Next door to Zhen Zhai is Zicheng Ji, Zhang Xin, the person in charge of the main product of this brand, Wushuang Liquor, found that the wine in his hand was too much more than the glass bottle, so he had to put it in a large wine urn and wait for more bottles to come out of Lingao. ()

However, the sake brewers do not stop for a moment, and every day they process the clay purchased from various places. So much so that the price of earthen roast in Guangzhou has begun to rise slowly.

When Guo Yi found that Zichengji's liquor inventory had exceeded 25 tons, he was taken aback and asked Zhang Xin: There are not so many glass bottles at the moment, what is the use of making so much wine?

"Of course it's sold." Zhang Xin's jihua is very simple, since glass bottle wine is a luxury item, then it is packaged in a simple porcelain bottle and sold to foreigners in Macau.

"You're laughing at that," Guo Yat said, "how many people is Macau?" How much can I spend? Besides, Europeans also make fruit shochu, so can they like this grain shochu? ”

"Shopkeeper Guo, you don't understand this." Zhang Xin smiled, "Foreigners have the same grain and shochu, isn't vodka?" There is also gin, vodka is pure alcohol mixed with water, which is not difficult to make at all. Juniper berries are not a rare thing, they are everywhere in the northern hemisphere, so let's get some distillation and distillation. ”

"But the market is too small! Population of Macau"

"This is the mystery" Zhang Xin embroidered with his chest, "foreigners have glass, and it has become a rarity to travel thousands of miles to China; Our Chinese porcelain is a rarity in Europe."

"I see." Guo Yi suddenly became big, "So you said you want to use a porcelain wine bottle!" ”

"In the clay-fired glass bottles of the countryside, there is a 'national warrior', and when you put it in a porcelain wine bottle, it becomes 'Louis XIII': mysterious porcelain from the mysterious Orient with mysterious wine...... This is a multi-haode business gimmick. ”

From the seizure of local materials, porcelain is the bulk of the goods. At that time, it was estimated that there were tens of thousands of pieces. So many porcelain in Daming obviously can't find a market. The only way to do this is to continue selling to the original owner of the goods, Europeans. There are many samples of porcelain in the recent shipments from Dengzhou. I was going to send it to Macau to see if there was any demand. Zhang Xinzai came up with the idea of using porcelain vases to fill wine. He chose a vase with a capacity of about 6~70L as the packaging bottle. There are only 10,000 of these bottles in the inventory.

There are wine bottles. There are other developments as well. There is no activated charcoal in the hands of the people now. Making vodka is obviously a no-brainer. But steaming the sake with a little spice is still done. It is the so-called sweet wine. Theoretically. This wine can be made with fruits, spices, flowers and all kinds of plants with special aromas. There are so many objects to choose from. Zhang Xin hesitated. So I sent a telegram to the professionals in the heights for advice.

"What spice plants are used to make export wine?" This subject was quickly sent to the table of the Fashilu. The botanist is leading a few students who have shown initial interest in botany to make specimens of the native plants they have collected.

When I hear this question. There was a hint of "Finally made me wait" behind his glasses.

"It's easy. It's good with rhubarb. ”

"Are you kidding?" When he received the callback, Zhang Xin thought he was crazy. What is rhubarb? Took diarrheal laxatives. Take this distilled spirit out. It's just a prank. Will people be fooled a second time after suffering a loss?

"No kidding." Fa Shilu made a detailed explanation in the return call:

Rhubarb is a commonly used medicine in traditional Chinese medicine, and its origin is in the northwest and southwest of China, where rhubarb is used as medicine, which may be the experience of the Western Regions people, and later spread to the mainland. The history as a medicine is at least two or three thousand years old.

Since the land trade between China and Europe in the Western Regions opened up the Silk Road, rhubarb was transported by caravans to West Asia and continental Europe via the Silk Road, and camel caravans transported dried rhubarb from China, crossed the mountains to Bukhara in Central Asia, and then came to Europe through the Black Sea. Because it reached Europe through Asia Minor, it later got the name Turkish rhubarb. Rhubarb was once a very important commodity in the Silk Road trade.

In the days that followed, Central Asian traders operated the thriving rhubarb trade route through Persia and other parts of the Middle East. By the Ming Dynasty, two rhubarb trade routes from China were formed: one by sea through India, and the other through the Gobi Desert and Siberia to Moscow. Rhubarb also accounts for a significant proportion of Macao's entrepot trade commodities operated by the Portuguese.

Rhubarb was favored by Persian and Arab doctors for a long time. Since the Middle Ages, the rhubarb trade flourished on the Silk Road for more than a thousand years. Rhubarb can strengthen the stomach and detoxify, and the people who eat meat and milk as the staple food rely on Chinese rhubarb before they know how to eat tea, and regard it as a panacea for all diseases. Therefore, rhubarb has been one of the most sought-after commodities in Central Asia, West Asia and even Europe for more than 1,000 years. Because of Allah

Affect, rhubarb is widely used in medicines in Europe. Through the different methods of mastery, it can be used as a laxative for the treatment of constipation, as an astringent for the treatment of diseases and diarrhea, and as a medicine for the treatment of burns and children.

