Monday, April 20, 2009

Strange brews






Was at a Carrefour the other day, and a few odd things jumped out from the shelves in the liquor department.  In these photos, you can see for yourself.

American wine is predictably expensive, but who would have guessed it would be about $30 USD per box of Franzia?  (current exchange rate is about 35 baht to 1 USD)

There is a whole shelf of herbal liquors - liquor infused with Chinese herbs.  It's supposed to have medicinal value, and it's cheap, hence its popularity.

Lots of local Thai whiskeys, which are actually rums.  They stack up well against other rums of the world - if there's one thing Thailand has it's good quality sugar.

Bacardi mixers also come in lychee flavor here.  Can't say I've had a Bacardi mixer, but I would guess lychee flavor isn't that common elsewhere.

And last but not least, saw some firewater for sale.  'Red Cock' claimed it was distilled fermented rice.  The one bottle next to it wouldn't even say what it was fermented from, or what was in it, it just claimed it was very Thai.  Taiwan has similar local liquor on offer, and mostly it offers to kick you a few times in the head.




2 comments:

Christopher Q Brady said...

I'm so glad to see Franzia is expanding its reach into Southeast Asia. Wine-in-a-box is certainly a yardstick of civilization.

Chris said...

I think maybe the distributor should have focused on convincing Bangkokians to drink wine before putting the 'in-a-box' spin on it. Wine is somewhat less popular in Bangkok than it is elsewhere.