which one they sell to… I want to say Jamison but I may be wrong. Point is that the buyers want the flavor.
My point is, MT, that you can get all sorts of rum if you look hard enough.
Here’s something I was told recently, though it may only affect Kaohsiung. My liquor store told me that the importer of soda water was no longer importing. They can’t get it. If you’re in Kaohsiung, you’ll notice that Carrefore no longer sells soda water. It’s running out. That’s bad. Soda water good. No soda water bad. Why? Well, call me crazy, but…
Summer is coming quickly. And I know we all love our bourbon and scotch with ice and maybe some water, or maybe no ice and no water, whatever. But when it’s fucking HOT, nothing beats:
- Large glass with lots of ice.
- A healthy amount of booze. The normal selections would be vodka or gin, but believe it or not bourbon works wonderfully. JB works very well.
- 1/2 can of soda water
- LOTS of freshly squeezed lemon and/or kumquat juice. Fresh lemon is best (Taiwan green lemons are fantastic and cheap in season.) Squeeze the juice of an entire medium sized lemon.
This REQUIRES soda water. It’s just not the same with juice or water. You need that bubbly. It is SOOOOOOOOOO good.
And so… any entrepreneurs out there may want to look into picking up the import license for soda water.