Tsing Tao Awesomeness

[spinner44.com]

Score! I just purchased them. Thank you Andy for the heads up!

[andy]

Awesome, I am glad somebody from here got them. I was starting to think I should have just grabbed them myself and passed them on, in case my post got missed.

Andy

[MsGeek]

I just suddenly remembered what wine came in bottles like the one holding the "Tsing Tao" in the shot. The Christian Brothers made a dessert wine called Chateau La Salle. It came in bottles shaped exactly like that, with the rounded shoulder. Like the '70s-era glass Listerine bottle, I'm striking out with finding you a picture of it. The current bottle used for this wine, which is strangely popular in the northern Midwest to this day, is more like a standard wine bottle, so no joy.

My father loved that particular wine. He had a thing for sweet wines, which probably came from growing up Jewish and having sweet Kosher wines on the table at Passover and Rosh Ha'Shanah. My mom was trying to get him to try more "haute cuisine" kind of wines, as they were more to her taste and his doctor had advised him a glass of wine at dinner might be helpful for his Lou Gehrig's Disease, or ALS. He died in 1975 so you get an idea as to the "vintage" of this recollection.

I believe that the Johnny Walker bottles were glass Listerine bottles, and the Tsing Tao bottle was a Chateau La Salle bottle. Both from the mid-to-late 1970s, or contemporaneous with the shooting of BR on the outside. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Oh yeah...there is such a thing as rice vodka. There is also a vodka-like hard liquor brewed with rice from Korea called Soju. That's what I think the "Tsing Tao" really was intended to be. It doesn't look dense enough to be Sake.
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Sushi, that's what she called me. Cold fish.

[andy]

Just to let you know MsGeek. The Johnny Walker bottles have been suspected to be Listerine bottles for a long time and even contact with the company and collectors of the medicinal bottles have said that it isn't a Listerine bottle. I have looked at hundreds of Listerine bottles myself, and have found nothing even remotely close to it except for the modern plastic bottle.

I actually suspect that it too may be a wine bottle by the look of the top. It doesn't have any threading that a Medicinal or Liquer bottle would have.

In any case it seems to be pretty rare. Another reason to suspect a wine bottle because of their limited nature and often regional production. I suspect the only way to find this bottle at this point would be to search the prop houses and prop clearance stores in Hollywood and LA. If it still could be a Listerine bottle, it would have been an extremely limited run.

Here is what the classic vintage Listerine bottle looks like and what the Modern bottle was trying to echo...


Remember the bottle we are searching for has not shown up in over 25 years, and that pretty much rules out a mass production piece. I have seen bottles like the TsingTao as rice wine and rice wine vinagars. Very close all in all, but no exact matches.

[andy]

A variety of Christian Brothers bottles (all modern I suspect)...


I would like to know what that square bottle in the middle is for sure? I also like their art deco design.

[steevy]

There is a tsing tao beer,i saw the name on a truck and looked it up....
I probly should have read the earlier postes eh?

[darkknight0667]

[MsGeek]

Sorry....I thought I had a brainstorm. It was only a brainfart.
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Sushi, that's what she called me. Cold fish.

[andy]

[Once-bitten]

I STILL say there is something to the fact that it's spelled "Tsin-Tao" on the closed captioning of the Directors Cut.

I may have had a revelation concerning this bottle but I have to gather more facts to avoid having a Brain-Fart...

[Once-bitten]

OK...going to risk a brain-fart here.

I was watching BR last night and looking at different details...mostly of bottles and Deckards Trench.

I was at the scene early on where Deckard sits at the noodle bar when I noticed a Yellowish Tsin-Tao Bottle on his left on the counter. Then the Asian fellow approaches and I noticed another Tsin-Tao Bottle over his shoulder on the shelf behind him, this one is clear like the one Deckard later buys.
At this point I got to thinking about all the 40's Nior in the movie...everything from the narration to the costuming...which made me ask...what if the Tsin-Tao Bottle was something from the 40's that was "found" and reproduced? What was an unusual bottle that would have been in use and fairly common in the 40's but maybe not so much today?
Check this out:


I know it's NOT exact but the fact that it's the closest thing I've found AND it came up when I searched for SELTZER BOTTLE...make's me think that PERHAPS the great mystery to this bottle is that it was reproduced from a Seltzer Bottle that saw a fairly limited run back in the 40's(perhaps a special "Decorative" bottle specifically made for Soda-shops?) and that after the movie all the repro's were gathered up and kept...maybe by whoever found the original?
I think it may be possible to find an original still but that it will probably come from an antique store or private collection.

[SSB]

That's a pretty good guess.

A quick Google image search turns up some close ones; ones with two 'globes' and some with weak shoulders... Nothing dead-on that I could find, though.

A few weeks ago I thought it might have been a glass lamp body, but I couldn't find anything close.


-Mike

[MsGeek]

Ooh, pretty, pretty seltzer bottle!!! I've wanted a real one for a while...I love sparkling water, and I've wanted my own so I could fill it up with good water from my local "water shop." (Yes, we in LA have these places you can go to which have water filtration systems...byob or buy one there.) It would be cool to have one that looked that pretty.
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Sushi, that's what she called me. Cold fish.

[Once-bitten]

Does anyone have any screen caps of this bottle?

[Nexus6]

[Once-bitten]

Great Pics! Especially the last and next to last. Thanks!!

[Once-bitten]

Here's a pic of the Seltzer Bottle I picked up from E-Bay
...AGAIN, I know it's not exact but it's pretty damn close!
It's also available in other colors.

[MsGeek]

Pretty!

Where do you put the CO^2 cartridge? Or is it not usable for the task it is designed for?

Like I said, I like sparkling water. It would be nice to be able to carbonate it myself rather than pay a premium for the fizz.

edit: did a little poking around. Lots of vintage bottles on eBay, and you get the feeling these are too old to be in working order. However, I *did* see an Austrian modern red enameled aluminum version that sort of looks like a Primus stove gas bottle. They say it works. I'm going to keep my eye on it.

Interesting to also see a few vintage ones that are from old companies in my neighborhood. The one from Beverly Hills might sell for a bomb, but it is likely I might find one from Pacoima (Represent!) that might be a bargain. Sparkletts too...they still are a local bottled water brand. Too bad that none of the sellers are local...it must be quite a leap of faith buying something made of glass and having it shipped cross-country. ^_^;;;
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Sushi, that's what she called me. Cold fish.

[andy]

Tsing Tao found!?

http://ameblo.jp/allbr/day-20071030.html

Smirnoff De Czar

[spinner44.com]

Fucking cool!