Guest tea snacks

Guest tea snacks

　　A distinctive feature of Shaoshan hospitality is fried sweet potato chips and huan cha (refreshing tea). Fresh sweet potatoes are washed, boiled, mashed, and mixed with ingredients like tangerine peel and sesame. The mixture is then scraped thinly onto clean white cloth to dry in the sun. When guests arrive, the dried sheets are cut into various shapes, deep-fried until golden brown, and then cooled. The result is a sweet, crispy treat that is truly mouthwatering. At this point, the host will serve steaming bowls of fragrant huan cha on a wooden tray — made with roasted sesame, soybeans, red dates, and white or brown sugar, brewed with boiling Shaoshan spring water poured from an earthenware kettle.