Among the many delicacies in Qingyan ancient town, rose sugar should be the most representative snack!
It is said that the production of rose candy in Qingyan ancient town began in the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty and has a history of more than 300 years.
Rose candy, as its name implies, is a kind of candy made of roses. As a symbol of love, roses have always been used as an important raw material for making food by Qingyan people here. In order to keep the fragrance of roses, people in Guzhen carefully picked roses during the rose period and made them into a fragrant and sweet rose sauce. Rose candy is a kind of candy with rose sauce as the candy core. The outer layer of Qingyan rose sugar is made of local glutinous rice flour, wheat and high-quality spring water in Guzhen, carefully boiled into maltose, wrapped with rose sauce stuffing in the middle, twisted into long strips, cut into small pieces, and sprinkled with sesame seeds and primer before thoroughly drying. Rose sugar is sweet but not greasy, sweet and crisp, delicious to chew and full of flavor. After eating, the lips and teeth remain fragrant and have a long aftertaste.
There are many shops making rose candy in the ancient town, some of which are time-honored workshops with hundreds of years of history. Despite the changes of the times, the workshop still follows the tradition of manual production. From soaking malt, grinding rice and washing sesame seeds to boiling and pulling sugar. More than a dozen processes were completed by craftsmen themselves and never neglected. The craftsmen in the ancient town firmly believe that this hand-made sugar is sweeter and more fragrant than the sugar made by machines. Therefore, seemingly small rose sugar can only be made after more than a dozen processes. It is precisely because of the stubbornness and conservatism of sugar makers that rose sugar, a local food made by hand without any additives, has survived to this day.
After enjoying the beautiful scenery of the ancient town, tourists always bring back several bags of rose sugar as gifts to share the fragrance of rose sugar in the ancient town with more people. ...