Suanmeitang or sour prune drink
is a traditional
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
beverage made from
smoked plum
Smoked plum is the smoked fruit of Asian plums, used in East Asian cuisine and medicine. It is called ''wūméi'' () in Mandarin, ''omae'' (; ) in Korean, ''ubai'' (; ) in Japanese, and ''Ô mai '' in Vietnamese.
Overview
Smoked plums, matte b ...
s,
rock sugar
Rock candy or sugar candy, also called rock sugar, or crystal sugar, is a type of confection composed of relatively large sugar crystals. This candy is formed by allowing a supersaturated solution of sugar and water to crystallize onto a su ...
, and other ingredients such as
sweet osmanthus
''Osmanthus fragrans'' (lit. "fragrant osmanthus"; Chinese: , ''guìhuā'', and , ''mùxī''; ; Shanghainese: ''kue35 ho53''; ja, 木犀, ''mokusei''; hi, , ''silang''), variously known as sweet osmanthus, sweet olive, tea olive, and fr ...
.
Due to the sour plums used in its production, ''suanmeitang'' is slightly salty in addition to being sweet and rather sour.
''Suanmeitang'' is commercially available in
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
and other parts of the world with Chinese communities. It is often drunk chilled during the summertime, as relief from the heat, and is one of the most common summer drinks in China.
In addition to being widely considered an effective drink for cooling off in the heat, it is also popularly believed to have minor health benefits, such as improving digestion and possibly inhibiting the buildup of
lactic acid
Lactic acid is an organic acid. It has a molecular formula . It is white in the solid state and it is miscible with water. When in the dissolved state, it forms a colorless solution. Production includes both artificial synthesis as well as natu ...
in the body.
History
''Suanmeitang'' has existed in some form for over 1,000 years,
at least since the
Song Dynasty
The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...
(960–1279 CE); there are also reports of a variation called "white ''suanmeitang''" (白酸梅汤) during the
Yuan Dynasty
The Yuan dynasty (), officially the Great Yuan (; xng, , , literally "Great Yuan State"), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after its division. It was established by Kublai, the fifth ...
(1271–1368 CE). The recipe used today is thought to have been developed at the request of the
Qianlong Emperor
The Qianlong Emperor (25 September 17117 February 1799), also known by his temple name Emperor Gaozong of Qing, born Hongli, was the fifth Emperor of the Qing dynasty and the fourth Qing emperor to rule over China proper, reigning from 1735 t ...
of the
Qing Dynasty
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...
during the early 18th century, at which time it was first common in the imperial courts, and was later popularized among common folk when a
Hebei
Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, an ...
citizen created and produced the ''Xinyuanzhai'' (信远斋) brand.
By the 1980s, companies had begun to use industrial methods and technology to
mass-produce
Mass production, also known as flow production or continuous production, is the production of substantial amounts of standardized products in a constant flow, including and especially on assembly lines. Together with job production and batch ...
''suanmeitang''.
Ingredients and production
''Suanmeitang'' is made by first soaking sour plums in water, then adding
haw
Haw or HAW may refer to:
Fruit
* many species of hawthorn (''Crataegus'')
** Haw flakes, Chinese sweets made from the fruit of the Chinese hawthorn, ''Crataegus pinnatifida''
* several species of ''Viburnum'', including:
** '' Viburnum rufidulu ...
,
liquorice
Liquorice (British English) or licorice (American English) ( ; also ) is the common name of ''Glycyrrhiza glabra'', a flowering plant of the bean family Fabaceae, from the root of which a sweet, aromatic flavouring can be extracted.
The liqu ...
root,
and sweet
osmanthus
''Osmanthus'' ''Sunset Western Garden Book,'' 1995:606–607 is a genus of about 30 species of flowering plants in the family Oleaceae. Most of the species are native to eastern Asia (China, Japan, Korea, Indochina, the Himalayas, etc.),and was ...
and boiling them together.
Rose
A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be ...
blossoms may also be added.
After the mixture is boiled, rock sugar is added to the residue, it is boiled again, and after the beverage has cooled off it is chilled.
See also
*
Umeshu
is a Japanese liqueur made by steeping ''ume'' plums (while still unripe and green) in and sugar. It has a sweet, sour taste, and an alcohol content of 10–15%. Famous brands of ''umeshu'' include Choya, Takara Shuzo and Matsuyuki. Var ...
*
Maesil-ju
''Maesil-ju'' (), also called plum wine, plum liquor, or plum liqueur, is an alcoholic drink infused with '' maesil'' (plums).The exact origins of ''Maesil-ju'' are unknown, but it is thought to date back to the Goryeo Dynasty (918-1392).
Ingre ...
*
List of plum dishes
This is a list of plum dishes. Plum dishes are those that use plums or prunes as a primary ingredient. Some plum dishes also use other fruits in their preparation. Plum and prune snack foods and beverages are also included in this list.
Plum ...
*
List of smoked foods
This is a list of smoked foods. Smoking is the process of flavoring, cooking, or preserving food by exposing it to smoke from burning or smoldering material, most often wood. Foods have been smoked by humans throughout history. Meats and fish a ...
*
Prune juice
Prune juice is a fruit juice derived from prunes (dried plums) that have been rehydrated. It is a mass-produced product that is often produced using a hot extraction method, and juice concentrate is typically produced using a low-temperature ex ...
References
* ''
http://www.cnwnc.com/20050630/ca1703286.htm''; "酸梅汤渐行渐远" ''
Hong Kong Commercial Daily
The ''Hong Kong Commercial Daily'' () (HKCD) is a Chinese state-owned newspaper, published in broadsheet format in Hong Kong and dubbed “China’s international media window” by the central government.[Chinese cuisine
Chinese cuisine encompasses the numerous cuisines originating from China, as well as overseas cuisines created by the Chinese diaspora. Because of the Chinese diaspora and historical power of the country, Chinese cuisine has influenced many ot ...]
Soft drinks
Smoked food
Plum dishes