00:00Welcome back to Bloomberg This Weekend, Bloomberg B, this T, Weekend, WBTW, as we say, David Gurr with Christina Ruffini.
00:07I'm too tired to have this fight with you today.
00:08Lisa Mateos, you've ascertained, out this week. Nathan Hager with us with some stories you might have missed.
00:14You've been mining the terminal, miningbloomberg.com, mining outside sites as well.
00:18I should say it's an opportunity for us to look broadly at the news.
00:21Not using AI, using your brain.
00:24Yeah, can't do that. Critical thinking. We even do that this early in the morning.
00:28It's hard. It is a struggle.
00:30But there is coffee. There is coffee available.
00:32Speaking of drinking, this isn't about coffee. This is about drinking culture.
00:36Because I don't think it's any secret that the beverage industry has been dealing with the changes.
00:4320-somethings, kind of pulling back because of health concerns or the economy.
00:47Yeah, we just had a story at Jim Beam, and they're owned by this big Japanese conglomerate.
00:50Remind me this, because you said that they're actually getting into, not a non-alcoholic whiskey, but like other...
00:55No, but Jim Beam, they're doing non-alcoholic cocktails to try to, you know, get these young people who are
01:00not drinking alcohol to purchase some of their products.
01:03Well, this isn't just a Western phenomenon or here in the States.
01:06It's even spreading to China, although the reasons here are a little bit different.
01:10This is really about a generational divide.
01:12This was from the Wall Street Journal this week.
01:14A sober, curious generation is challenging the business culture of heavy drinking because, I mean, you can see it right
01:20here for our listeners on radio.
01:22They do toasts.
01:23This has been a part of the culture for decades now.
01:28Some business leaders say that, you know, just you can tell whether a deal is going to go down based
01:34on how many toasts are in the deal.
01:38So an initial business deal isn't even about business.
01:40It's about just doing the toast.
01:42And this is around a national drink called Baiju.
01:45It's actually a $170 billion business.
01:47This is a clear spirit that's distilled from sorghum.
01:50And it's kind of the traditional alcoholic beverage that Chinese business people and at social gatherings do to do these
01:58toasts.
01:58But only about a fifth of adults in China, ages 25 to 35, name it as their preferred alcoholic drink.
02:04They say, at least one worker says, it burns your throat.
02:07It stinks.
02:08It is very terrible.
02:09Have you had it?
02:10Oh, you've had it.
02:10Yes, I have.
02:11Oh, I've had soju, but I've never had this.
02:12Yes, it's extremely strong.
02:14Well, would you say that the aftertaste is worse than a mix of funky cheese and fermented juice?
02:19Well, you know, I don't even know if I had time to process the taste because it was so powerful
02:23and strong.
02:24Oh, wow.
02:24It reminds me of that.
02:25Now I kind of want it, but.
02:26It reminds me of Malort.
02:27Isn't that the Chicago drink?
02:29It's like a very strong.
02:30I don't know what that is either.
02:31Well, I will bring some in for you to have.
02:32I mean, I had moonshine once.
02:34It almost killed me.
02:36That could be quite sweet and comforting.
02:36So the bottom line about how this is working in China is that it's not just about giving up alcohol
02:43necessarily.
02:44It's about changing the way that young people decide to drink and sort of rejecting or, you know,
02:51going a little bit against how the older generation have done it with their alcoholic spirits.
02:57All right.
02:57All right.
02:57What else you got?
02:57Well, you mentioned the must-have summer status symbol.
03:02What is this?
03:02Well, tea is going to break.
03:03Hopefully it's not a tan because we've all learned that's not happening for me.
03:07Well, it's something in a bottle.
03:09It's not sunscreen.
03:10It's a $3.99 bottle of water.
03:14So yes, you can forget your Baiju flavored lattes or your bubble tea.
03:18This is Lunan water.
03:20It's showing up at bougie grocery stores, private events here in New York City.
03:25Christina must have seen it on the shelves.
03:27How dare you?
03:28Also, yes, I have.
03:29Oh, have you now?
03:30And the way they sell this is it's sourced from a Southern California spring using stainless steel filtration,
03:38adding natural minerals like Celtic sea salt, magnesium, potassium, and calcium.
03:43All this for the low, low price.
03:45Yes.
03:46Of $3.99.
03:48Wow.
03:48Now, this was founded, co-founded last year, actually, by a woman named Clara Sieg.
03:54She's a former venture capitalist.
03:56Of course she is.
03:56When she was, you know, deciding to get pregnant, getting ready to, she decided to educate herself
04:01about microplastics and found that she says that the stainless steel filtration process
04:09gets out more of the microplastics.
04:12But when you talk to experts, they say, water's water.
04:15Water's water.
04:16And even if there is, you know, Evian or liquid Volvic, there is no evidence that any of these elite
04:23brands
04:24are going to give you any other health advantage.
04:26It does taste different, though.
04:26Water and glass does taste different.
04:28Lunacy?
04:28It's called Lunacy?
04:30It's called Lunen.
04:32Lunen, okay.
04:33Potato, potato.
04:35Sorry, Nathan.
04:35What else?
04:35What else you got?
04:36Editorializing.
04:37Any more drinking stories?
04:38Not me.
04:38Any more drinking stories?
04:39Why would I editorialize?
04:40Never.
04:41Okay.
04:41So, we're going to go from luxury water to luxury hotels here, because this is a new trend
04:48across Europe, actually.
04:50It's not just about the thread count or the buzzy restaurant.
04:54History is the new amenity.
04:56This story is actually from Bloomberg this week.
05:00You can go to the Raffles London at the O.W.O.
05:03and sip martinis in a basement that was once used by British intelligence.
05:08Oh, I love that.
05:08Because, of course, O.W.O.
05:09So, you're speaking my language.
05:10History nerd and bougie hotel.
05:12This is great.
05:13Yeah, pop quiz.
05:13O.W.O.
05:14stands for?
05:16Office of...
05:17What am I going to say?
05:17Yeah, war time.
05:18Along the lines.
05:19Old war office.
05:20Oh, something like that.
05:21Okay.
05:21The Nomad London, you can tour old prison cells where Oscar Wilde once waited for sentencing.
05:30So, guests are paying upwards of $13,000.
05:33Or, sorry, $13,000.
05:34$13,000.
05:36That's still a lot.
05:37That's still a lot.
05:38So, you can stay at places that were once limited to the most powerful.
05:42Awesome.
05:42Like I said, this is a trend across Europe.
05:44There are old ministries in Paris and Lisbon that are turning into hotels.
05:47The former Italian central bank headquarters in Rome because they've got to offload some
05:52of these old buildings as the governments are modernizing and these hotel chains are saying,
05:56you know what, we'll go ahead and snap them up and give our guests an experience that
06:01they'll never forget compared to, like, the museum or the spa or whatever, you know.
06:05I understand there's an access issue here and it's not equitable, but I also do think
06:08it is nice to preserve these buildings that might otherwise not have a purpose.
06:12At least someone is paying to save them and, you know, you've got to buy a $14 martini
06:16to help keep the bricks stand up.
06:17An old post office pavilion in D.C.
06:19Well, that's a true.
06:20He's a Waldorf historian now.
06:21It is now.
06:22It has a very nice bar.
06:23I've been there multiple times.
06:25Nathan, thank you very much.
06:26Appreciate that.
06:27BTW.
06:28BTW.
06:28Thanks, David.
06:29Stories you may have missed here over the course of the week.
06:31on the terminal and at Bloomberg.com.
06:32Other outlets as well.
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