Tianma makes a sweet winter treat

A herb from the orchid family – gastrodia tuber or ‘tianma’ in Chinese – grows abundantly in Xiabaoping Township in Yichang. The herb is used both in Chinese medicine and for culinary purposes. Each winter, the villagers follow a multi-step process – extracting juice from rice, boiling pulp, fermentation, filtering, boiling and cooling – to make a delicious winter sweet called ‘gastrodia sugar’. The crucial final stage consists of repeatedly “pulling” the sugar until it turns from yellow to white.