Tonglu Chestnuts

Tonglu Chestnuts

　　　Product Origin: Tonglu County, Hangzhou

　　Product Characteristics: Large and plump, glossy and rosy, white and sweet flesh, top quality.

　　Product Composition: Contains protein, fat, carbohydrates, calcium, iron, zinc, vitamin E, riboflavin, vitamin C.

　　Product Categories: Baijiang Chestnuts, Fuyang Chestnuts, Shouchang Chestnuts.

　　Product Season: August to September is the fruit expansion period; October is the harvest season.

　　Product Benefits: Sweet in taste and warm in nature, entering the spleen and stomach meridians. It helps nourish the stomach, strengthen the spleen, nourish kidneys, strengthen muscles and bones, promote blood circulation, and stop bleeding. The unsaturated fatty acids and various vitamins in chestnuts help combat diseases such as hypertension, coronary heart disease, and arteriosclerosis. Chestnuts are also an excellent food for kidney health, with additional benefits including invigorating the spleen, benefiting qi, clearing heat and detoxifying, stopping diarrhea, and soothing coughs.

　　Product Introduction: Chestnuts are a famous and high-quality specialty of Tonglu County with a long cultivation history. As one of the main forest specialties in Hangzhou, they are grown in towns across the city. As a woody grain, chestnuts are rich in nutrition, containing large amounts of carbohydrates, protein, and fat, roughly comparable to rice and wheat. They have fine starch texture and high amylopectin content. They can be eaten raw, cooked, or stir-fried. When eaten raw, they are sweet, crisp, and refreshing, and become even sweeter when air-dried. When cooked, they can be used in chicken or meat dishes, offering delicious, sweet flavors. Sugar-roasted chestnuts are sweet, glutinous, and uniquely flavorful. Currently, the city has 60,000 mu of chestnut forests, with 30,000 mu already under cultivation, yielding over 1,300 tons. Key production areas include Shouchang, Yao Village, and Xin'anjiang towns, among which Shouchang chestnuts are the most famous.

　　Product Story: Osmanthus Fresh Chestnut Soup: During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, on a Mid-Autumn night, the bright moonlight lit up the earth. The lonely Chang’e, gazing down from the Moon Palace, saw the scenery around West Lake in Hangzhou that rivaled paradise. She watched joyous tourists and couldn’t help but stretch out her long sleeves and dance gracefully. Wu Gang played his musical accompaniment by hitting the laurel tree, causing “celestial osmanthus flowers to fall like rain.” At that moment, Master Deming in Hangzhou’s Lingyin Temple was cooking chestnut porridge in the kitchen. Countless fragrant little particles drifted into the porridge, and the monks who tasted it all said it was especially delicious. Master Deming was delighted and gathered the fallen osmanthus petals from the ground to plant on the mountain. By the next Mid-Autumn, those osmanthus seeds had grown into blossoming trees. Ever since, fragrant osmanthus flowers have surrounded West Lake. The phrase “osmanthus in three autumns, lotus across ten miles” became a poetic nickname for the ancient capital of Hangzhou. Over time, Osmanthus Chestnut Porridge was refined into what is now known as Osmanthus Fresh Chestnut Soup, which has been passed down through the ages.