VietNamNet Bridge – Normal things now cannot satisfy Vietnamese business giants who always seek original and strange things. They now entertain guests with foreign wine glasses with glistening gold sheets inside, or use gold masks to nourish the skin.

Gold is not only considered as a precious metal which can make valuable jewelries, but also as a kind of nutritious food. Putting gold into food and drinks is now in fashion among rich people in Vietnam, a new trend in Vietnam.

A lot of big guys invited their guests to enjoy the foreign wine glasses with gold sheets last Tet. Though the foreign wine bottles are not too expensive to rich people, they still can show the upper class of the owners.

Nguyen Hoang Anh the owner of a joint stock company in My Dinh new urban area in Hanoi, said that he bought some wine barrels with gold and gave them as Tet presents to some VIPs. Tuan kept two barrels (12 bottles) for himself which he entertained guests.

“The wine with gold is not a kind of hard liquor. However, it is really wonderful to sip glasses of wine with emerging gold sheets inside,” Anh said.

Also according to Anh, the gold sheet symbols luckiness, which is the best wish for businessmen, who expect better business performance in the New Year.

“This is a mild wine, suitable to women as well. When you drink it, you could put some more ice pieces. Then the glass looks irresistible,” Anh added.

The prices of the bottles of wine with gold vary. The most favorite products in Vietnam are the ones imported from Germany, which are priced between 1.3 and 1.5 million dong per bottle.

Duc, the owner of an online liquor shop, said that Vietnamese people have got used to this kind of wine over the last two years. Of course, the products have been sold only to high income earners. Besides, the wine with 43.5 percent alcohol content, volume 750ml, sourced from Italy has also been favorite by men, because they believe the wine is good to help improve the virility. The prices of gold wine could be up to 7 million dong.

The gold wine bottles really attract people with the tiny pieces of gold sheets introduced as 24 carat gold that glitter the bottles. Before drinking the wine, users would shake the bottles slightly, so that the gold sheets rise on the surface and then pour into glasses.

When asked about the gold drink, a professor of the Bach Mai hospital affirmed that human bodies cannot absorb gold, and he has not read any documents which say about the nutrition value in gold.

“I would not make comments, if you say that people drink gold wine to show their upper class. But I would say that the gold wine will not help improve your health,” he said.

Gold is not only used as drink or food, but also as the tool to improve the beauty. Some big beauty salons in Hanoi now provide the skin mask service, with which women would get 24 carat masks. The service is really very expensive, worth several millions dong each time.

At the Viet My beauty shop in Hanoi, clients have to pay 1.8 million dong for every gold skin mask. In order to have a shiny skin with no defect as advertised, customers are told to follow a course of approximately 7 to 9 times.

Thin gold sheets would be covered on the faces of clients. The extracts of gold would absorb into the skin to help remove dead cells and make the skin ruddy. Meanwhile, some beauty shops are selling gold inlaid masks at 3-4 million dong per product. Of course, the products are hundreds times more expensive than normal masks made of seaweed or herbs.

Source: VnExpress