Thickened Fermented Rice Drink 糊米酒
Thickened Fermented Rice Drink is featured among the local specialties of Hubei.
Thickened Fermented Rice Drink (糊米酒) is Wuhan's (武汉) sweet breakfast soup of fermented glutinous rice, thickened into a smooth paste and scented with osmanthus. China.com.cn calls it a traditional Wuhan snack and one of the most everyday street sweets. Despite the word 'wine' (酒) in its name, a Wuhan resident quoted in a reader's story published by Changjiang Daily describes it as a sweet soup with next to no alcohol.
How it is made
The Wuhan Municipal Bureau of Commerce describes it as fermented glutinous rice (酒酿) simmered with osmanthus, red dates and goji berries, then thickened with starch into a paste. China.com.cn adds that the bowl also holds small glutinous rice balls (汤圆).
At Sanzhen Minsheng Sweet Shop (三镇民生甜食馆) on Shengli Street (胜利街) in Jiang'an District (江岸区), whose sign dates its founding to 1956, the rice wine is made by hand by the shop's senior cooks and served with strips of paste beaten by hand with a spoon. Changjiang Daily reported in 2023 that the shop's fourth-generation keeper was applying to have the shop's version recognised as intangible cultural heritage.
Flavour and texture
The paste is sweet with a little sourness, faintly boozy, sticky, warm and smooth on the tongue. The osmanthus is easy to taste. At Sanzhen Minsheng the hand-beaten version is described as delicate, fragrant and sweet.
How it is eaten
The drink belongs to guozao (过早), the Hubei word for eating breakfast, heard above all in Wuhan, where people have the habit of going out for it. The commerce bureau pairs it with sanxian doupi (三鲜豆皮) or hot dry noodles (热干面), and the Wuhan resident in the Changjiang Daily story has either soy milk or a bowl of it with his morning noodles. The commerce bureau calls it Wuhan people's 'stomach-warming sweet soup', which warms you from throat to stomach, and sets it in its guide to warming food for cool mornings and evenings.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and fact-checked against them on 2026-09-24. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.
