Da Kang’s grain yield was too low. Ordinary folk seldom had the chance to drink.
Many people went from birth to death without tasting a single drop of alcohol in their lives.
Take Guan Xiaorou and Run Niang, for example. Though they knew alcohol existed, they had grown up without ever coming so close to it until today.
Tang Dongdong had seen her father and brothers drink as a child. But she had been too young then and had not tasted it herself.
Among the group, only Qing Mulam got to drink a few times each year.
“Run Niang, fetch a few more small bowls. Everyone can have a taste together.”
Jin Feng instructed.
Run Niang hurried off and brought back a stack of small bowls. She placed one in front of each person.
Zhou Jin, ever perceptive, picked up the jar and poured the wine. When he reached Xiao E, Jin Feng said:
“Xiao E is still too young to drink!”
“Brother-in-law, I want to taste it too…”
Xiao E, hearing that everyone else had some and she did not, at once grew unwilling. She hugged Jin Feng’s arm and wheedled.
“Alright, alright. Stop shaking me. You will shake me dizzy at this rate.”
Jin Feng ruffled Xiao E’s hair and said with a smile: “Xiao Jin, pour her a bit too. Just enough to cover the bottom of the bowl.”
Xiao E picked up her bowl delightedly. But seeing that Jin Feng and Qing Mulam had not drunk yet, she held back too.
Guan Xiaorou, Tang Dongdong, and Run Niang did the same. They held their bowls and stared together at Jin Feng and Qing Mulam.
Qing Mulam, who had been so impatient earlier, now had the wine in her bowl but showed no haste to drink.
She held the bowl up to the candle and observed it for a while, then sighed in admiration: “Sir, I have drunk no small amount of fine brews, but one so clear as this is a first for me.”
She then held the bowl to her nose and sniffed: “A fresh fragrance wafts up, yet it is not overpowering…”
“Spare us the flowery words. Taste it and tell us how it is.”
Jin Feng urged.
Da Kang’s brewing techniques were backward. Wine inevitably held some sediment and residue. The colour often looked somewhat murky too.
That was why, in Da Kang’s drinking culture, there was a saying that clear wine ranked above all.
The clarity of the wine served as a key measure in judging white spirits there. The clearer the wine, the better the craft and the fewer the impurities.
Cloudy wine was almost synonymous with poor quality.
The half-jar of white spirit that Jin Feng had carried home underwent multiple filtrations and distillation. It held scarcely any residue. The colour was nearly transparent.
From clarity alone, it was undoubtedly top-grade wine.
But judging a wine’s quality did not hinge on colour only. The mouthfeel mattered most.
Jin Feng had not drunk much in his previous life. Since crossing over, he had not touched a drop either. He had no way to judge Da Kang’s current level of white spirits. He could only turn to Qing Mulam, who had drunk before, to try it.
“You really know how to spoil the mood.”
Qing Mulam lifted her small bowl and took a gentle sip.
Once in her mouth, she did not swallow at once. Instead, she held it there and savoured it carefully for a moment. Then she narrowed her eyes in evident delight.
“Stop making that lovesick face to turn our stomachs. Quick, how is it?”
Jin Feng urged her once more, spoiling the mood again.
This time though, Qing Mulam did not retort. Instead, she praised it from the heart:
“Sweet and fragrant, crisp and refreshing. It enters softly, with a pure aroma that does not rasp the throat. If not for that faint off-taste one cannot quite name, it would be in no way inferior to the imperial brew bestowed by the palace.”
“Really?”
Jin Feng felt some surprise at such high praise from Qing Mulam.
“My elder brother loves his drink. Over the years, I have tasted no small share of fine wines from various places with him. Among all the wines I have drunk, this ranks second only to the imperial brew. It is a brew for the ages!”
Qing Mulam said with some regret: “It would be even more perfect without that faint off-taste.”
Hearing this, Jin Feng gained a relatively clear sense in his mind of Da Kang’s brewing standards.
As for the faint off-taste that Qing Mulam mentioned, Jin Feng paid it no mind at all.
The main purpose in buying the wine this time was to make alcohol. So Jin Feng had specially reminded Liu Tie not to spend extra on fine wine. Cheap fiery spirits would do. A bit of odd taste was unavoidable.
Next time, with somewhat pricier fiery spirits for distillation, there should be no off-taste.
Qing Mulam spoke so glowingly of the wine that it stirred the others’ interest.
Xiao E was the first to lose patience. Without waiting for Jin Feng’s reminder, she downed the whole bowl in one go.
But the next instant, she spat it straight back out.
Choked, Xiao E’s eyes filled with tears. She ran to the door, clutched the frame, and kept spitting on the ground.
Guan Xiaorou had no time for her own drink. She hurried to pour a bowl of water for Xiao E to rinse her mouth.
After much fussing, Xiao E finally stopped her tears.
“Sister Mulam, you lied!”
Eyes red, Xiao E pointed accusingly at Qing Mulam with a face full of grievance: “It is so spicy. Not nice to drink at all!”
“First time drinking and you gulp it like that. Of course you get choked.”
Qing Mulam laughed heartily. She poured a bit more into Xiao E’s bowl: “Xiao E, try again this time, but sip it slowly!”
“I will not!”
Xiao E puffed her cheeks and shoved the bowl aside: “You are a big liar. I will not play with you any more!”
“Yes, she is a big liar. We will not learn from her. And no more drinking either.”
Jin Feng laughed too at Xiao E. He picked both chicken legs from the earthenware basin and put them in her bowl: “Here, let us gnaw on chicken legs!”
“Brother-in-law is still the best to me!”
Xiao E felt balanced at last. She picked up her small bowl contentedly and waved a chicken leg in front of Qing Mulam to show off.
On any other day, Qing Mulam would have snatched one over for sure. But today, she had no heart for tussling with Xiao E over things. Her mind was all on the wine.
In that short while, she had already drunk two bowls.
The small bowls were not large, but two of them made nearly half a jin.
“Fine as this wine is, one ought not be so greedy.”
Jin Feng frowned in reminder: “This wine has a strong kick. Tomorrow is the women soldiers’ first experimental combat drill. Do not get so drunk you cannot rise from bed.”
“No matter. One more bowl will do for me.”
Qing Mulam smiled and poured another: “Blame the sir if you must. This wine of yours is too good!”
“That is because you have not seen better.”
Jin Feng grumbled to himself inwardly.
In truth, he knew this was not Qing Mulam lacking worldly experience. Rather, Da Kang’s brewing craft was too backward to produce high-proof white spirits.
Only with higher alcohol content did the flavour grow more pure.
Even Maotai, diluted with water to a mere dozen degrees of alcohol, would taste no better.
Qing Mulam’s high praise for this wine stemmed not from any great brewing skill on Jin Feng’s part. It came because he stood on the shoulders of giants.
The knowledge in his head was the fruit of Earth’s civilisation after thousands of years of accumulation.
In fact, in his previous life on Earth, white spirits had developed over thousands of years too. Only with the rise of the Industrial Revolution and more advanced filtration and purification techniques could high-proof white spirits be produced.
The new spinning wheels in the textile mill were simple for Jin Feng to make. But in Earth’s history, they too were the result of hundreds of years of evolution and refinement.
