China · Beijing
Sour Plum Drink
A traditional sweet-sour summer cooler, best poured over ice. Smoked plums, hawthorn, licorice and dried citrus steep into a dark, fragrant liquid.
This is the classic summer drink sold by the bucketload across northern China, where it stands next to cold noodles at street stalls and is drunk for its sourness. The list of dried fruits is what does the work, and aged tangerine peel and dried osmanthus are usually in it. It is brewed twice, strained, sweetened with rock sugar and left to chill for hours, so it is really a project for the day before.
Ingredients
- black jujube25 g
- smoked plum25 g
- yellow rock sugar100 g
- dried hawthorn slices30 g
- licorice root2 g
- aged tangerine peel4 g
- cardamom1 g
- dried osmanthus flowers3 g
Directions
- 1
Rinse all the ingredients except the dried osmanthus and rock sugar, and soak them in 1.5 litres of water at room temperature for at least two hours.
- 2
Bring to the boil over medium-high heat, cover, turn down the heat and simmer for forty minutes; this is the first brew.
- 3
Put the rock sugar in a basin, pour the hot first brew over it and stir until the sugar dissolves.
- 4
Return the spent ingredients to the pot with 600ml of fresh water, bring to the boil over high heat, cover, turn to medium heat and simmer for another twenty minutes; this is the second brew.
- 5
Stir the hot second brew into the rock sugar syrup to finish the drink. Once the finished drink is around sixty to seventy degrees, add the dried osmanthus, keeping it below eighty degrees, cover, cool, then refrigerate for at least three hours.
- 6
Strain out the osmanthus before drinking. Sip it slowly like tea; it is cold, sharp and only moderately sweet, with a long finish.
Source: HowToCook · WorldBite adaptation · Unlicense source text; bilingual recipe adapted by WorldBite.