The Kinmen Liquor Factory is known for its production of kaoliang liquor. What's so special about this fiery drink made from sorghum?
Kinmen's cold and windy winter is one of the not-so- pleasant memories soldiers serving on the front-line base take back to Taiwan. The Kinmen folk remedy most soldiers use to battle the cold weather is a shot of the locally-produced liquor, kaoliang; so much so, that, for many, the drink has become synonymous with Kinmen.
Kaoliang is the Chinese word for sorghum, which is the chief material of kaoliang liquor. The drink was first produced in Kinmen in 1953, when a distillery now known simply as the Kinmen Liquor Factory was set up under the finance section of the local government. The Kinmen local government had found itself in financial difficulties, so it decided to enhance its revenue by selling kaoliang liquor. With poor-quality soil and an annual rainfall of only about forty inches (less than sixty percent of the annual evaporation), Kinmen is not suitable for rice farming, but sorghum and peanuts grow well there. The distillery bartered the rice it imported from Taiwan for an equal quantity of the local farmers' harvest of sorghum. In this way, the distillery obtained the necessary raw materials for the production of kaoliang, and, at the same time, Kinmen people were able to have more rice, which they much prefer to sorghum as a dietary staple.
Now, forty-five years have passed, and Kinmen Kaoliang has won the hearts of wine-lovers. "Kinmen Kaoliang won't give you a headache. This is the thing that makes it so good," says Kuan-te Shin (辛寬得), general manager of the distillery. He thinks this is significant since kaoliang liquor is fifty-eight percent alcohol, a strength similar to brandy and some whiskeys that easily give drinkers a hangover. Shin, who has visited distilleries in France and the United Kingdom, attributes Kinmen Kaoliang's special qualities to the way it ferments. "In the process of fermentation of many foreign liquors, sugar and water are added to the raw materials. But we don't add anything when the sorghum ferments. This is the main difference between Kinmen Kaoliang and the others," notes Shin. Kinmen Kaoliang liquor can also be purchased in special ceramic bottles designed and produced by the government-run Kinmen Ceramic Factory and sold on special occasions such as National Day. The bottles have their own value as souvenirs and curios for tourists.
The Kinmen Liquor Factory also produces grape wine and medicinal wine, but kaoliang has always been its main product. According to Shin, Kinmen Kaoliang is the beverage of choice among Kinmen people whenever they have a taste for liquor, and particularly on special occasions like wedding banquets. But lovers of Kinmen Kaoliang are not limited to locals. Each year the distillery's six hundred employees turn out more than eighteen million bottles of kaoliang, with about fifteen percent sold on Kinmen and eighty percent shipped to Taiwan through the Taiwan Tobacco and Wine Monopoly Bureau, which has been selling Kinmen Kaoliang since 1977. The remaining five percent is exported to foreign countries. Kaoliang sells so well that the distillery generates NT$2.1 billion (US$63.63 million) in revenue for the county government each year. According to Shin, this figure accounts for about one-third of the local government's finances. "If the distillery doesn't turn a good profit, the local government will not even be able to pay its employees," notes Shin.
Kinmen Kaoliang has enjoyed such a high reputation for so many years that the supply cannot meet the demand. Today, partly because the demand for kaoliang is increasing and partly because local farmers grow less sorghum each year, four -fifths of the raw materials for Kinmen Kaoliang are imported from Taiwan, mainland China and southeast Asia. The heightened demand for Kinmen Kaoliang also motivated the Kinmen Liquor Factory to build a second distillery in 1995. Starting operations last year with one production line, the second factory is more modern and automated than its predecessor, and it will add two more lines in the future to increase output. Another change took place when the government-run enterprise was incorporated early this year, in preparation for its scheduled privatization in late 2000.
At present, standard Kinmen Kaoliang is sold for NT$350 (US$10.60) a bottle. Aged Kinmen Kaoliang is NT$1,600 (US$48.50) a bottle, and higher grades of very old Kinmen Kaoliang may cost NT$4,500 (US$136) or more a bottle--if one can even be found.
In the future, the Kinmen Liquor Factory will face pressure from another modern kaoliang distillery built by the Taiwan Tobacco and Wine Monopoly Bureau. This new factory, located in Chiayi, southern Taiwan, will be fully operational by the end of 1998. With the Taiwan Monopoly Bureau producing its own kaoliang in large quantities, will the Monopoly Bureau stop selling Kinmen Kaoliang? "I'm prepared for that," says Shin. This past August, the Kinmen Liquor Factory and President Enterprises entered into a cooperative relationship, in which President, a leading food and beverage manufacturer -distributor and franchiser of the 7-Eleven convenience store chain, will act as Taiwan distributor for the Kinmen Liquor Factory.
So, what's ahead for the Kinmen Liquor Factory--a second spring or a severe competitive headache? Have a shot or two of Kinmen Kaoliang, and the question may seem to answer itself.