Chaozhou Handmade Mochi

Chaozhou Handmade Mochi is a traditional glutinous rice sweet hand-rolled to order at Pingtung's Chaozhou Night Market, chewy and filled with peanut powder, sesame, or red bean paste. The night market is small but is the dessert destination for southern Pingtung residents; steamed rice dough is kneaded in a wooden mortar until smooth, filled, and rolled — from start to finish taking no more than two minutes before it reaches your hands warm and fresh.

A-Lun Ice, a well-known Chaozhou Night Market shop, was founded in 1965 (Minguo 54). It originally sold hot rice-ball soup, and its signature 'shao-leng-bing' (hot-cold ice) was created when the owner added ice for customers who found the soup too hot — the shop has now been running for over sixty years. Handmade mochi and shao-leng-bing together form Chaozhou's two iconic local sweets.

What is Chaozhou Handmade Mochi

Handmade mochi starts with steamed glutinous rice that is then pounded; some shops add a small amount of sweet potato starch to increase chewiness and pliability. Once kneaded smooth, it is filled with a choice of fillings. The most common are sweetened peanut powder, sesame powder, and red bean paste. After filling, the mochi is rolled into a ball between the palms, then coated with peanut powder. The texture is soft, chewy, and stretchy; sweetness is moderate without being cloying. It firms slightly as it cools, so eating it while hot is recommended. Chaozhou shops typically sell in small multi-piece portions, so you can try several flavors.

Chaozhou Town is the commercial center for southern Pingtung (Chaozhou, Xinpi, Fangliao, and surrounding townships). The Chaozhou Night Market is an important leisure hub for residents of the area. Handmade mochi has been part of the Chaozhou Night Market for over forty years, and together with cold-hot shaved ice (lěng rè bīng) it forms the town's celebrated dessert duo. The Chaozhou Town Office's tourism and cultural promotion materials explicitly recognize mochi as a representative local food — it is not a recent tourist-driven product, but a regular staple supported by a clear local consumer base.

How to eat it like a local

Local Knowledge

Mochi and hot-cold ice: Chaozhou's two sweet icons

In Chaozhou, "mochi" and "hot-cold ice" are often mentioned together. The local hot-cold ice (also called shao-leng-bing) layers piping-hot glutinous rice balls, red beans, taro, and syrup at the bottom, then a layer of shaved ice on top; because the rice balls are so soft and chewy, many food writers simply call them "mochi" — which is part of why searches for "Chaozhou mochi" often lead to hot-cold ice instead. Its two veteran shops cluster around Jianji Roundabout (nicknamed the "hot-cold ice roundabout") in the town center: A-Lun Ice, which opened in 1965, started out selling hot rice-ball soup and created this dish when the owner added ice for customers who found it too hot; the other, Zheng-Lao-Pai, has roughly half a century of history as well. The trick is not to stir — spoon the hot rice balls from the bottom first, then the ice on top, to taste the cold-outside, warm-inside contrast. Handmade mochi and hot-cold ice, one hand-rolled and one hot-and-cold at once, are the two sweet icons in a Chaozhou local's memory.

Where to find handmade mochi in Chaozhou

To buy freshly made handmade mochi, Chaozhou town has a few options. The Chaozhou Township Office lists "Ruyixuan" as an official recommended souvenir shop; located on Shouxing Road, it specializes in vegan, traditionally handmade mochi skins with fillings such as red bean, mung bean, taro, sesame, and peanut, sold by the box as a gift, and still operating in 2026. Note that Ruyixuan, which sells mochi, and Jianji Roundabout, which sells hot-cold ice, sit on different blocks of town — not the same street. If you want the kind rolled and filled on the spot and eaten warm, look to the handmade stalls in the night market and street fairs; quality varies from stall to stall, so choose one that hand-rolls on site rather than using pre-made frozen mochi skins.

Sources: Chaozhou Town Office tourism and cultural promotion materials. Photos pending replacement with Dio's own photography.