Eight Types of Yunnan Specialty Candies

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Yunnan, a province in China, is home to a variety of unique candies, each with its own story and flavor that transports us back to the sweet, carefree days of childhood. For those who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s, enjoying a piece of candy was a festive occasion, a luxurious treat linked with celebrations and cherished memories, like receiving candy after vaccinations, which remains a vivid memory for many.

Tonghai Bean Powder Candy

This traditional delicacy, also known as Bean Face Candy, originates from Tonghai County in Yunnan Province. It's celebrated for its fragrant sweetness, crisp texture, and the fact it leaves no residue upon melting in your mouth. Legend has it that this candy dates back to the Yuan dynasty when Mongolian soldiers introduced the practice of eating maltose-covered fried rice and noodles.

Over time, it evolved into a multi-layered, crisp bean powder candy made from high-quality soybeans or broad beans and sweetened with premium white sugar and maltose from rice. The production process involves boiling a mixture to create a base, which is then layered with bean powder, pulled, rolled, and pressed into cylindrical shapes. Initially sold in bulk, it is now available in various packaging sizes, making it a popular choice for travel snacks or gifts, appreciated for its uniform layers, rich nutrition, and the way it delightfully crumbles in your mouth.

Yunnan Ding Ding Candy

A folk snack with origins in the Qing dynasty, Ding Ding Candy is primarily made from maltose. Its production involves melting maltose, incorporating other ingredients, and continuously stirring until it solidifies.

Before it fully sets, it's pulled into strands and fashioned into a disc shape, a process that gave rise to its name from the sound of vendors hammering pieces to attract buyers. The crisp, metallic sound of their tools would send children running out, eager to watch and eventually savor this treat.

Beyond its sweet, refreshing taste, Ding Ding Candy is remembered for its role in folk songs and its purported health benefits, including cough relief and lung hydration, making it suitable for all ages.

Assorted Yunnan Candies

Also known as Date King Candy or Mixed Candy, this confectionery is a traditional Han Chinese treat from Yunnan with over a century of history. It comprises ten varieties, including inch gold candy, chicken bone candy, sesame slices, and others, offering a range of textures and flavors.

Popular choices like sesame slices and chicken bone candy are praised for their thin, transparent, and sweet characteristics. Made from sesame, peanuts, walnuts, bean flour, and white sugar, these candies involve complex craftsmanship, making them a perennial favorite for family gatherings and a continuously best-selling product.

Yunnan Ham Milk Candy

Developed in the late 1950s by the Kunming Candy Factory, this high-end confectionery is distinguished by the inclusion of Yunnan's famous Xuanwei ham. Made from white sugar, liquid glucose, ham essence, cream, and protein, its production involves dissolving and filtering sugars to create a syrup that's mixed with whipped egg whites and ham essence. This candy strikes a perfect balance between sweet and savory, offering a rich, creamy taste with a distinct ham aroma, making it a luxurious, nutritious choice that's satisfying without being overly sweet.

These candies from Yunnan not only offer a taste of the province's rich culinary heritage but also evoke nostalgia for the simple pleasures of childhood, each with its unique texture, flavor, and story.

Xinping Sorghum Jelly Candy

Xinping, recognized as one of the main sugar-producing counties in central Yunnan, boasts a rich heritage in sugar resources. In the mid-1970s, local factories introduced equipment to successfully produce sorghum glutinous rice on a large scale, leading to a variety of products like sesame syrup, peanut syrup, walnut syrup, and hawthorn syrup. Sorghum caramel stands out for its rich nutrition, pure aroma, soft yet non-sticky texture, and resilience, making it a favorite among all age groups. Its sorghum glutinous rice and sesame glutinous rice variants have been awarded provincial excellence.

Yuxi Crispy Rice

A traditional treat from Yuxi City, Yuxi rice candy has its roots in the local version of popcorn, a delicacy with nearly a century of history. Made from high-quality local glutinous rice, maltose, roses, and brown sugar, it undergoes a process of sand roasting and frying.

Initially, like in the North, it was formed into spherical shapes with colorful designs, serving both as a treat and a craft piece symbolizing wishes for prosperity, unity, and happiness during festivals. In 1952, the Yuxi Beicheng Food Factory refined the recipe and shape into 2cm squares, packaged in red paper marked with the Chinese character for "double happiness".

By 1985, adopting new techniques while retaining traditional features, the factory produced a beloved market hit. In 1989, the Xingzhong Sesame Slice Factory in Yuxi added pure white sesame and lard to create a highly praised sesame rice candy, known for its white color, crisp texture, and rich aroma of glutinous rice and sesame.

Yuxi Sesame Slices

Made from white sesame seeds, rice maltose, refined oil, and white sugar, Yuxi Sesame Slices begin with sieving, washing, and toasting the sesame seeds, then mixing them with quickly prepared caramel and other ingredients, spreading the mixture on a board to cool, and pressing it into thin sheets to be cut into rectangles or squares.

Available in various packaging sizes, these slices are non-sticky, fragrantly aromatic, and crisply delightful, making them an ideal choice for snacks, hospitality, or gifts.

Xinping Single Crystal Rock Sugar

Introduced in 1986 by the Xinping Food Factory with technology and production lines from outside the province, this premium product is made from locally produced high-quality sugarcane, using scientific methods and advanced equipment for vacuum low-temperature crystallization.

This sugar is distinguished by its white and translucent appearance, uniform and moderate granules, pure and flawless texture, and a 99.08% sugar content, offering a pure sweetness without any additives or pollution. It retains the traditional rock sugar benefits of soothing coughs and moistening lungs, with the added advantages of moisture resistance, long shelf life without quality loss, and convenience in storage and consumption, making it an ideal food for the elderly. Besides being enjoyed on its own, it's an excellent ingredient for making sophisticated beverages like silver ear mushroom with rock sugar soup, rock sugar vinegar, and rock sugar pear water, earning high praise for its crystal-like appearance and sweet, heartwarming taste.