The King was captivated by the scent that traveled 9 miles.

To strengthen their position, ancient concubines did not hesitate to seek special methods to please the emperor. One of the methods used by concubines was fragrance. And the flower below was always the first choice of concubines when they wanted their bodies to always smell good.

Ancient Chinese concubines often used a type of flower to make their bodies always smell like Ham Huong. (Photo: Sohu)

The flower that gives concubines their scent "nine miles away"

The flower used to nourish the beauty of the ancient concubines that we mentioned above is the osmanthus flower. In ancient Chinese films, we often see osmanthus flowers used to make osmanthus cakes. Osmanthus cakes are often offered by the palace maids to the queen and concubines when the weather is cool in autumn and also the season when osmanthus flowers bloom.

Why did ancient concubines choose this flower as a beauty secret?

Osmanthus fragrans, also known as Osmanthus fragrans, is a native plant of Asia. Osmanthus has a warm, spicy taste and a light, delicate fragrance reminiscent of ripe apricots.

Cassia flower is the "secret food" for beauty care of ancient concubines. (Photo: Sohu)

Oriental medicine believes that the warm properties of cinnamon flowers help reduce menstrual cramps, beautify the skin, and treat acne. Drinking cinnamon flower tea every day helps to detoxify the body, purify the body, relax the mind, balance the nervous system, reduce stress, and fatigue. Cinnamon flowers also have extremely good effects on respiratory diseases such as sore throat, cough with a lot of phlegm, asthma, and long-term cough that does not go away. Cinnamon flowers have a sweet aroma, so if used regularly, in addition to helping to nourish the skin, they also help the body to emit a very attractive fragrance. Therefore, ancient Chinese concubines loved to use cinnamon flowers to make their bodies naturally fragrant to attract the attention of the emperor.

Cinnamon flowers have a very special scent, so they are also known as "nine-mile fragrance" flowers. Making cinnamon tea or soaking the flowers with honey to use as a drink to help purify the body, beautify the skin, and calm the nerves is one of the simplest ways that concubines often do. Cinnamon tea has a natural, refreshing taste, a light aroma, and is easy to drink. The tea water is light yellow and clear.

Concubines often used dried cinnamon flowers or honey as a detoxifying drink to beautify the skin. (Photo: Sohu)

The 300-year-old beauty secret of concubines

In addition, osmanthus flowers are also used to make a famous snack that often appears in noble families and royal palaces, which is osmanthus flower cake.

According to Baidu, the osmanthus cake is a unique snack with a history of more than 300 years. Legend has it that when the poet Yang Shen went to the capital to take the imperial examination, he dreamed of going to the moon. In his dream, he saw a magnificent palace and a giant osmanthus tree, emitting a strong fragrance. He dug up the tree and brought it back to the ground. In the late Ming Dynasty, a street vendor named Liu Jixiang in Xindu was inspired by this story and created Osmanthus cake.

In addition, osmanthus flowers are also used to make a famous snack in the harem, osmanthus flower cake. (Photo: Sohu)

During the osmanthus flower blooming season, the palace maids would collect fresh osmanthus flowers and dry them or soak them in salt water to reduce the spicy and bitter taste, then marinate the flowers with sugar or honey.

The cinnamon cake is made from a mixture of ingredients including cinnamon nectar, rice flour, glutinous rice flour, rapeseed oil and sugar (white sugar or malt sugar). All are kneaded until soft and then steamed. Next, sprinkle dry flour on top as a coating or use a wet towel to cover your hands to avoid sticking, continue kneading until the dough is soft and smooth. The final step is to cut the dough into square pieces, rub with vegetable oil and it is done. With its shiny appearance, each cinnamon cake is still praised as a gem when displayed on a plate.

At first glance, this cake looks quite simple, but to get the characteristic aroma and eye-catching appearance, the baker must carefully select each tiny cinnamon flower petal, because even a yellowed flower will directly affect the flavor and color of the cake. To make a truly delicious cake, the baker must meticulously go through 7749 steps.

Concubines especially loved osmanthus cakes because of their delicious taste and beauty benefits. (Photo: Sohu)

After hundreds of years, the recipe for making cinnamon rolls has evolved into many different methods. Depending on the different mixing ratios, there are also different sequences and ways to cook the cakes such as steaming, frying, crushing, mixing, molding, cutting...

In the past, Chinese cinnamon buns were only seen at royal banquets or in wealthy families, but now they are very popular in the daily lives of Chinese people, and are an extremely attractive breakfast or dessert.