The story
From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of Mandarin 白酒 (báijiǔ, “white alcohol”), where "white" refers to its clearness. Compare huangjiu (“yellow alcohol”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
baijiu
bai·jiuToday it means: A clear Chinese distilled alcoholic beverage, generally distilled from sorghum and about 40–60% alcohol by volume. Full definition →