Wuxue Flaky Sesame Candy 武穴酥糖
Wuxue Flaky Sesame Candy is featured among the local specialties of Hubei.
Wuxue Flaky Sesame Candy (武穴酥糖) is a crisp sweet of sesame, osmanthus and maltose from Wuxue (武穴) in Huanggang (黄冈), Hubei. It was first sold as osmanthus Dong candy (桂花董糖) and was also known as Guangji crisp candy (廣濟酥糖), after Guangji county (廣濟縣), which became the city of Wuxue in the 1980s.
Ingredients and texture
Chinese Wikipedia describes the body of the sweet as boiled maltose syrup (饴糖), yet the finished candy is crisp and loose-textured and does not stick to the teeth or tongue. Worked into it are xiangtiao (香条) strips, osmanthus and sesame, and it is described as fragrant, sweet, flaky and crisp.
Where it comes from
The story told for it begins in the Wanli reign of the Ming dynasty, when a devoted son roasted black sesame, mixed it with cane sugar and sweet osmanthus, and fed it to his mother to cure her cough. A bakery run by a family named Dong (董) is said to have improved the recipe and sold it as osmanthus Dong candy. Later confectioners kept refining it, and in the Daoguang reign of the Qing it was renamed Wuxue crisp candy for its flaky sweetness and pleasant, clean taste.
In the early 1980s the sweet was entered in the Hubei Pastries (《湖北糕点》) catalogue, and in September 1983 the Hubei Provincial Department of Commerce gave it a provincial award for fine traditional commercial products. The Meiya (美雅) brand, made by the former Wuxue City Food Factory, has the longer history and a Hubei famous trademark; Guangji (廣濟) and Qisheng (啟勝) brands are also sold, and the candy has reached supermarkets in Wuhan and Nanchang.
How it is eaten
Wuxue crisp candy is generally made and sold only around the Spring Festival and cannot be bought at other times of year. When local people pay New Year visits, a packet of it is often all they need to bring.
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Xiaogan Sesame Crisp Candy 孝感麻糖 →
Another Hubei sesame sweet; Wuxue's version is built on boiled maltose with xiangtiao strips and osmanthus, and is made and sold only around the Spring Festival.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and checked sentence by sentence against quoted extracts by a separate reviewer on 2026-09-25. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.