Hot Winter Pear Drink 热冬果
Hot Winter Pear Drink is featured among the local specialties of Gansu.
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Hot Winter Pear Drink (热冬果) is a hot street snack of Lanzhou (兰州) in Gansu: pieces of winter pear boiled in water with Sichuan pepper and sweetened with yellow sugar at the end. Chinese Wikipedia describes it as a street food that people in Lanzhou have enjoyed for more than a hundred years.
How it is made
Winter pears (年冬的梨子) are cored and cut into small pieces, and the pieces go into hot water with Sichuan pepper, where they boil until the fruit is cooked right through. Yellow sugar is added just before the pot comes off the heat and stirred in evenly, and the drink is taken straight away while it is hot.
Where it comes from
Lanzhou has a dry climate, and in the city Hot Winter Pear Drink is valued as a cold-season food for xia huo (下火), the traditional Chinese idea of bringing down excess internal heat.
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Sanpaotai tea 三炮台 →
Sanpaotai tea is another hot drink of Gansu, but it is brewed from tea leaves in a lidded cup, while Hot Winter Pear Drink contains no tea and is pear boiled with Sichuan pepper and sugar.
Source introduction: Wikipedia contributors: 热冬果 · CC BY-SA 4.0. English translation and adaptation of the cited encyclopedia revision.
Sources & reading
Adapted into English from the cited encyclopedia revision and checked sentence by sentence against quoted extracts by a separate reviewer on 2026-09-23. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.