Archive for August 13th, 2009
Happy days are here again in the United States. At last, a beer from Tibet will be available for consumption here. Too bad the Lhasa Beer made its debut after President Obama had his beer session at the White House with the professor and the police officer from Harvard University. Otherwise, this could have been a good opportunity for the Tibet movement to press for making Lhasa Beer the beer of reconciliation.
Seriously, more than the appearance of the beer here, I am intrigued by the report that said, “Lhasa [i.e. the beer, not the capital of Tibet] will donate 10 percent of its annual profits to non-profit groups supporting education, health care, cultural preservation and other socially responsible initiatives in Tibet, according to Witz.” George Witz is the president of the American company, Dzambuling Imports, which is doing the importing of Lhasa Beer to this country.
I visited its website and did find half a dozen Europe and US based NGOs that are currently working in development projects in Tibet among whom one is getting that 10 per cent.
It seems “Lhasa Beer is brewed using only the finest natural ingredients, including Himalayan spring water, barley, Saaz hops and yeast. This export product is specially formulated with 30 percent of the malt content coming from the huskless native Tibetan barley. Using this Tibetan barley gives the beer a crisp clean taste without any harsh or astringent flavors that can come from the husk, and supports the Tibetan farmers.”
How many bottles of Lhasa Beer would be available here? According to a report in the Tibet Daily, the newspaper from Lhasa, the first batch of 11340 cases of Lhasa Beer were sent to the United States in the middle of May this year. The report said that the second batch of 13860 were due to be sent in July. Thereafter, the schedule seems to be to send a batch every second month.
The beer’s website says this, “Through your purchase of Lhasa Beer you are contributing directly to the well being of people in Tibet.” If that is so, my mantra to you is, if you want to help the Tibetan people, get drunk on Lhasa Beer.
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