HealthAugust 5, 2026

baijiu

BY-jyo

Definition

A strong, clear distilled Chinese liquor, typically made from fermented sorghum, that is a traditional staple in Chinese fermentation processes like those involving pit mud.

Etymology

The word is a direct borrowing from Mandarin Chinese, where 'bai' means white and 'jiu' refers to alcoholic liquor or wine. It entered English to specifically name this distinct category of traditional Chinese spirits.

In the news

The article references baijiu to illustrate a real-world application of their screening technology, where microbes crucial for its complex fermentation are often lost in conventional testing due to ethanol stress.

Raman Spectroscopy Strategy Accelerates Discovery of Ethanol-Tolerant Microbes

Read the full article ↗

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