http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1217381900...us_inside_today

VIENTIANE, Laos -- A Soviet-trained female brewmaster is trying to turn an obscure Laotian lager into the world's next great cult beer, largely by tapping into the buzz about the brew being carried home by visitors to this small communist country.

The 49-year-old Sivilay Lasachack, who seldom drinks beer, preferring sweet tea instead, thinks her Czech-inspired Beerlao has what it takes to follow in the footsteps of Mexico's Corona Extra.

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That rise began in the 1970s when Corona's brewer, Group Modelo SA, noticed that lots of empty bottles of the beer weren't being returned to distributors for redemption. The reason: After partying the weekends away at Mexican beach resorts, American surfers and college students were taking cases of the beer home with them. In response, Modelo started marketing Corona in a low-key, unconventional way, linking it to memories of sunshine and the beach.

Ms. Sivilay says she concluded Beerlao might find a similar niche after she and her colleagues heard that backpackers who had visited Laos were trying to find the beer when they got back home. "It was just after Laos began opening up to tourism and business in the 1990s," Ms. Sivilay recalls as she strides down the gantries crisscrossing her shiny, modern brewery.

"A lot of visitors were going home and asking bars and supermarkets for Beerlao, and then local beer distributors began contacting us. That's when we knew we might have an international brand," she adds.

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"We were a bit skeptical at first," says James Morgan, a director at British distributor Milestone Point Ltd. "But it's one of the few brands where the customer seeks it out rather than the other way round."

tis an excellent brew

Luckily Beer Lao is about more than just memories. Unlike Corona, it is actually a good beer, brewed to European standards. The new Beer Lao Dark is great, too...there's a bit more alcohol in it. It tastes great and packs quite a punch!

to help lao, drink beer lao! heheheh
but don't drink too much, drink more water

I like this reaction:

""'We love your beer, but where is your country?"""

Cool. So BeerLao does live up to its reputation? Can't wait to try one in the not-to-distant future.

this is what i talk about , for stability Laos need only one or two products, which could be anything, just make excellent, the world market is just at our borders.

Where can I find this beer?

http://www.beer-lao.com/distributions.php

If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, there's a Lao restaurant in Oakland called Champa Lao Garden that serves it. The beer is very popular among the customers, especially customers who aren't Lao. Beerlao is very refreshing. My Mexican friend, who is a big fan of Corona, also enjoys drinking Beerlao. Just remember that once you've opened the bottle, you have to finish it within 10 minutes or else it ends up tasting bad.

To me it's already the next Corona, except is not widely available.



Distributors

Paleewong Trading Co., Inc.
628 Tenth Ave | New York, NY 10036
tel: 212.245.4660 ext 111
fax: 212.245.8844
mobile: 201.921.9700
web: www.paleewong.com



H.C FOODS CO.,LTD
6414 Gayhart Street , Commerce , CA 90040-2506
Tel: (323)722-8648, Fax: (323)722-6469
Contacted person :
Mr.Paul Sher
Email : general@hcfood.net

Another product from Laos that has huge potential like BeerLao is, Lao Coffee. I keep one hearing that Lao Coffee is soo good.

Beerlao and "Cafe Lao" (Lao Coffee) are becoming popular overseas. I did a google search for "Lao Coffee" and I got over 2 Million hits.

Falang man drinking Lao coffee:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVcq5cpX-dY

Lao guy drinking Cafe Lao in the U.S.:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_1PVESj3E4

Dao Heuang Coffee Plantation in Laos:
http://www.laomall.com/component/option,co...ectlink/id,347/

Beerlao beerlao khon jing jai!

Поздравление к бывшему коллеге и другу.

Heres a Russian spy again lolzzz.

