''Suanmeitang'' or sour prune drink
is a traditional
Chinese beverage made from
smoked plums,
, and other ingredients such as
sweet osmanthus
''Osmanthus fragrans'' (), variously known as sweet osmanthus, sweet olive, tea olive, and fragrant olive, is a flowering plant species native to Asia from the Himalayas through the provinces of Guizhou, Sichuan and Yunnan in China, Taiwan, souther ...
.
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 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 the molecular formula C3H6O3. 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 wel ...
in the body.
History
''Suanmeitang'' has existed in some form for over 1,000 years,
at least since the
Song dynasty
The Song dynasty ( ) was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song, who usurped the throne of the Later Zhou dynasty and went on to conquer the rest of the Fiv ...
(960–1279 CE);
there are also reports of a variation called "white ''suanmeitang''" () during the
Yuan dynasty
The Yuan dynasty ( ; zh, c=元朝, p=Yuáncháo), officially the Great Yuan (; Mongolian language, Mongolian: , , literally 'Great Yuan State'), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after Div ...
(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, personal name Hongli, was the fifth Emperor of China, emperor of the Qing dynasty and the fourth Qing emperor to rule over China pr ...
of the
Qing dynasty
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...
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 is a Provinces of China, province in North China. It is China's List of Chinese administrative divisions by population, sixth-most populous province, with a population of over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. It bor ...
citizen created and produced the ''Xinyuanzhai'' () brand.
By the 1980s, companies had begun to use industrial methods and technology to mass-produce ''suanmeitang''.
Ingredients and production
''Suanmeitang'' is made by first soaking sour plums in water, then adding
haw,
liquorice
Liquorice ( Commonwealth English) or licorice (American English; see spelling differences; ) is the common name of ''Glycyrrhiza glabra'', a flowering plant of the bean family Fabaceae, from the root of which a sweet, aromatic flavouring is ...
root,
and sweet
osmanthus
''Osmanthus'' 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, Southeast Asia, the Himalayas, etc.) with a few species from the Caucasus, New Cale ...
and boiling them together.
Rose
A rose is either a woody perennial plant, perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred Rose species, species and Garden roses, tens of thousands of cultivar ...
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
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*
Prune juice
Prune juice is a fruit juice derived from prunes (dried plums) that have been rehydrated. It is mass-produced, usually via hot extraction, though juice concentrate is typically produced using a low-temperature method. It may be used as a dietary ...
*
List of plum dishes
*
List of smoked foods
This is a list of smoked foods. Smoking (cooking), Smoking is the process of seasoning, flavoring, cooking, or food preservation, preserving food by exposing it to smoke from burning or smoldering material, most often wood. Foods have been smoke ...
References
{{Reflist, 2
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 ...
Soft drinks
Smoked food
Plum drinks