Chinese desserts () are

sweet Sweetness is a basic taste most commonly perceived when eating foods rich in sugars. Sweet tastes are generally regarded as pleasurable. In addition to sugars like sucrose, many other chemical compounds are sweet, including aldehydes, ketones, ...

foods and dishes that are served with

tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of '' Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of south-western China and nor ...

, along with meals"Chinese Desserts."Kaleidoscope - Cultural China
. Accessed June 2011. or at the end of meals in

Chinese cuisine Chinese cuisine comprises cuisines originating from Greater China, China, as well as from Overseas Chinese, Chinese people from other parts of the world. Because of the Chinese diaspora and the historical power of the country, Chinese cuisine ...

. The desserts encompass a wide variety of ingredients commonly used in

East Asian cuisine This is a list of Asian cuisines, by region. A cuisine is a characteristic style of cooking practices and traditions, usually associated with a specific culture or region. Asia, being the largest, most populous and culturally diverse continent, ...

s such as powdered or whole

glutinous rice Domestication syndrome refers to two sets of phenotypic traits that are common to either domesticated plants or domesticated animals. Domesticated animals tend to be smaller and less aggressive than their wild counterparts; they may also hav ...

, sweet bean pastes, and

agar Agar ( or ), or agar-agar, is a jelly-like substance consisting of polysaccharides obtained from the cell walls of some species of red algae, primarily from " ogonori" and " tengusa". As found in nature, agar is a mixture of two components, t ...

. Due to the many

Chinese culture Chinese culture () is one of the Cradle of civilization#Ancient China, world's earliest cultures, said to originate five thousand years ago. The culture prevails across a large geographical region in East Asia called the Sinosphere as a whole ...

s and the long

history of China The history of China spans several millennia across a wide geographical area. Each region now considered part of the Chinese world has experienced periods of unity, fracture, prosperity, and strife. Chinese civilization first emerged in the ...

, there are a great variety of desserts of many forms.

Categories

The numerous desserts found in China can be roughly divided into several categories. For a list of more specific types of desserts, see

List of Chinese desserts Chinese desserts are sweet foods and dishes that are served with Chinese tea, tea, along with meals

Bing

Bing Bing most often refers to: * Bing Crosby (1903–1977), American singer * Microsoft Bing, a web search engine Bing may also refer to: Food and drink * Bing (bread), a Chinese flatbread * Bing (soft drink), a UK brand * Bing cherry, a varie ...

() are baked wheat flour based confections. These are either similar to the short-pastry crust of western cuisine or flaky puff pastry, the latter of which is often known as ''su'' (). The preferred fat used for bing is usually

lard Lard is a Quasi-solid, semi-solid white fat product obtained by rendering (animal products), rendering the adipose tissue, fatty tissue of a domestic pig, pig.

. Common bing types include moon cake, sun cake (

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

and

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

varieties) and wife cake.

Candies

Chinese candies and sweets, called ''táng'' (), are usually made with cane sugar, malt sugar, and honey. These sweets often consists of nuts or fruits that are mixed into syrup whole or in pastes to flavour or give the candies their textures. Dragon's beard candy and White Rabbit Creamy Candy are a some examples of this category.

''Guo''

''Gao'' or ''guo'' ( or ) are rice-based snacks that are typically steamed and may be made from glutinous or normal rice. In Fukien speaking Chinese populations, these are known as ', which are based on the Fukien pronunciation of "". These rice-based snacks have a wide variety of textures and can be chewy, jelly-like, fluffy or rather firm and unlike bings very different from western pastries. Various types of gao include Nian gao, Bai Tang Gao, Tangyuan and Ang Ku Kueh.

Soups

Chinese dessert soups ( or ) typically consists of sweet and usually hot soups and custards. They are collectively known as tong sui in Cantonese. Some of these soups are made with restorative properties in mind, in concordance with

traditional Chinese medicine Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medicine, alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. A large share of its claims are pseudoscientific, with the majority of treatments having no robust evidence ...

. A commonly eaten dessert soup is '' douhua''.

Jellies

Chinese jellies are known collectively in the language as ''jellies or ices'' ( or ). Many jelly desserts are traditionally set with

and are flavored with fruits, bean paste or flavoring, such as shing ren do fu, though

gelatin Gelatin or gelatine () is a translucent, colorless, flavorless food ingredient, commonly derived from collagen taken from animal body parts. It is brittle when dry and rubbery when moist. It may also be referred to as hydrolyzed collagen, coll ...

based jellies are also common in contemporary desserts. Some Chinese jellies, such as the

grass jelly Grass jelly, also known as leaf jelly or herbal jelly, is a Gelatin, jelly-like dessert originating in China. It is commonly consumed in East Asia and Southeast Asia. It is created by using Platostoma palustre, Chinese mesona (a member of the ...

and the aiyu jelly set by themselves.

Ices

Shaved ice Shaved ice is a large family of ice-based desserts made of fine shavings of ice and sweet condiments or syrups. Usually, the syrup is added after the ice has been frozen and shaved—typically at the point of sale; however, flavoring can also be ...

desserts () with sweet condiments and syrup is common eaten as a dessert in Chinese culture.

Ice cream Ice cream is a frozen dessert typically made from milk or cream that has been flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as Chocolate, cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit, such as strawberries or peaches. Food ...

is also commonly available throughout China.

References

{{Portal bar, Food, China