I've never thought you had a Taipei personality.

Ibram--

Kaoliang? Is that right? I'm curious, what does it taste like?

If it's anything like kaolin and morphine it tastes like liquorice and makes me vom.
Then again I have an allergy to codeine (morphine derivative) which may actually be at the root of my severe dislike for anything aniseed.

no, gaoliang (or kaoliang or kao-li'ang or any of the other ways they spell it) is not, unfortunately, a narcotic, nor does it contain any narcotic derivatives.
And V - it's, well, nasty. there's a reason sorghum is almost exclusively used as animal feed rather than as food, for, well, humans. I don't really know how to describe the flavour, frankly. it's got the kick and bite and burn one would expect from grain spirits, but a truly wretched aftertaste that's... slightly sweet, but in a sickly stomach-turning way. thats the closest i can come to describing it, honestly. I have nothing else in my worldly experience to compare the taste to. I don't recommend trying it, but on the other hand, in Taiwan, it's just about the cheapest alcohol one can buy (five bucks or so for a (particularly distasteful and cheap) bottle of relatively standard size, 750ml or so), and comes in 38% ABV and 58% ABV (so 76 and 116 proof respectively) and so is the most disgusting but also most economical method of getting one's self well and properly drunk on a budget. I try to avoid it when I can, but the selection at 7-11 and the other convenience stores in the area tends to be limited to gaoliang, whisk(e)y, and sake or shochu, and frankly gaoliang is the least repulsive of the three in my opinion.

Will you bring me a bottle when you return to Bennington? With a description like that, my morbid curiosity compels me to try it.

Look after yourself Ibram.
The majority of things you experience now are actually positive influences. Even if it's just to reinforce a belief that they are negative.

You seem troubled.
This too will pass. And in the Cellar we know you and still love you.
No, we don't know everything, but we're pretty damn accepting.
If things get really grim, try us.

If we'd offer you couch surfing or a hot meal, you can bet we'll try to listen.
And the fact some of us are old shits means we've been there, seen it, puked the biscuit.

I missed something. Ibram seems normal to me, just as normal as I was at his age, at any rate. I have it on good authority that "he is a sweetie." I won't reveal my sources, but have gotten consistent reports about this.

Yeah on second thought, you may want to look out for yourself Ibram if you don't want to end up like me...

cite!

:D

Like I said I won't reveal my sources, but they are well informed.

Ibram,

1 -- thank you for the reply. most informative. Like footfootfoot, I, too, feel a desire to taste the stuff.

2 -- you can stay here anytime you're in the area.

Yours,

whoa, now. you've got sources? giving you reports?
okay i kinda legit deserve to hear about this. PM me?

Hey now! Sorghum alcohol may be for shit, but finely ground sorghum flour makes a worthwhile bread loaf. Tastes a fuckton better than amaranth, believe you me.

Good Sake rocks.... That is all.

My most memorable Sake experience was when we hosted a large rugby club from Nippon in Hawaii. There were at least 40 or 50 people, which included spouses and children. Of all of those people were about 3 who could speak a tiny bit of English. We had a memorable match, but that is another story, and afterwards my wife loaded as many of them into our VW Vanagon and her Open top CJ-7 and drove to the party. Well the principles showed up with 3 kegs of sake. Not little things, these were like 50 gallon barrels. They had elaborate speeches, all in Japanese, so of course we had no freaking clue what they were saying but I am sure it was all good because we were showing them a grand time. They were dressed in these elaborate outfits, and cracked open the Sake kegs with big wooden mallets. Then they passed out these square wooden cups, which I still have, and we were all ladled out gobs of Sake which we drank until we were sufficiently trashed. Great experience. We had a great time with that bunch and still couldn't really talk with each other.

Many years later, 2 years ago, we had three visiting Japanese Rugby Refs come over on an exchange. We took great care of them and I am sure did more for our relations than Bush ever did after he threw up in the Presidents lap.

Indeed, good sake is very good. Cheap sake should be used for cleaning windows.