Cheerday Brewery, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China

Buddha and beer are two things that one can hardly associate with one another, even with the greatest effort of thought. The Chinese Cheerday Brewery has made this quantum leap and launched a beer that is sold in a Buddha-shaped bottle. Buddha bowls were yesterday, today there is Buddha beer!

With beer to enlightenment

Anyone who thought the road to enlightenment is hard and rocky and peppered with laborious meditation and ascetic renunciation can breathe a sigh of relief: A sip of beer is enough to escape the dreary world and join the sacred ranks of the enlightened. At least that is what the Cheerday Brewery promises to all who consume their beer. Taking its Chinese origins into a joke, the brewery advertises the Lucky Buddha with funny slogans that are reminiscent of Chinese fortune cookie wisdom and with a Chinese wall made of Buddha beer bottles. Whether enlightenment or not, the Lucky Buddha is a loose-flaky-light lager that makes a difference with its bottle design: With various symbols of happiness, the green glass Buddha smiles blissfully and promises a truly divine beer pleasure.

Buddha is not the same as Buddha

According to the Cheerday Brewery, the makers of the Buddha beer, their bottle is not modeled on the image of the one Buddha who is the linchpin of the Buddhist religion. Rather, it is Budai, the laughing Buddha. This figure is one of the seven gods of luck and is often used for advertising purposes in China. And if you go through your clichés about China in your head, you might think of another thing besides Buddha: rice! This not only plays an important role on the menu of Asians, but also with Lucky Beer : The Asian-style lager is brewed with rice flakes. These give the light beer a surprisingly sour note, which makes the lager a refreshing companion for mild summer evenings and hot days. So if you want to go on a short trip to China after work, we recommend a bottle of Lucky Beer!