Sour Plum Drink

Suānméi tāng (sour plum soup) is one of China's oldest and most enduring non-alcoholic drinks, with documented references in texts going back to the Song dynasty. It is particularly associated with Beijing, where it became a street-vendor staple sold from large clay pots throughout summer and is still sold from specialist shops in the hutong districts.

The base ingredients are wūméi — dried smoked Chinese plums (Prunus mume), dark and wrinkled with an intensely concentrated sour-sweet flavour — combined with dried hawthorn berries (shānzhā), dried liquorice root, osmanthus flowers and rock sugar. These are simmered together for approximately an hour, then strained, cooled and served cold. The resulting liquid is a deep reddish-brown with a complex flavour profile: sour from the plum acid and hawthorn tartness, sweet from the rock sugar, faintly bitter and herbal from the liquorice root, and fragrant from the osmanthus.

In Chinese traditional medicine, suanmeitang is classified as a yin-cooling drink that reduces internal heat — the theoretical basis for its association with summer. Whether or not the medical framework is taken seriously, the practical effect of a well-made, ice-cold glass of suanmeitang on a hot Beijing afternoon is a reasonable argument for the tradition.

The drink pairs naturally with rich meat dishes — Peking duck restaurants often list it as the traditional beverage pairing, where its acidity and tannins function similarly to wine with fatty food.

Commercial bottled versions (widely available in supermarkets) are sweeter, paler and less complex than a freshly made batch. Specialist stalls near the Drum Tower and Nanluoguxiang make it from scratch; the difference is apparent.