Would YOU drink vietnamese rice liquor on bui vien if it was 5,000vnd?

Are you talking about snake wine?

May be something like that Or like Korean rice liquor?

No, we may carry the snake wine also but it would be more money aprrox 20-40,000vnd per shot. The rice wine is 40% Alc. and is simply make from rice rather than corn or potatoes like many other hard liquors in America

Great! What do you think about the price? is 5,000vnd too little or right on with what you would expect to pay?

What about the blended frappuccinos and froozen daiquiries? What do u guys think about those? 1/2 the price of starbucks lol!

That is what I would expect to pay for low-quality liquor. If it is high-quality, then I would expect to pay more.

would I pay for it? no chance....

but on Bui Vien, you will find plenty of backpackers that no doubt will.....

Hans, the real issue here is safety. When I saw the title of your thread, without opening and reading your post, my thought was HELL NO, I would not drink rice liquor on Bui Vien for 5000 dong. #1 - It's on Bui Vien street, where you're likely to find anything that's less than above board. #2 - It's only 5000 dong (see #1). If in a known reputable establishment with no history of having anyone die from methyl alcohol poisoning, and at a more "believable" price, then yes, I would try it.

Maybe I should clarify then. I have a contract to buy large amounts of ruou de aka rice liquor in commercially sealed containers from one of the largest ruou companies in VN. This is not home made rice liquor and nobody on Bui Vien, de tham or pham ngu lou sells ruou de that I've seen in the past year anyways. My main concern was if the backpacker would want to drink like vn ppl and have that new experience or just stick to paying double the price for saigon bia lol

If you're wondering about backpackers' preferences, I would take the comments here with a grain of salt. A lot of these guys may be a little older... than your average backpacker. When I go to VN, I spent most of my time in D11, which doesn't have the biggest party scene.

I like your idea though. Have you done any benchmarking to see what your future competitors sell stuff like that for?

I have no competitors in that market oddly enough. everyone just sells beer and a few sells western wiskey and other hard liquors.

Rice wine is the most widely home made liquor in Vietnam. The people most likely to drink it will most likely already have it in abundance. Drinking outside the house is mainly a social thing with guys trying to out do each other on everything from how much they can drink to how much they spend. In the VN market cheaper is not always better.

Understood but the home made rice wine is very often a poor quality and has little to no filtering. The vn ppl i know are not poor and always buy the pre-bottled rice wine if thats what they are planning to drink. More importantly I am targeting the "Backpackers" they from what I've seen are in S.E. Asia for new experiences, I just wasnt sure if they would try it or not and if they did would the price or culture they are trying to experience make them continue to drink it?

I an not often surprised to hear what people will spend good money on and often the more you charge for something the more they will buy.

Interesting prospective. As I'm sure you already know even the top shelf ones are cheap. What do you think I should charge for a single shot of name brand ruou de? Btw we will also have daquiries and frozen starbucks style coffee but planned to have those at lower prices aswell.

I think marketing the drink will be your primary challenge. You will need to find a way to present it that makes it more "fun" than your standard Whiskey. Off the top of my head, I am thinking about how in college the first time I was introduced to Saki it was in a "Saki bomb". Something like that might go over well in the backpacker area.

thats a great idea! However I dont know anything they do with in other than say "mot, hi, ba, yo!" Hahaha, I will need to investigate that a little further! Thanks for the idea. ALL IDEAS WELCOME

Hans.b wrote:

Hi Everyone! I've been in SG for over 1 year now and am thinking about opening a small outside bar on Bui vien. Only 6-8 tables and sell vn rice liquor aka ruou de and ruou nep and froozen daiquiries  and ofcourse beer. I havent noticed anyone selling the local rice liquor or daiquiries.... Please respond if you would visit a place on bui vien selling 5,000vnd shots of rice liquor and 30,000vnd daiquiries

You are thinking of opening a "Quán nhậu" right?  People don't just go drink the rice wines per shot.  They need food to chase down the liquor after they drink the shots. 

http://travel.cnn.com/explorations/none … ure-223868

It wouldn't matter the price since people don't go to a bar just to drink (like drink alone).  Rice wine is drunk with friends and it gets to be like a competition.  To give backpackers the "Vietnamese" experience, they need their buddies to come along.  So focus on marketing the experience as a selling point, not the price.

