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Thursday, January 22, 2015

Chilling a Chongqing Beer

One night at a slightly upscale restaurant in Chongqing, I ordered the Chongqing Brewery Company's Shancheng Beer 1958 (9.5°), partly because I didn't recall trying it before. Many people in China are content to drink beer at room temperature (whatever that may be), so I made sure to ask for a cold bottle. They didn't have one, and I said a regular bottle was just fine.

Several servers were intent on serving me a cold beer though. After they discovered I was not interested in adding ice to the beer and saw me explore another possibility with the ice now at my table, one server took back the bottle of beer. Despite my insistence that they really didn't need to worry about it, a few minutes later this was at my table:

Shancheng Beer 1958 (9.5°) in a metal bucket of ice

The restaurant's effort was most appreciated. I don't think a beer that one reviewer described as having the taste of "grainy malts, plastic, cardboard, grassy hops and some light citrusy notes" could ever look better.

4 comments:

  1. Now that is good service. Do you find this level of service to be common, or is this a nice surprise?

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    1. It was a surprise, but I've been similarly surprised here many times before.

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  2. Of course, if somebody would just remember to put some beer in a refrigerator, all that ice would never have been necessary!

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    1. I wouldn't say they had forgotten anything if my request was rather unusual for them.

      On that note . . . it is not uncommon in China for stores to turn off their refrigerators holding beer, sodas, water, etc. during the winter because people don't want a drink to be cold if it is also cold outside. I've seen this in practice at several nearby groceries & convenience stores.

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