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Sour plum recipe: Vegan Chinese plum jelly (suanmei)
5 from 117 votes

Sour plum recipe: Vegan Chinese plum jelly (suanmei)

This sour plum recipe creates a vegan Chinese plum jelly using an infused plum tea base simmered with preserved plum, hawthorn, and other herbal teas. The liquid's natural tartness is balanced with sugar and thickened with konnyaku or agar agar powder to set into a jelly. The simmered fruits can be repurposed as a jam or eaten directly, adding versatility to this sour-sweet treat traditionally served chilled.

Prep Time
1 hr 5 mins
Cook Time
10 mins
Servings: 8 people
Course: Dessert, Snacks
Cuisine: Chinese

Ingredients

To make the Asian plum tea
  • 1.4 oz black Chinese preserved plum This was about 3 plums for me- there's no need to worry about cutting the plums to get the exact weight- just round up!, wumei, 40g
  • 1.4 oz dried Chinese hawthorn Add more of this if you want a tarter drink, briefly rinsed, 40g
  • 4 C water 1 litre
  • osmanthus tea
  • roselle tea
  • licorice Always check with your doctor before using Traditional Chinese Medicine ingredients, if you're not sure whether you can take them or pregnant. Orange peel can make the drink bitter if not used correctly, so add towards the end of boiling, Chinese gan cao, chen pi, can substitute orange peel (no white pith
  • dried tangerine peel
  • hibiscus tea
To make the jelly
  • konnyaku powder For the konnyaku powder, agar agar flakes and agar agar strips, check the packaging to see how much should be used for 1 litre of liquid (For agar agar powder, it would be about 11-13g as the liquid is tart- the acidity of the liquid changes the amount of agar agar required, or agar agar powder
  • 1.4 oz white granulated sugar Substitute: osmanthus sugar (check the notes for a recipe) or rock sugar, add to the konnyaku or agar agar powder and mix very well, 40g

Instructions

To make the Asian plum tea
    Cup of Yum
  1. Add the ingredients to the pot, bring to the boil then lower to simmer for 1hour.
  2. After 1 hour of simmering, the ingredients will be soggy but still edible. Strain them out and use them for jam or eat them as they are. Make sure to get all the juice out of them when straining!
  3. Weigh out the remaining liquid - it should be close to 1 litre if you've strained out most of the juice. If it's less than 1 litre, don't add more water as it'll dilute the taste! Simply adjust the amount of gelling agent accordingly.
To make the jelly with konjac powder- Use HOT plum tea
  1. Return the pot (with the sour plum tea) to the fire, and when almost boiling, add the konjac-sugar mixture slowly, whisking continuously as you don't want lumps to form. If they do, the jelly will still be edible but it'll be unpleasantly thick in places
  2. Stir till the bubbles are gone, then switch off the fire, pour the jelly into molds and allow to cool for at least 3h in the fridge.
To make the jelly with agar agar powder- Use COOLED plum tea
  1. Allow the liquid to fully cool before adding the agar agar powder, stirring non-stop to prevent clumping. Check your packet for the recommended quantity of powder to add but it will be about 11-13g for 1 litre as the tea is on the acidic side. (Note: if the clumps are too unsightly, you can always remelt the agar agar!)
  2. Allow to boil for 5 minutes, then pour into the molds and allow to cool for at least 3h in the fridge.
Storage
  1. Once cooled, store in air-tight containers, preferably in the fridge and finish within 5-7 days

Notes

  • Adding osmanthus flower tea leaves enhances flavor balance in the jelly.
  • Use only fresh plum tea for jelly as the drink spoils within 2-3 days.
  • Chew konnyaku jelly carefully due to choking risk.