Snack Attack: A Handful of Haw(thorn Treats)

Vincent R. Vinci & Irene Li | Dec 6, 2021 2:39 pm | Add a comment | 440 reads

Snack Attack is your weekly guide to the sometimes smelly, sometimes flavorful, sometimes odd munchies to be had in the capital.

Winter in Beijing means dry and frigid weather, conjuring images of drab skies and grey buildings sometimes covered in muddy snow. Thankfully, though, there’s always a bit of color to be found, especially when it comes to street food.

And nothing is more colorful than 糖葫芦 tánghúlu, bright hawthorn covered in a glossy sugar coating for the perfect amalgamation of sour and sweet.

Turns out there’s more to hawthorn than just these skewered treats, and this article will introduce three such snacks – plus an alcoholic option and a recipe you can try at home.

Yogurt-Covered Hawthorn Candy

If you, like me, were a fan of yogurt-covered raisins as a kid, then these little bite-sized snacks are the bee’s knees.

Simply put, they're just pieces of dried sugar-coated hawthorn candy covered with yogurt. Nothing fancy. Just a lovely little treat to pop in your mouth for a sour yet creamy snack.

Hawthorn Jelly

As mentioned in our previous article on Beijing sweets, hawthorn jelly – aka 山楂糕 shānzhāgāo – is blood red and glorious. Basically, it's a giant fruit roll-up or fruit snack that hopefully doesn’t come with all the nasty additives.

Break off a piece and share it around, though, as it’s a bit on the large side if you’re looking to eat it in one go.

Strawberry Hawthorn Cheese Tea

A new seasonal offering from Japanese tea chain Nayuki Tea & Bakery, this drink features jasmine tea blended with strawberry and ground hawthorn, then topped with “cheese” – basically sweetened whipped cream cheese.

While a nice treat for winter, upon tasting it we found strawberry to be the dominant flavor, which isn’t bad but also not ideal if you’re more into hawthorn than strawberry.

Huguloo Shanzha Sour Saison

This brew – a collaborative effort between Beijing’s Slow Boat and Shenzhen’s Bionic Brew from earlier this autumn – was created by blending dried hawthorn with hawthorn juice and then brewing Saison-style.

It’s definitely on the sour side, meaning it's great for hawthorn lovers. However, while drinkable, it did make us pucker with every sip we took until eventually, we looked like the guy on the Warheads package. It’s definitely for all the sour lovers out there.

Stir-Fried Hawthorn

Now for a bit of DIY, as this one – 炒红果儿 chǎo hóngguǒ'er – is a fantastic treat to make and snack on at home. Plus the ingredients are easy to cobble together.

You’ll need:

600g hawthorn berries
300g white granulated sugar
300ml water

Method:

1. To begin, wash the hawthorns well and remove the cores.

2. Add to a large pan with sugar and water and heat on medium, then bring to a boil. Stir until all the sugar has combined with the water, and bring to a simmer.

3. Transfer the hawthorns to the pan and stir them around, swirling gently with the syrup to ensure the berries are evenly cooked. Bring the mixture to a boil.