First, understand one thing: the real job of smoke, alcohol, sugar, tea, and coffee is to regulate emotion. Once that is clear, the baijiu habit of middle-aged men stops being a mystery.
The Real Job of Smoke, Alcohol, Sugar, Tea and Coffee
Western countries have high alcoholism rates. Think of American TV: men and women alike, before bed, pour a whiskey — a cheap one, by our standards — and drink it straight. It tastes terrible, so they cut it with ice or water. That is why cocktails exist: Western wines and spirits are hard to enjoy with a meal and hard to drink neat.
Red wine, for many, is basically what people called "enzyme drink" a few years back — something between wine and vinegar (because the brewing is poor; Western vinegar is mostly grape-based, and the alcohol content of those "vinegars" is inconsistent — check imported vinegar, or you might fail a breathalyzer). Hence the food pairings: red wine covers the bloodiness of beef, white wine keeps seafood from staining its own color, and acidity cuts the greasiness.
I have been to many foreign cocktail parties and dinners, and I often wondered what junk I was drinking. Foreign dinners have a spoon clinking glasses, a toast beside the host, and rows of forks and knives from outside in. Chinese table manners are already simpler — at most two sets of chopsticks on your right. But in every country, a drinking session is a social occasion; the fancier ones are arenas of status. That is the same everywhere.
Why the Young Are Being Controlled
Why drink at all? The older you get, the harder controlling your emotions becomes.
The sad part: today's young people are being controlled by Red Bull, Monster, high-sugar milk tea, and coffee. We now look exactly like America forty or fifty years ago, when coffee was just becoming popular.
So my advice to the young, for future health — especially mental health: do not drink much coffee, eat less sugar, and drink tea moderately, light tea is good for you. Not for any other reason than that when your hormone levels drop, pressure rises, your body recovers slowly, and pains appear, you will need something to fill the gap.
Drinking is the worst of the options at that moment.
If You Drink, Drink Less and Better
If you do drink, baijiu is the recommendation — start around the 400-yuan level. A light buzz, and the next day genuinely feels comfortable. Control the amount.
Red wine? You would be better off with six-year-aged Zhenjiang vinegar, honey, and purified water — the same "softening blood vessels" effect, no alcohol, better with food, and healthier as a dipping sauce.
Whiskey dulls your palate. It is for Western alcoholics — most "alcoholism" means this kind. I keep Scotch and Japanese bottles around, untouched. If you are young, skip this trend, and do not touch cigars either; I do not understand the appeal of the new cigar bars.
Beer: drink big brands. Avoid small-brewery craft beers — their fusel oils and aldehydes are not properly removed and are more harmful.
Vodka — that potato liquor — is for Russian alcoholics. Don't drink it. As for Japanese and Korean spirits, wiping your mouth with an alcohol disinfectant wipe has the same effect.
The Coffee and Sugar Trap
Coffee: I was an early owner of a De'Longhi machine at home and a commercial one at the office. Back then options were limited; the good domestic beans were mostly illy, and I drank only espresso. But I kept thinking: America started its coffee wave forty or fifty years ago, and its psychological problems and demand for soft drugs rose along with it. We all get older. I have tapered off coffee myself. My advice: do not form the habit of relying on caffeine to wake up — use exercise, hiking, swimming to regulate mood instead. Many milk teas and coffees today are loaded with sugar and caffeine; drink fewer.
Tea: as you age, your taste changes and plain water tastes like nothing. Add a little good tea, and you drink much more water every day. That is genuinely good for you.
Why Qingfen 20? Maotai is too expensive; I store my own, and once you get used to the sauce aroma, strong and light aromas taste like water — which is also why Wuliangye sales drop whenever sauce-aroma baijiu gets popular. I drink light teas (Mingqian green tea and some Wuyi black tea, steeped only about 20 seconds) and Qingfen 20 to keep a consistent palate. Recently Qingfen 20 changed its packaging and I suspect fakes are everywhere, so I drink less of it now. Cognac was my father's generation's drink in the 1990s; few drink it now, and it has lost its value.
