Osmanthus wine | |||||||||
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Chinese | 桂花酒 | ||||||||
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Alternative Chinese name | |||||||||
Chinese | 桂酒 | ||||||||
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Aged osmanthus wine | |||||||||
Traditional Chinese | 桂花陳酒 | ||||||||
Simplified Chinese | 桂花陈酒 | ||||||||
Postal | Kuei Hua Chen Chiew | ||||||||
Literal meaning | Osmanthus reserve wine | ||||||||
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Osmanthus wine, also known as cassia wine or Kuei Hua Chen Chiew, is a Chinese alcoholic beverage produced from weak baijiu and flavored with sweet osmanthus (Osmanthus fragrans) flowers. It is distilled but typically has an alcohol content less than 20%.
While the plant itself is sometimes associated with cinnamon,[1] the blossoms' lactones impart a flavor closer to apricots and peaches.[2]
Owing to the time at which Osmanthus fragrans flowers, 'cassia' wine is the traditional choice[3][4] for the "reunion wine" drunk during the Mid-Autumn Festival.[5] Because of the homophony between 酒 ("alcohol") and 久 ("long", in the sense of time passing), osmanthus wine is also a traditional gift for birthdays in China.[6] It is also considered a medicinal wine in traditional Chinese medicine.[7] Li Shizhen's Compendium of Materia Medica credits sweet osmanthus with "curing the hundred diseases" and "raising the spirit".[8]
Within China, osmanthus wine is associated with Xi'an[9] and Guizhou,[1][10] but production now occurs throughout China, including Beijing[11] and at the Hong Jiang Winery in Hunan.[12]