Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/253609
64 / the tasting panel / february 2014 I t's the perfect set-up for an old joke: A Jewish guy, a Cuban guy and a Chinese guy walk into a bar—what do they order? But this is no joke and there's no punchline here; these three guys, different as they may seem on paper, all order the same thing: byejoe. The Basics of byejoe But what is byejoe? Simply put, byejoe is the irst baijiu to be widely marketed and sold to the U.S. trade and consumer. A traditional spirit that's become the "glue" of Chinese culture over its 1,500 year history, baijiu is the most consumed spirit in the world, with billions of Chinese drinking it every day. "Baijiu is at the heart of the drinking culture in China," explains byejoe CEO Matt Trusch. "They drink it to stay warm, they drink it with meals, they drink it to close a business deal. To them, baijiu is like water–they can't live without it." And while the West has long looked to the East for inspiration, from philosophy to fusion foods, until recently, native Chinese spirits have largely remained a mystery to Western consumers, and as China continues to establish itself as a major player on the global economic scene, it's almost shocking that the category is nearly unknown in the United States . Consider this: In 2012, the number-one consumed spirit in the world imported just 2,000 cases to the United States. But byejoe is here to change those numbers, big time. With a dedicated team at its helm, byejoe is poised to bring one baijiu front and center and put this unique category in the spot- light, one mixologist and consumer at a time. The Birth of byejoe When Matt Trusch (the "Jew" in the above joke set-up) was a Houston adolescent, he made a choice that changed the course of his life: Inspired by a friend's mother who had taught him some rudimentary Mandarin dur- ing a carpool, Trusch elected to study Chinese in school. "Everybody else was taking Spanish," Trusch says, " but that decision I made over 25 years ago put me on a very Asian-centric path for the rest of my life." After visiting Beijing at 16, Trusch couldn't wait to return to China during a study abroad program while attend- ing Dartmouth. "I ended up in Harbin in Northeast China, essentially Chinese Siberia," explains Trusch. "It's so cold up there that when I originally started drinking baijiu, it was just to stay warm," he continues with a laugh. But Trusch was soon bit by the baijiu bug, and while working in corporate inance and living in Singapore and Hong Kong, Trusch began to see that baijiu was an integral part of the Chinese economy. "It was right when the Chinese economy really irst started taking off," he recalls, "and there was something really different, really fantastic about baijiu's place in the business world in China." Trusch returned Stateside to get his Masters in Chinese studies at Harvard before landing back in China in 1997. "While living there all those years, I did all kinds of business: banking, real estate, diamonds —even some acting! The talented byejoe team helps bring the brand to life. Left to right: Annie Phalen, Marketing Manager; Candy Shaw, National Sales Manager; Basya Benshushan, Social Media Director; Yue Zhang, Operations Assistant.