Does Taiwan have anything like Virginia moon shine? Is it like 38/58 wine?

Someone had told me about this moon shine tour in Virginia in the Southern USA (because of the stamp book which is common in Taiwan)

So I searched moonshine

Many countries make it, even in the middle east (Saudi for example is listed) but Taiwan is not listed. Just curious if any drink here in Taiwan was like moonshine?

Arkansas Diner in Kaohsiung sells some drink they call moonshine, but it sounds a lot weaker (only 40 proof) compared to the real stuff. Be careful with real moonshine if your tolerance is low.

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I will go try it one day, thanks for the information!

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Obviously not on a par with distilled liquor, poor squatters in South Africa make a thing called “Skokkejan”, which translated from the Afrikaans, means "“Shocking John”.
They take a big oil barrel, put a car battery at the bottom, and add a goat or sheep’s head. Then they chuck in all the peelings, rotten fruit, veggies and meat from the garbage, add water, a bag of sugar and a few sachets of yeast. It’s left to ferment for a week or two.
Can’t say I ever tried it, even when I was at my most desperate.

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I left behind any urge to try those extreme homegrown brews when I left my 20s.

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Stroh rum can still catch you, though, because it looks so legit and sophisticated. I’m going to lay charges of attempted murder against that stuff.

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Wow is all I can say, one of most interesting drinks I heard of with some meat flavors too. You will add it to the South Africa section on the wiki page.

South Africa[edit]

A small bottle of witblits

In South Africa moonshine made from fruit (mostly peaches or marulas) is known as mampoer (named after the Pedi chief Mampuru).[24] The equivalent product made from grapes is called witblits (white lightning). Witblits has a long history in the Western Cape Province (over 200 years) and many producers take pride in their product, which is widely available from liquor stores and at farmer’s markets. Most witblits is of a very high quality compared to typical moonshine worldwide and is generally comparable to grappa. A licence is required to distill alcohol in South Africa.[25] A limited number of “cultural heritage” small-scale distillers are licensed.

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What is the real stuff? Like Taiwan’s 58 or 38?

Kaoliang would be similar high strength liquor .
Farmers used to distill their own rice wines in Taiwan but I’m not aware of any doing it now. Just the aboriginals with the Xiao Mi Jiu.
As you may know in Ireland there is a moonshine drink called Poitin made from potatoes. They used to make it up in remote hills and bogs. Very dodgy but blows your head off.

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I’ve never had any moonshine that tastes as bad as that stuff.

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How about this

or this

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There’s no set standard since real “moonshine” is homegrown by individuals and not mass produced. But I’ve heard of it ranging anywhere from 150 proof (equivalent to Bacardi 151) to 190 proof (equivalent to Everclear grain alcohol), which is extremely dangerous. Do I recommend you drink real moonshine brewed in someone’s backyard distillery? No.

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haha, I do know Poitin but at that (few years ago) time was scared to try it. Alas, I (assume) can not get it here in Taiwan and now would try a bit. All these sound a bit like Kaoliang to me, but I guess there are some taste differences that get past high liquor content.

190 sounds crazy! I guess not legal.

Not sure. I know Bacardi 151 was discontinued in 2016. Honestly I don’t recommend anything stronger than 80 proof or so. Anything more than that and you’re probably in for a bad night and a worse morning.

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The problem with real moonshine is they might add methanol or any kind of adulterant Personally I’d avoid any hard liquor moonshine just too dangerous. If they add methanol you could go blind or even die and the treatment is to drink more ethanol. :neutral_face:

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It says the first one is Toxic (or maybe the wine makes it non toxic). Anyways I have seen this but the Bee’s make it look scary to drink. Interesting the SA one also has meat, maybe something in common as well being homemade with what ever is there.

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Almost 3 decades ago, was staying some time up in Li-Shan (eons before the road closed). Beautiful area. Memories still vivid.
Some local up there made some alcohol with apples.
Slice up apples, dump 1 layer into a big plastic canister.
Add a layer of sugar on top. Slice more apples for next layer, add sugar.
Repeat to maybe 1/3 or 1/2 of canister. Cap it tight, and let the sugar do its work.
A bit potent, but nothing like moonshine of Kentucky/Tennessee.
Might be considered apple brandy.
Tasty.

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Everclear, which is 190 proof, is legal in over half of the states in the US.

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In Taiwan they have a distilled drink made from Asian Giant Hornets. It is pretty expensive.

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