Recipe
🥤 DRINK
Suanmeitang
A dark, smoky-sour plum drink simmered with hawthorn and osmanthus and served ice-cold, China's classic summer cooler.
Chinese · easy · serves 6
prep 10 min · cook 40 min
~99 cal · 0g protein · 26g carbs · 0g fat · 0g fiber · 26g sugars · 0g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Suanmeitang, "sour plum drink", has cooled Chinese summers for centuries, and it was once a refreshment prized in the imperial court of the Qing dynasty. It is a dark, tangy-sweet infusion built around smoked dried black plums (wumei), whose deep, slightly smoky sourness gives the drink its backbone.
The plums are simmered with a supporting cast that varies by region and family: tart hawthorn, dried tangerine peel (chenpi), sweet osmanthus flowers, liquorice root, and rock sugar, then strained and chilled until ice-cold. The result is complex, at once sour, sweet, smoky, and floral.
Beyond simple refreshment, it is valued in Chinese tradition as a digestive and a heat-clearing tonic, sipped after rich or greasy meals and on sweltering days. Loved across China and well beyond it, suanmeitang is tangy, smoky, and sharp.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and gluten-, dairy-, nut-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 6
1 cup dried smoked plums (wumei)
1/2 cup dried hawthorn slices
2 pieces dried tangerine peel
3 slices dried licorice root (gancao)
1 tbsp osmanthus
3/4 cup rock sugar
10 cups water
Instructions
1
Rinse the smoked plums, hawthorn, tangerine peel, and licorice root, then soak in the water for 30 minutes.
2
Bring to a boil, then simmer 30 minutes until the liquid is dark and richly flavored.
3
Add the rock sugar and osmanthus and simmer 5 more minutes until dissolved and fragrant.
4
Strain, cool, and serve very cold over ice.
Chinese imperial-era summer tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Sichuan. Sichuan cooks with the tongue-tingling má là of Sichuan peppercorns and chili, mapo tofu, kung pao chicken, and mouth-numbing hotpot. Bold, layered, and fiery, it's one of China's great regional cuisines.
🗺️
China. China holds eight great regional cuisines within one border, the fire of Sichuan, the delicacy of Cantonese dim sum, the wheat noodles of the north, and more. Techniques like stir-frying, steaming, and braising, plus soy, ginger, and rice wine, unify an endlessly diverse table.
🌍
Asia. A grain line runs across the continent. Rice dominates the wet south and east, wheat the drier north and west, and the tools follow it: the wok and the steamer where rice is milled, the tandoor and the griddle where wheat is ground. Tea travels the other way, drunk green, black, salted, buttered or with milk depending how far it got from China.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
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Good to know
Storing it: Keep chilled and covered, and enjoy within 2 to 3 days.
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Frequently asked questions
What is Suanmeitang?
A dark, smoky-sour plum drink simmered with hawthorn and osmanthus and served ice-cold, China's classic summer cooler.
Where does Suanmeitang come from?
Suanmeitang is a Chinese dish from Sichuan, China.
Can Suanmeitang be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Suanmeitang recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Suanmeitang safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Suanmeitang take to make?
About 50 minutes total (10 minutes prep, 40 minutes cooking), serving 6.
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