Apricot-Peel Drink

Apricot-peel drink is a tart-sweet beverage brewed by boiling the dried fruit and skins of Dunhuang's native Liguang apricot in water and sweetening with rock sugar, deep amber in colour and cooling to the throat, the most characteristically local of Dunhuang's traditional drinks.

The Liguang apricot is said to be linked to the Han-dynasty general Li Guang and is a fine cultivar unique to Dunhuang, made fragrant and sweet by abundant sunlight and sharp day-night temperature swings. Locals sun-dried the harvest into dried apricots and brewed them into a cooling drink, and apricot-peel water became a summer beverage handed down through generations in Dunhuang.

Best drunk chilled, tart-sweet and refreshing, it cuts through grease and is a common mealtime drink in Dunhuang restaurants and at Shazhou Night Market, pairing especially well with noodles and grilled meats.

Its deep amber colour, the distinctive tart-sweet fragrance of the Liguang apricot and its cool, refreshing mouthfeel are what set apricot-peel drink apart from other summer beverages.