Walking down a dirt road with a paper bag in hand and some sour salty dried plums that have some kick to them when you pop em in. Originally known as humaei in mainland china and literally means the traveling plum was later on called li hing mui and is now a staple snack of Crack seed stores. It would not be uncommon to see people purchasing some of these sour snacks and have them place it in their pocket during the harvesting seasons. The sun shines brightly with the person wiping themselves off before taking off their gloves with a smile to quickly reach into their pocket and grab a Li Hing Mui! Something to keep a worker busy in the mouth as well as on the field.
As you place it in your mouth it is a shock of sour with a bit of sugar. As it slowly gets weaker in its sourness it will leave you smiling with a really sweet flavor that lasts long on the tongue. You can start chewing it later as its moisens from the mouth and lets you eat the meaty fruity deliciousness that is plum. It is a really good snack for long days out of the house. In the 1900s Yee Sheong imported the snack as a preserved fruit along with other fruits that he selected to be served as crack seed snacks in Hawaii. The sour powder that covers the outside of the fruit is a mixture of red food coloring, licorice, salt, and sugar or cane sugar. The most popular sweetener is aspartame, but alternatives such as granulated honey worked, as well as other sweeteners. Nothing really could beet sugar in its flavor in the coated plums. It wouldn’t be the best choice for anyone who was being health conscious with it being a sugary snack. Li hing mui has largely been regarded as the state’s most notable crack seed stars that draws in customers to the store looking for this particular snack. A typical pack would be sold these days in a plastic bag, but there are still a few that have the paper bags for those into sustainability. While the amount of crack seed establishments are little there is usually a selection of these treats at convenience stores and grocery stores in the snack aisle, but the selections are limited. There are a variety of versions that are not at all on the market that have been made throughout the years in kama’aina’s homes from the more moist versions that dry out with home made powders. The shipping ports holds a few secrets of some varieties that made their way into homes and they were quite different depending on the area and the year. For example in the Honolulu area there was a powdered sour candy known as “Raven’s Revenge” that was popular in the 90s and one of the children of a shoremen had asked their dad for a bulk order which he later used as coating for his Li Hing snacks. A story from the island of Lanai had powdered drink packets that were used to make different flavors of Li Hing Mui that were: sour apple, sweet sour cherry, and grape flavors that were eaten as bets, but surprisingly they didn’t taste as bad as they had sounded. Generations of this snack have their own preferred brands and their own nostalgic memories attached to what it means to them, so once in awhile they can’t help but go to the store to go purchase some. Hawaii Li Hing Varieties A Li Hing Mui snack is: the plum, the sour, the sweet, and the texture of the outside have it be wet, moist, or dry. The typical combination is the red Li Hing powder that is salt and sugar, a dried plum, and even more sugar. Varieties that are usually seen are: Salty Li Hing Mui, Sweet Li Hing Mui, and Red Sweet Li Hing Mui. **Salty Li Hing Mui** Salty. The simple bite turns into a strong bite in this snack where the memory of the snack was simply to wake you up with a strong smash of shocking the tongue through the intense experience. There are not too many variations of this type of Li Hing, but here are a few that showed up nick named as mouth bombs: Salty White Li Hing Mui (salty, bitter), Salty Molasses Li Hing Mui (salt, molasses, caramel), Spicy Salt Li Hing Mui, Mixed Berry Li Hing Mui. ** Sour Li Hing Mui** Sour. Seeing this familiar treat of the islands never gets old with its familiar flavor as the usual go to when thinking of Li Hing Mui. Sparking its popularity was the red classic Li Hing Mui that made people wonder what other flavors could be added to the candy to make the experience to have even more choices... Lemon Yellow Li Hing Mui (lemon, pineapple), Green Apple Li Hing Mui (green apple), Pink Watermelon Li Hing Mui (sour watermelon), Cherry Punch Li Hing Mui, Tangerine Orange Li Hing Mui (tangerine peel powder, orange peel powder). ** Sweet Li Hing Mui** Sweet. A sweet and salty powder adds to the light sourness of the snack and is welcoming to newcomers who may never have had Li Hing Mui before to acquire a stronger salty or sour experience. The sweet ones can be: Sweet Red Li Hing Mui (sugar), Sugar Cane Li Hing Mui (turbinado sugar, sugar), Sweet Brown Li Hing Mui (molasses brown sugar), Island Blue Li Hing Mui (pineapple sugar, coconut powder, sour powder, blue food coloring), Lychee Li Hing Mui, Honey Sugar Li Hing Mui (butterscotch crumble).
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