Last year, an episode of television show NASA's Unexplained Files featured a story on red patches cropping up in China. They would appear in August and disappear soon after. "Interestingly, what the NASA satellites were spotting were sorghum fields!" reveals Rojita Tiwari, spirit expert and co-founder of Agents of Cheer (AoC), India's only curated drinks festival that celebrated its second edition this week. The crop, explains Tiwari, is used to make baijiu, a white spirit from China that had its soft launch at AoC.

Distillation process
Formal distillation of baijiu started around a few hundred years ago, though there is no documentation of the exact time. The harvested sorghum is brought to the distillery where it is sprayed with water, enough to sweat it, after which it is cooked in a high temperature steaming process. The grain is then spread out in open spaces and left to airdry. "This is where the magic happens," explains Tiwari, adding, "They add qu, a brewer's yeast that triggers the fermentation process. Every master distiller guards the qu recipe with his life. Water and qu are the most important aspects of Baijiu production. Depending on the type of baijiu, it is fermented for a few days to weeks."