Good idea! We will be using a place nearby to deliver food we will have the menus and make a small profit off of the food aswell. What would be the best food for our vn drinking customers though?

Hans.b wrote:

.... What would be the best food for our vn drinking customers though?

I hate to say it but dog meat.  Not sure how well that will go over with the Backpackers though.

yeah, i gotta feeling they wouldnt even come to my place if i served that. anything else? 80-90% of my customers i think will be western but I still wanna have good food that the vn guys will enjoy

many local people avoid to have rice wine here, since people produce wine with harmful medicines, are you aware of this ? there are many dead drinker were reported. eg for this report http://vtc.vn/1-265117/kinh-te/ruou-dan … an-ure.htm

or this one http://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C6%B0%E1 … E1%BA%AFng

be careful mate !

Yes, I'm aware of the homemade "chinese medicine" they make with the ruou but this is the same ruou sold in the supermarkets here with no medicine, just in larger bottles

if you get ruou from Super market then it should be fine...

Salty foods are good because they are generally easy to make and the salt makes your customers thirsty for more of your drinks. I think snake might go over well with both local and foreign guests. It is popular for Vietnamese customers, and it seems exotic and fun for foreign customers. It tastes pretty good too.

Yeah, snake sounds good and everyone likes anything that tastes like chicken hahaha

How about Ruou Ca Ngua? Got the salty taste with the liquor. As for the snake wine, I always suspected that the alcohol was above 40%. Made me worry about my kidney and liver. By the way, is there no Bia Hoi in Saigon anymore? That should appeal to backpackers. ANd you might want some catchy patch to sell as well. After all, backpacking seems to more about being seen in foreign countries than actually seeing them. "Saigon Slim's Snake Snort" or something much more clever with a cute logo might do the trick. Has to be about the same size as the most common patches on backpacker packs.

.

thanks for the input. Im not sure if i will sell it for 5,000 or not yet but to clarafy the beer they are selling on bui vien is saigon, tiger, 333 and ha noi. True bia hoi is made fresh daily and has not been on bui vien that ive seen it the past 2 years bus used to be very popular and cheaper than what they are selling now. However i am lokking into bringing real bia hoi back to bui vien. I agree the food is a great idea, especially the snake haha

there is still real bia hoi to be found but not on bui vien for some time. i dont know why because it was very plpular for a while and now is saigon green as far as the eye can see. I am looking into the bia hoi though. also what does everyone think about calling the bar "Drunk pho king monkey"?? if anyone has a better name please share

Is our member "Saigon Monkey" a partner?

Hans.b wrote:

there is still real bia hoi to be found but not on bui vien for some time. i dont know why because it was very plpular for a while and now is saigon green as far as the eye can see. I am looking into the bia hoi though. also what does everyone think about calling the bar "Drunk pho king monkey"?? if anyone has a better name please share

What does "Drunk Pho King Monkey" mean?  If you want to target foreigner/backpackers, make it easy to remember and make it in English.  Since you're the owner, try:

Hans' Drunken Monkey Pub (people will just shorten it to Hans' Pub anyhow)

Whatever...maybe you should hold a contest to name your pub.

I think it is a play on words
Drunk F***ing Monkey

VungTauDon wrote:

I think it is a play on words
Drunk F***ing Monkey

Ah, now I get it.  So does that mean something in the inner-circles of drinking?  But then again, you're targeting backpackers who may think the name is cute and funny but I wouldn't go to any extent as to insult any of the animals in the Asian culture.  Let's see, the 12 Vietnamese Zodiac Animals are.....yes Monkey is one of them. 


Year of the Rat
Year of the Ox
Year of the Tiger
Year of the Cat
Year of the Dragon
Year of the Snake
Year of the Horse
Year of the Goat
Year of the Monkey
Year of the Rooster
Year of the Dog
Year of the Pig

Tran Hung Dao wrote:

I wouldn't go to any extent as to insult any of the animals in the Asian culture.  Let's see, the 12 Vietnamese Zodiac Animals are.....yes Monkey is one of them. 


Year of the Rat
Year of the Ox
Year of the Tiger
Year of the Cat
Year of the Dragon
Year of the Snake
Year of the Horse
Year of the Goat
Year of the Monkey
Year of the Rooster
Year of the Dog
Year of the Pig

And they eat 11 of them, if they could find a dragon they would make it 12 for 12.

nope, sorry. I dont know the Saigon Monkey