Yashan Lotus Root Sugar

Yashan lotus root sugar is a specialty in Nanling County, Anhui Province. It is sweet and delicious, fluffy and crisp, and just melting in your mouth without sticking to your teeth and leaving no residue. It is named the lotus root sugar because of its cylindrical outline, inner fine holes and lotus root shape.

The craftsmanship of Yashan lotus root sugar has passed down to generations for almost 1,000 years from the Song Dynasty, by local residents’ oral and mental instruction. The production steps of the lotus root sugar include soaking rice, steaming rice, filtering sugar water, decocting and stirring syrup, pulling syrup, making stoma in sugar, cutting sugar into strips, fumigating sugar by hot water and blending white sesame with sugar.

The birth of traditional Yashan lotus root sugar is mainly due to Yashan’s unique geographical environment, weather and cultural background. Glutinous rice is the main ingrident of Yashan lotus root sugar. Yashan locates in deep mountains, with sufficient sunlight and large difference in temperature between day and night, that means the local glutinous rice containing high sugar content and is best raw material for making syrup. On the other hand, there are high mountains and dangerous roads and the traffic is very closed. So it is hard for the locals to purchase New Year's goods. People have to make candies at home, so lotus root sugar came out. Yashan lotus root sugar is the best gift when local people visting relatives and friends during the Spring Festival.

Yashan lotus root sugar has been improved over hundreds of years by hard-working and intelligent Yashan people and it has formed its distinctive taste and appearance now. In November 2017, this traditional craftsmanship was listed in the representative project of the fifth batch of Anhui Provincial intangible cultural heritage, and Fang Xiaolong became its representative inheritor.

Entries:

1.Yashan lotus root sugar

2.Nanling County, Anhui Province

3.without sticking to your teeth

4.leaving no residue

5.shape like lotus root

6.from the Song Dynasty

7.soaking rice

8.steaming rice

9.filtering sugar water

10.decocting and stirring syrup

11.pulling syrup

12.making stoma in sugar

13.cutting sugar into strips

14.fumigating sugar by hot water

15.blending white sesame with sugar

16.best gift to share

17.glutinous rice

18.Fang Xiaolong 

19.representative inheritor of provincial intangible cultural heritage project

20.representative project of the fifth batch of Anhui Provincial intangible cultural heritage