Winter Melon Tea

Ingredients

The melon

• 2 kgwinter melon
• wax gourd, Benincasa hispida
• peeled, seeded and cut into chunks
• about 1.5 kg of prepared flesh

The sugar

• 600 gbrown sugar
• or dark cane sugar
• 300 gwhite sugar
• or adjust the ratio to taste
• a pinch of salt

Sometimes added

• a small piece of rock sugar
• 2 slicesfresh ginger
• a strip of dried tangerine peel
• a pandan leaf, knotted

To serve

• hot water, to dissolve
• or cold water and ice
• lemon slices, optional
• cooked tapioca pearls, optional

Directions

1. Cut it off with a heavy knife. Set it on a stable surface first. Cut a flat side to stop it rolling. Scoop out the seeds and the spongy centre. Discard the seeds and centre completely.
2. Cut the firm white flesh into chunks. Layer the melon chunks with the sugar. Put a layer of melon in a large bowl. Cover it with a layer of sugar. Repeat until everything is used. Finish with a layer of sugar on top. Cover it and leave it for several hours. Overnight is better if you have time.
3. Tip everything into a large heavy pot. Add the pinch of salt to the pot. Add ginger or tangerine peel if using. Heat it gently until the sugar dissolves. Stir until you feel no grains at all. Simmer it uncovered for a long time. Two hours is a reasonable estimate.
4. Stir the pot regularly throughout. Concentrated sugar syrup is extremely hot. Use a long-handled wooden spoon. Never lean over the pot at all. Keep children well away from the kitchen. If it splashes on skin, act at once.
5. Cool it for a full twenty minutes. Do not try to peel off stuck syrup. Strain the mixture through a sieve. Press the solids to extract the liquid. Discard the spent melon pulp entirely. Some producers strain and some do not. Return the strained liquid to the pot. Stop when it is thick and pourable.
6. Keep going until it is very thick. Test it in a cup of cold water. Stir constantly at that stage. Pour it into a lined shallow tray. Work quickly, since it sets fast. Let it cool for a few minutes. Score it while it is still warm.
7. Let it cool and set completely. That setting takes about an hour. Break it along the scored lines. Wrap the set blocks in wax paper. Keep them somewhere cool and dry. Humidity makes them sticky and soft.
8. Break off a piece of the block. Dissolve it in hot water in a cup. Stir until it has fully dissolved. Taste it and adjust the strength. Add more water if it is too sweet. Add more block if it is too weak. It is drunk hot in cold weather.

Technique

• It does not taste of melon. The melon flavour disappears entirely, leaving a deep caramel sweetness with a faint vegetal note underneath — the gourd contributes body and texture rather than flavour. That is worth knowing before you spend two hours on it.
• Layer the melon with the sugar and leave it several hours before boiling. The sugar draws out a great deal of liquid by osmosis, which becomes the base of the drink, shortens the boiling considerably and gives a better flavour. Do not discard any of that liquid.
• As it reduces this becomes concentrated sugar syrup, far hotter than boiling water, and it spits molten sugar as it thickens. Wear long sleeves, use a long-handled spoon, never lean over the pot or taste from it, and keep children out. If it splashes, cool the skin under running water for a full twenty minutes.
• Stir constantly at the end. Concentrated sugar catches and burns very quickly, and burnt sugar is acrid and unusable.
• Score the blocks while still warm. Cutting fully-set sugar is very difficult; scored warm it breaks cleanly along the lines.
• Cut a flat side on the gourd before you start cutting it up. Winter melons are large, round and roll, and the skin is thick and hard.
• The whole point is preservation. Old Taiwanese sugar shops reduced a perishable gourd into shelf-stable blocks that households kept without refrigeration and broke pieces off as needed. It is a genuinely clever system and it is why the drink exists.
• Lemon slices are worth adding. The sourness cuts the heavy sweetness and makes it a considerably better drink.
• It is very sweet, inherently — it is a sugar preserve dissolved in water. Dilute it further if that matters to you.

Substitutions

• Bottled winter melon syrup or ready-made blocks are sold by Taiwanese and Chinese grocers and skip the whole process.
• Rock sugar replaces some of the brown sugar for a cleaner, less molasses-like sweetness.
• Ginger, dried tangerine peel or pandan leaf can be simmered with the melon; the plainest version has none.
• A pourable syrup, reduced less, replaces the hard blocks and keeps a month refrigerated.
• Lemon slices, tapioca pearls, grass jelly or fresh milk all turn the drink into something else, and all are common.
• Ash gourd sold in Indian and Southeast Asian shops is the same vegetable under another name.

Variations

• Winter melon tea with lemon, dong gua ning meng, is probably the most popular version in Taiwan.
• Winter melon bubble tea, with cooked tapioca pearls, is standard at drink shops.
• A version served hot with ginger is drunk in cold weather.
• Winter melon is also candied into translucent sweets, a separate Chinese confection.
• Winter melon soup, savoury with pork ribs, is the other great use of the gourd.
• Some shops blend it with fresh milk for a creamier drink.

History

Old sugar shops boiled winter melon with sugar into blocks that households dissolved in water, a pre-refrigeration drink still made commercially.

Frequently asked questions

What is Winter Melon Tea?

Winter Melon Tea is a drink from Taiwan: caramelised winter-melon sugar drink, old-school street refresher. Old sugar shops boiled winter melon with sugar into blocks that households dissolved in water, a pre-refrigeration drink still made commercially.

How long does Winter Melon Tea take to make?

Winter Melon Tea takes 30 minutes of preparation and 2 hours of cooking. The recipe makes makes about 1 kg of sugar blocks. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Winter Melon Tea?

Yes, within limits. Bottled winter melon syrup or ready-made blocks are sold by Taiwanese and Chinese grocers and skip the whole process. Rock sugar replaces some of the brown sugar for a cleaner, less molasses-like sweetness. Ginger, dried tangerine peel or pandan leaf can be simmered with the melon; the plainest version has none. A pourable syrup, reduced less, replaces the hard blocks and keeps a month refrigerated. Lemon slices, tapioca pearls, grass jelly or fresh milk all turn the drink into something else, and all are common. Ash gourd sold in Indian and Southeast Asian shops is the same vegetable under another name.

What is the most important thing to get right in Winter Melon Tea?

Stir the pot regularly throughout. Concentrated sugar syrup is extremely hot. Use a long-handled wooden spoon. Never lean over the pot at all. Keep children well away from the kitchen. If it splashes on skin, act at once.