Zhao’an Salty Golden Dates

Zhao’an Salty Golden Dates

　　Zhao’an Salty Golden Dates: With an ink-black glossy appearance, soft texture, and a rich fragrance, they strike a perfect balance of salty, sour, and sweet flavors, offering a pure taste. They are known to strengthen the spleen and stomach, aid digestion, relieve bloating from indigestion, dispel wind pathogens, moisten the lungs and dissolve phlegm, regulate qi and sober up, prevent motion sickness, boost energy and reduce fatigue.

　　　　Zhao’an Salty Golden Dates have an ink-black glossy sheen, a soft texture, and a rich fragrance. Their flavor is well-balanced between salty, sour, and sweet, with a pure taste that melts in the mouth. They leave a lingering aroma, stimulate saliva production and quench thirst, aid digestion and invigorate the spleen, eliminate phlegm and regulate qi, help sober up and dispel wind, promote circulation and invigorate the stomach. As a premium health food, they enjoy a long-standing reputation across Southeast Asia. These salty golden dates are made from a closely guarded family recipe, using golden dates as the main ingredient. After pickling, they are further processed through multiple steps with dozens of traditional Chinese herbs. Traditionally, they were packaged in large bamboo leaves and kraft paper, sealed with red paper labels and tied with hemp ropes. Nowadays, they are also available in bagged and boxed forms.

　　　　History

　　　　According to the “Zhangzhou Prefecture Records” and the “Zhao’an County Records,” during the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Gongkou Port in Zhao’an, Fujian—located at the border between Fujian and Guangdong—served as a civilian hub for trade and travel between Southeast Asian countries and Taiwan. During the Daoguang era of the Qing Dynasty, the first-generation inheritor of “Huangjinxing,” the scholar Huang Yan-zhi (1834–year of death unknown), began pickling wild mountain fruits at home and practicing folk medicine. His son, the second-generation inheritor Huang Lai-yu (1880–1946), upheld the family tradition. Frequently traveling between mainland China and the South Seas islands for medical practice and business, he was deeply moved by the hardships people endured during travel, including fatigue, illness, and motion sickness. Building on his father’s method of brewing salted golden dates in water, he used golden dates, olives, and green plums as the main ingredients, combined with various Chinese medicinal herbs, and after repeated experimentation, finally created Salty Golden Dates, Songchen Salted Olives, and Plum Elixir. Through years of marketing, these products became essential household items for Chinese communities in the South Seas, gaining fame both at home and abroad. Before the Anti-Japanese War, he even partnered with fellow villager Jiang Zi-min to open a “Huangjinxing Branch” at Shilamen (note: historical place name) in Singapore. In early spring 1946, Huang Lai-yu also visited Kaohsiung, Taiwan Province, staying at the then Changchun Hotel, where he set a sales record of selling over 50 kilograms of “Huangjinxing Salty Golden Dates” within just one hour.

　　　　This time-honored traditional product has enjoyed over a century of sustained popularity, to the point that there is a saying: “Wherever there are Chinese people, you’ll find Huangjinxing Salty Golden Dates, Songchen Salted Olives, and Plum Elixir.”

　　　　The traditional handmade process of Salty Golden Dates uses fresh golden dates, fire-roasted Fushan (note: location of plant origin) olives, green plums, and a dozen traditional Chinese herbs such as licorice, fritillaria, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, and sandalwood. These are carefully processed according to a time-tested family recipe.

　　　　Huangjinxing Salty Golden Dates: With a soft texture, rich fragrance, and a perfect balance of salty, sour, and sweet flavors, they offer a pure taste. They are known to strengthen the spleen and stomach, aid digestion, relieve bloating from indigestion, dispel wind pathogens, moisten the lungs and dissolve phlegm, regulate qi and sober up, prevent motion sickness, boost energy and reduce fatigue.

　　　　In 1954, “Huangjinxing Salty Golden Dates” were included in the book “China’s Local Specialties.”