Xiaogan Sesame Crisp Candy 孝感麻糖
Xiaogan Sesame Crisp Candy is featured among the local specialties of Hubei.
Xiaogan Sesame Crisp Candy (孝感麻糖) is a sesame sweet from Xiaogan (孝感) in Hubei. The Xiaogan Culture and Tourism Bureau describes it as sweet and fragrant with a crisp texture, and its making is on Hubei's provincial intangible cultural heritage list.
How it is made
The bureau names four steps: choosing the ingredients, boiling the sugar, stirring and shaping, each of which has to be tightly controlled. A Xiaogan county gazetteer (孝感县志) of 1882, the eighth year of the Guangxu (光绪) reign, gives the basic recipe: sesame, which can also be pressed for oil, combined with a glutinous-rice malt syrup (糯饧) to make the sweet. The gazetteer adds that sesame candy is made everywhere, "而孝感独著" (but Xiaogan's stands out).
Where it comes from
The bureau counts its history from 924, in the reign of Emperor Zhuangzong of the Later Tang (后唐庄宗), when it became a required yearly tribute to the palace. The bureau says it has since been a set food for seasonal festivals, weddings and funerals, and a usual gift when visiting relatives and friends. It won a national quality award in 1981 and was named a China Time-honoured Brand (中华老字号) in 1993; in 2013 its making was added to the fourth batch of Hubei's provincial intangible heritage list.
Local stories collected by the bureau place the trade at Babukou (八埠口), south of the town, whose sugar-boilers worshipped Du Kang (杜康), the god of the wine shops, and his wife; in one tale she discovers malt sugar and the Babukou workshops then turn it into sesame candy. Another story says the pieces were first rectangular and took their comb shape after a palace eunuch bit the corners off a tribute batch, and has the emperor praise them as "薄如蝉翼甜如蜜" (thin as a cicada's wing, sweet as honey). A third holds that good candy needed Babukou sugar masters, sesame and glutinous rice from Nanyuan (南垸) and water from Chenghuang Pond (城隍潭).
More dishes to compare
Explore related local specialties and compare their names, preparation notes and ordering guidance.
Wuxue Flaky Sesame Candy 武穴酥糖 →
Another Hubei sugar confection sold as a local speciality, from Wuxue rather than Xiaogan, for readers comparing the province's traditional sweets.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and fact-checked against them on 2026-09-25. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.