Caozhou Dried Persimmon Cake

Caozhou Dried Persimmon Cake

　　Caozhou Dried Persimmon Cake is made from Mirror Persimmon. It features thick frost, a dry yet rich taste, fine and soft texture, orange-yellow color, transparency, and no seeds. It is one of the specialties of Shandong.

　　Caozhou Dried Persimmon Cake is produced along the banks of Zhao Wang River in Heze City. During the Ming Dynasty, it was honored as a royal tribute and deeply loved by nobles and aristocrats.

　　According to historical records, the history of persimmon cultivation in Heze began during the Qin and Han dynasties, flourishing in the Tang, Song, Ming, and Qing dynasties. In history, at the peak of cultivation, nearly 50,000 persimmon trees were planted in Caozhou. Every golden autumn, persimmon orchards hung full with golden fruits, while the leaves gradually turned red. From afar, they resembled blazing flames, rivaling maple leaves and becoming a scenic highlight of Caozhou.

　　Dried Persimmon Cake is made from locally grown persimmons in Caozhou through over ten traditional processing steps. Persimmon trees suffer from few pests and diseases and require minimal pesticide use. The fruit skin is also removed during processing, making Dried Persimmon Cake a natural green food. The cake naturally develops white frost, is large and seedless, with soft orange-yellow transparent flesh, a delicate sweet taste, and rich nutrition. It has health benefits such as clearing heat, reducing internal heat, cooling blood, moistening lungs, promoting saliva, and resolving phlegm. The white frost on the cake is especially effective in treating coughs due to lung heat, mouth ulcers, and similar conditions.

　　Caozhou Dried Persimmon Cake. Historically known as Caozhou, the area now produces the most flavorful dried persimmon cakes using Mirror Persimmons from around Gengzhuang in the eastern suburbs of Heze City. The dried persimmon cake, made from Mirror Persimmon, with the skin removed, sun-dried, and hand-shaped, is called Gengbing (Dried Persimmon Cake). It has fine and chewy flesh, an orange-yellow transparent color, thick frost, no seeds, melts in the mouth, offers a mellow cool sweetness, is rich in nutrition, and stores well without spoiling over time. It has long been regarded as a premium-grade dried persimmon cake. As early as the Yongle era of the Ming Dynasty, it was offered as a tribute to the imperial court, thus gaining nationwide fame and being called Caozhou Dried Persimmon Cake. It is a traditional famous specialty of Heze. The cake also has high medicinal value, with functions such as clearing heat, moistening lungs, resolving phlegm, strengthening the spleen, tightening the intestines, treating dysentery, stopping bleeding, and lowering blood pressure. The white frost can treat mouth ulcers, sore throat, moisten lungs, resolve phlegm, and stop dysentery.

　　Caozhou Dried Persimmon Cake. Heze City has a history of cultivating persimmon trees for over a thousand years. They are mainly distributed in towns and townships along the banks of Zhao Wang River, including Xinqi, Yuechengzhuang, Mudan, Dianhutun, Helou, Jindi, and Danyang. Charred persimmon cakes can treat bloody stools. The white frost formed by peeling and sun-drying persimmons can be processed into a solid, vertically shaped, semi-transparent white substance called persimmon frost. It tastes cool and sweet and is an excellent remedy for mouth ulcers. In 1985, it won first place in the overall evaluation at the Shandong Province Dried Persimmon Cake Competition. In 1996, the former Heze High-Tech Development Zone registered the trademark “Caozhou Dried Persimmon Cake” with the State Administration for Industry and Commerce and established a processing factory, injecting new vitality into this specialty within the market economy. Currently, Heze has planned to cultivate persimmon trees on a large scale to meet domestic demand and boost export earnings.