Abstract
The Chinese spirit baijiu is currently the world’s bestselling spirit, with more than ten billion liters sold in 2018. This is a figure that puts its sales higher than whiskey, vodka, gin, and tequila combined. The multitude of baijiu varieties available in the market differ in several ways ranging from aging to the traditional artisanship involved in producing the final spirit to several other features, including the rarity of the bottle. A result of these differences is a wide distribution of prices for the various baijiu products. Consequently, a single bottle of baijiu can cost anywhere from a few dollars, up to thousands of US dollars. The price differences among the various baijiu spirits necessitate the existence of reliable scientific methods that can efficiently differentiate and authenticate the qualities of baijiu spirits. In addition, the existence of such methods facilitates the prevention of counterfeit sales of the final product. Considering this, we introduce an analytical chemistry method that distinguishes amongst different baijiu spirits based on fluorescence spectroscopy. Its attributes include the low cost and convenience that allows analysis either before or while the spirit is in the market. Our work herein focuses on the analysis of thirty different varieties of baijiu spirits from six different distilleries from East Asia and North America by fluorescence emission spectroscopy, which is associated to the price of the product. For the analysis, we employed a HORIBA FLUOROLOG 3 (HORIBA—Jobin Yvon) spectrometer. Major advantages of this method include the low cost, as no consumables except a quartz reusable cuvette are required, the minimal waste, and finally the quick processing of data.
Highlights
The Chinese spirit baijiu is one of the most famous alcoholic drinks in the Eastern world, and while it has yet to become popular in the West, its popularity is steadily rising as is indicated by its growing sales
The number of years of aging is usually the most important parameter that assign the sample a certain price value. Another important parameter that contributes to the monetary value is the fact that the fermentation agent is extremely sensitive to the surrounding environment of the area in which it is produced, and the flavor is different according to the different baijiu regions [2]
The outcome of all these parameters is that different baijiu spirits have different properties most notably different tastes and smells, and these properties lead to different valuations of the products
Summary
The Chinese spirit baijiu ( known as shaojiu) is one of the most famous alcoholic drinks in the Eastern world, and while it has yet to become popular in the West, its popularity is steadily rising as is indicated by its growing sales. The method of baijiu-making is based on solid-state fermentation and distillation This includes mixing sorghum grains, water, and a fermentation agent called daqu, xiaoqu, or mijiu. The number of years of aging is usually the most important parameter that assign the sample a certain price value Another important parameter that contributes to the monetary value is the fact that the fermentation agent is extremely sensitive to the surrounding environment of the area in which it is produced, and the flavor is different according to the different baijiu regions [2]. Another variable is the alcohol content as in the final product ethanol is usually between 40 to 55% [2]. The various varieties of Chinese baijiu range in prices from tens of dollars to thousands of dollars per bottle
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