Chinese jelly grass dessert on ice (仙草蜜)

Simple and lovely dessert common in South China and South East Asia: grass jelly with liquid cane sugar and ice. The Chinese name can be roughly translated as "honey from mountain hermit's grass". It tastes just like that: faintly bitterish jelly reminiscent of Chinese herbal medicines or licorice drenched in sweet nectar. It is made by boiling the aged and slightly fermented stalks and leaves of Mesona chinensis (member of the mint family) with potassium carbonate for several hours with a little starch and then cooling the liquid to a jelly-like consistency.

I find that too far-fetched and just buy it canned in my local Chinese store. Sweetened and chilled, there is nothing like it on a hot day. Add a few stripes of sweetly fragrant jackfruit for an extra kick.