Поздравление к бывшему коллеге и другу = Congratulation to colleague and friends

I been reading reviews about BeerLao and it seems Westener/Falang people really like it.

http://www.thebackpacker.net/worldbeers/be..._worldbeers.htm

RATING > 10 - by Roger | Date > 2006-04-01
Beer Lao is by far the best beer i have tasted on my extensive travels; It is much higher quality than the Uk beer which I drink regularly; it even exceeded the German Beer Purity standards when tested recently. drank gallons (or litres) of the stuff, no hangover, a slight one after Lao-Lao chasers but that's to be expected. This beer is far better than Thai beer (I drink Chang when there) which leaves a bad taste in my mouth the following morning. Beer Lao is right up there with the top German beers, N.B. the more expensive beer with almost the same label is 6.5% the normal Beer lao is 5.5% and the wonderful Beer Lao Dark Lager is 6.5%. Try them all, preferably on the banks of the Mekong at Luang Prabang.

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RATING > 10 - by Jack Kendall | Date > 2006-04-21
This beer is top notch, definitely best enjoyed on the banks of the Mekong or in a tube floating down the river in Vang Vieng! For those brits out there, you can now get this stuff in the UK, although sadly its not 50 cents a bottle anymore. Check out www.beerlao.co.uk

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RATING > 10 - by Claudia Stehli | Date > 2006-11-21
Beerlao - the best beer in the world - is now available in Switzerland! Check out www.beerlao.ch

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RATING > 10 - by Hans Chrisen | Date > 2005-12-08
Best beer ever! And the best thing about it is that it doesn't give you a hangover - if you had one it was because of the lao lao whisky! Where is it available in Germany?

^Beerlao tastes really good. It's also true that you don't get a hangover from drinking Beerlao.

Do they sell Lao Coffee in the U.S.? I heard that countries like Vietnam are buying Lao Coffee and stamping their name on it. I wish the Lao government can start aggressively promoting our products to the world.

Beer Lao isnt as widely distributed in the US nowadays. I saw them on shelves in Texas 3 or 4 years ago, but now not as much. I wonder why they arent as plentiful.

Around here only, big liquor store carries.

Yeah, Lao Coffee is sold in the U.S.

When you say Beer Lao, it's more like you're asserting your right to that beer. I'm Lao and it's Beer Lao, and the name might not fit siamese.................etc.

Where can I find Lao Coffee?

i bought a few bags of coffee in Laos for my sister, haven't tried it yet.

Did get to have iced coffee in Laos several times, and it's different, but good.

Hey bro is it the Dao Coffee?

I don't think so. There seems to be a shortage of Lao coffee in recent years, which is most likely due to the loss of crop. Most of the distributors here can't seem to get a hold of Lao coffee beans. A majority of the coffee beans are being exported to other parts of Asia like Japan and stuff, at least from what I've read online. Anyway, try Laocoffee.net for now. There used to be a Cafe Lao brand but the site isn't online at the moment.

There's definitely different kinds of Cafe Lao. First of all, there's two basic beans, aribica and robusta. The are a couple of other really high end beans, but the volume produced is pretty low. Do the bags you bought in Laos have the Paxsong label on them? That coffee is pretty good...I bought some myself when I was there. I was sad to run out!

But, when I was in Laos, we also had someone take us to a specific coffee stand in Vientienne to buy a big bag of Lao coffee. This stand made both hot and iced coffee. I'm not sure if there was a huge difference in the bean or just the roasting process, but this was what I would call "Cafe Lao". It was SO different from what typical coffee is. There were tons of flavors in one cup that I had never tasted in Coffee before. And it was so dark and thick that even pouring in a good amount of cream barely changed the color. You might expected coffee like that to be bitter or overwhelming, but there was no bitterness and the flavor was strong but in a good way. I had a similar cup at a few cafes in Luang Prabang, so whatever kind of coffee this is definitely gets around.

It is seriously one of the best kinds of coffee I've ever had. Most of it is grown on the Bolaven plateau which acts as a perfect micro-climate for coffe plants.

Are you talking about this site? http://www.laocoffee.net/Scripts/default.asp Wonder if the site is "legit". LOL

Yeah, that is the same site. Why would it not be legit?

There used to be a jhaicoffee.com, but now we've got jhaicafe.com...however, there's no online store.

This next site is the official site of Dao Heuang Coffee, a Lao company based in southern Laos:

http://www.daoheuangcoffee.com/

"Dao" means Star in the Lao language. The Dao Coffee brand is one of the finest in the world. Contact them at info@daoheuangcoffee.com, if you're looking for distributors in the U.S.

