Toffee Fruits(糖葫芦 Tanghulu)

Toffee fruits on sticks are popular in the northern parts of China.

They are made of various kinds of small fruits-haws crabapples, water chestnuts, grapes or yam. First the fruits are trimmed and cleaned, they are then stringed one after another on a slender bamboo stick and coated in a bath of rock-sugar syrup. As soon as the toffee hardens, the tanghulu is ready. A tanghulu is generally made of six or seven of such fruits or, in the case of yam, one length of 5 or 6 inches. With the crisp sugar coating, it looks bright and in viting, and it generally tastes sweet and sourish.

Toffee fruits on sticks appear on the street corner in autumn and winter; sold by hawkers, they are welcomed and enjoyed by both old and young.