| Osmanthus wine | |||||||||
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 Bottles of osmanthus wine | |||||||||
| 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]