Dao Coffee in the United Arab Emirates: http://www.dao-coffee.com


Lao coffee in Cambodia:









Lao Coffee in Thailand:







Lao Coffee in Laos:







Luang Prabang:



Laos doesn't have a Starbucks, which I think is a good thing. Lao people should open up Dao coffee shops throughout Laos. It'd be nice if we had an American entrepreneur to create a Dao Coffee franchise here in the U.S. similar to Starbucks.

Beerlao in San Francisco:




^More restaurants are now serving Beerlao in the U.S.

There is a very nice popular coffee place in the Talat Sao, i think the bags i bought from there were the same name. Way better then Starbucks.

Everything is better than Starbucks lol.

I was bit concerned. LOL

Dao Coffee sounds cool. But what sounds cooler is Lao Coffee.

Arabica is overated. I had some Robusto in Vietnam. Robusto can give you heart attacks.

I still think StarBuck makes good coffee, and Lao should learn from them.

need more marketing.

I agree that Lao Coffee sounds better but you can't trademark a generic name. "Coffee Lao" or "Cafe Lao" would work, but not "Lao Coffee" as a trademarked name.

How about "the lao region or farm name, wherever the coffee bean came from" coffee? Don't make Lao a generic term like how Thais play out their marketing prefix of a tag. Regions in Laos can get famous this way.

I think generic term can become too confine in marketing sentiment, even the major producers don't use that much.
Dao coffee is not bad for marketing, and Dao is already lao term, need no generic prefix added.

^Lao on one side and English on the other.



This is kind of different, because Lao Coffee and Beerlao are actually made in Laos, whereas "Thai chilies" or whatever may or may not be from Thailand since other Asian countries also have similar things. However, it's okay to use the name "Thai eggplants" if the eggplants actually came from Thailand, but if it's a variety of eggplants only found in Laos, then the name "Lao eggplants" would be more appropriate. The same thing applies to Cambodian products.

It's not that they don't want to use it, but more like they CAN'T use it especially if it's something that they'd want to trademark. You cannot trademark (claim the rights) to a name if it is a generic name. That's probably why Lao beer is not called "Lao Beer", but rather "Beerlao". "Lao Beer" is too generic and no government will uphold anyone's claim to that name. It's like someone trying to claim the rights to a name like "American car" or "Russian music".

i like drinking beerlao chill. they gave me glass full of ice when i was there...

ice + beer = odd

Beerlao at Asian Food Festival.

http://www.asianfoodfestival.com.au/events.html

Monday, 18 August 2008
Asian Food Festival 2008 Launch – 22nd Anniversary
Rydges Melbourne Hotel
Cnr. Lt. Bourke & Exhibition Streets

This year's Festival theme, "Medley of Asian Cuisine" starts with a "race" to all the vast variety of events, restaurants and cuisine.There will also be a spectacular array of delectable delights and morsels, with our popular "Mr. Roti Man" back on the scene, slapping away the ever-popular savoury and sweet breads. This marks the commencement of an extensive program of Asian culinary events across Melbourne. The event will be launched with a toast from Banks Road Vineyard wine and Beerlao.Commences: 6.30 p.m. By invitation only

I think its good to a certain degree that Lao people add "Lao" as a prefix to safe guard our products.

My brother visited Laos back around 2005 and came back and told me how the Thais traveled to Laos and bought "Lao fabrics" and went back to Thailand and had those Lao fabrics "copyright as Thai product". These were very beautiful hand made Lao fabrics. And the Thais bought it and then stamped their name on it and now the world thinks those fabrics belong to Thailand.

Awesome. Does Laos produce any other alcoholic beverages? Say other beer brands or hard liquor?

Not as big as Beerlao. I believe Carlsberg is brewed in small amounts in Laos.

other then that, it's local rice liquors and whiskeys...kinda shady stuff

Rice wine, and alcohol are popular in the rural area, but have no marketing skill like beerlao.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/97/24222879...63759ca.jpg?v=0

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_BbLpku_KFKo/R7sPCW1_...Q8/IMG_4642.JPG