A Pint Half Full

Note: This is part 3 of a series documenting the countries of Epcot Center and the beer they serve.

Just a hop, skip, and a jump away from the land of vikings, weird troll things, and (how could I forget?!) the Maelstrom, was China, the land of Mulan and Chinese acrobats.  Epcot again does a great job here, creating 'temples' and painting the architecture red with the traditional Chinese adornments.  We walked through a museum which had a miniature exhibit of the Terracotta Army of the First Emperor of China which was pretty neat.  Koi ponds surround you as you walk through the exhibit making the environment peaceful with its feng shui-minded design even though you're actually in Orlando, FL.



The one thing they get wrong is the food.  There are no food stalls with Chinese goodies like beef noodle soup, fried pork chops, pork belly/ears/hocks.  Just one cafeteria style restaurant serving your typical Chinese takeout style menu.  Pass.

I did however, stop by the snack kiosk at the entrance to China for a beer. 

They had both Tsingtao Lager, the quintessential Chinese beer, and also Tsingtao Pure Draft.  I've had Tsingtao Lager before and it is just ok, really light, a little sweet, sometimes skunky (green bottle syndrome).


The Tsingtao Pure Draft intrigued me with its high quality label art, the promise of a bigger flavor ("pure draft" just sounds good), and the fact that I have not seen it much here in the US.  They only had bottles and no draft beers at the kiosk.  The cashier poured my beer into a cup and I took my first sip.  Guess what, it tastes even LIGHTER than Tsingtao normal.  I didn't know that was possible.  But if there was any real Chinese food served in this faux-China, Tsingtao Pure Draft would complement it well.  As I drank my beer, we enjoyed China a bit more as we got a photo-op with Mulan and watched the amazing acrobats flip bowls on their heads and expertly form human pyramids.