Nanzhuang Osmanthus Honey Rice Balls 南庄桂花酿汤圆
Nanzhuang Osmanthus Honey Rice Balls is featured among the local specialties of Taiwan.
Photo adjustments
Full frame retained; EXIF orientation normalized, proportionally resized to at most 800 pixels and converted to WebP. No generated pixels or subject changes. Cards may crop the display.
Nanzhuang Osmanthus Honey Rice Balls (南庄桂花酿汤圆) are chilled rice balls (湯圓) served with osmanthus honey, sold in Osmanthus Lane (桂花巷) on Nanzhuang Old Street (南庄老街) in Nanzhuang Township (南庄鄉), Miaoli County (苗栗縣), Taiwan. Nanzhuang lies inside the Tri-Mountain National Scenic Area (參山國家風景區), has a strong Hakka character and was certified as an international Cittaslow ('slow city') in 2016.
Flavour and texture
The osmanthus honey (桂花釀) that flavours the bowl is a classic Nanzhuang souvenir; the Veterans Affairs Council's magazine describes it as the scent of osmanthus flowers woven together with the sweetness of honey. In a 2015 report, Taiwan Television (TTV) described the rice balls as soft and chewy, with the fragrance of the osmanthus honey and the fresh sweetness of fruit in every mouthful.
Where it comes from
Osmanthus Lane is a narrow alley, about two metres wide and lined with vermilion brick, squeezed between two of Nanzhuang's three main streets. Three accounts of its name exist. The Veterans Affairs Council magazine says it comes from the osmanthus honey. TTV was told in 2015 that it began with a noodle shop some sixty years earlier, when local forestry and mining were thriving: miners who met there to eat noodles gave the lane, planted with osmanthus trees, its name. The Miaoli County Government's International Culture and Tourism Bureau credits an 'Osmanthus Lane Workshop' (桂花巷工作坊) set up by community-building workers and women to promote local culture.
Many small shops in the lane sell Nanzhuang snacks. Besides the chilled osmanthus rice balls, the Veterans Affairs Council magazine names zhulong ban (豬籠粄), gou jiang zong (狗薑粽), osmanthus plums (桂花梅) and pounded tea (擂茶) as local snacks hard to find elsewhere.
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.