4 hours ago, Yiannos said:Wonderful wonderful post, thank you for the unique insight.
Thank you. Glad you are enjoying it.
I forgot to mention another type of the "red slice sugar". This is a darker sugar called 老红糖 (lǎo hóng táng) which means "old red sugar". ¥5.50/500g.
Purely, by coincidence, earlier today, a friend who didn't know anything about this site or my sugar investigations gave me a gift. Sugar! In fact, 老红糖 (lǎo hóng táng)! It is a product of 中渡 (zhōng dù), an ancient town in the east of Liuzhou prefecture. Seems they are selling the local sugar to the tourists.
What looks blue in the picture is crystallised sugar on the surface of the vacuum-packed slice.
I also omitted to mention that the rock sugar also comes in a less purified version:
Known as 天然冰糖 (tiān rán bīng táng) or "natural ice sugar" comes in at ¥8.90/500g.
Talking of rock/ice sugar, here is an example of one of the larger pieces available. One lump or two?