Later, Europeans also cultivated edible rhubarb, which can be used in various snacks and dishes, and even eaten as a fruit. However, to this day, rhubarb for medicinal purposes is still only cultivated in China. Rhubarb has such a high status in the hearts of Europeans that there are rhubarb festivals in many places throughout Shijie. The popularity of this drug abroad is probably difficult to imagine in China, where rhubarb originated.

"Obediently, I thought it was a laxative, but I didn't expect foreigners to think it was a treasure." After reading the telegram, Zhang Xin said to Guo Yi, "Hurry up and send someone to buy rhubarb in the market, this thing can still be used as an export commodity." ”

Guo Yi hurriedly sent someone to the market to inquire about the news of rhubarb, and found that rhubarb had long been specially licensed for export trading. Rhubarb is mainly found in Qinghai and Gansu in China, with Lixian as its distribution center, and the business of exporting the Portuguese from Guangdong to Macao is monopolized by a "Shuihao" warehouse run by a native of Lixian.

Although he found that this way of making a fortune was robbed of the opportunity and was a little disappointed, but making rhubarb wine was definitely unpopular, Zhang Xin asked someone to secretly collect a large amount of rhubarb from various pharmacies, and wash and dry it overnight.

Traditional Chinese medicinal liquors are basically steeped, but Zhang Xin decided to use the alcohol distillation method as he did with gin.

The chopped rhubarb is placed on the distillation, the steam of the liquor is passed through the distillation rack, and the zuihou is recovered through a serpentine condenser tube, and the zuihou distills a slightly yellowish color and fragrant smell. Zuihou, according to Xue Ziliang's suggestion, added a small amount of melted white sugar to the wine. makes the taste slightly sweet, and now it becomes a rhubarb sweet wine.

As for the rhubarb residue after distillation, Zhang Xin asked people to dry it all and seal it for storage, and he planned to make this raw material for making rhubarb tea, since the end of black tea can make a bag of black tea that is regarded as "fashionable" by Chinese petty bourgeoisie, then rhubarb tea of the same nature can also be sought after by Europeans.

The sticker label on the porcelain wine bottle is not good-looking, and several people at the dispatch station discussed it, designed by Yan Maoda, and ordered a batch of antique small ivory tags in the ivory carving shop, and hung them on the bottle with colorful brocade ropes, the ivory card is a traditional pattern, and the trademark is "Princess of the Tang Dynasty". This vulgar name made everyone unanimously express contempt for Zhang Xin, who said:

"You say something elegant, such as Roselle or something, can foreigners understand? Do you see that the famous wine of France is either Napoleon or Louis XIII, isn't it more vulgar? I haven't called it Kangxi, Yongzheng, or Qianlong yet. ”

"Don't, you're your Tang princess." Guo Yi smiled and said, "As long as it's not a Lan noble." ”

"Lan Guiren? This idea is not bad, but foreigners do not know the Chinese wife hierarchy and can't distinguish this taste, or it will be used in domestic brands in the future, and a series of brands can be used. ”

Princess Datang and Guoshi Wushuang wine are being processed intensively, and the craftsmen recruited by Shen Fan have also arrived. When Bao Hengxiang fell, although the boss developed the salary, but the craftsman was meager on weekdays, did not have much savings, and was worried about the future after the New Year, Shen Fan's timely recruitment was tantamount to timely rain, and he was very grateful to this new owner. Yan Maoda comforted everyone again, saying that the treatment was good, and everyone could continue to work with peace of mind. At that moment, each person gave out another 200 coins as a New Year's benefit. Then he took out the jewelry atlas he had drawn and asked the craftsmen to express their opinions.

To his surprise, the craftsmen objected to most of the modern jewellery painted by Yan Maoda, believing that they were good-looking, but the quality was too light and thin, and the weight was insufficient. Yan Maoda spent a long time trying to convince them, it seems that each other's concepts still need a certain amount of running-in.

Although the craftsmen do not agree with the design of the shopkeeper Yan, after all, he is the boss, and it is the boss's power to do what the boss is willing to do, and everyone follows it. Originally, there were craftsmen who were afraid that the owner would have to close sooner or later, but after seeing the samples of Zizhenzhai, the consensus of the craftsmen was: There is such a haode secret glassware, and it is no problem for the strict shopkeeper to toss it.

Some people also put forward some additional processing suggestions for glassware, for example, a jeweler named Zhu Shengyi proposed that the handle and rim of some glass cups can be inlaid with gold and silver edges, and some small flower decorations can be added to make it more gorgeous. Yan Maoda also disagreed with such a suggestion, in his opinion it was a vulgar act that destroyed the beauty of glassware, but he still expressed his appreciation for it, creativity should be encouraged, not stifled because they differed from their own opinions, and besides, their aesthetics should be more suitable for this time and space than their own.