In 1245, Robert Montpellier, the personal spice apothecary of King Henry III of England, opened the first pharmacy in London.

He binds spices and herb mixtures together with sugar to make ointments and sell them.

In the last years of Henry VII's life, doctors added sugar to rose water, violet, and cinnamon as a prescription for King Henry.

King Louis XIV of France hired Monsieur Pompeii as his chief pharmacist.

In 1748, Pompey's book, The Complete History of Medicine, was translated, edited, and processed and published in London.

The book devotes five pages to the characteristics, cultivation, cooking, and medicinal uses of sugar.

Pompeii believed that sugar, in addition to making delicious sweets, desserts, and drinks, was good for the health of internal organs and could even be used to treat asthma and cough.

However, when Masieur Pompeii examined Louis XIV's body closely, he found that the sugar had corroded his teeth.

The book lists all the places where sugar is grown and argues:

"Jamaica and Barbados now produce the highest quality sugar...... This is followed by Lisbon's sugar ......"

Speaking of taffy in Atlantic City, Li Yaoyang followed Kelly to their family's sugar workshop, and was instantly enveloped in a sweet smell.

The basic recipe of brine toffee is very simple, you only need to pour sugar, corn syrup, butter, salt, and water into the pot and heat it to about 123°C-125°C over low heat to become toffee syrup.

Next, there's the secret to the deliciousness of brine toffee – stretching.

In the earliest days of workshop production, toffee syrup had to be cooled for four to six hours before it became semi-solidified.

Then, the worker hung a large lump of nearly 10 kilograms of syrup on a large hook, and after the syrup was stretched by gravity, the worker hung one end of the sugar back on the hook and stretched it again with the help of gravity.

The syrup is constantly mixed with air in this repeated folding and stretching, becoming lighter and more flexible, and the taste becomes more chewy.

At this point, the toffee can be easily pulled into long strips and cut into small pieces for packaging.

In modern industrial production, such heavy manual work is performed by specialized machines.

However, there are still many people who think that handmade toffee tastes better.

In addition, its raw materials and production are not complicated, so at this time period, when toffee was just becoming popular, many people made it at home.

Although the operation is simple, pulling candy is a hard work after all, and it is often necessary to mobilize the whole family to go into battle together, and pulling candy has gradually become a common family activity at that time, called "taffy pull".

Later, it even developed into a kind of candy party, where friends and relatives gathered, the hostess prepared the syrup in advance and allowed it to cool, everyone rolled up their sleeves, washed their hands, and carefully smeared butter to prevent sticking, and then they could start pulling sugar.

At first, the syrup sticks to your fingers like glue and looks very awkward.

But with patience and repeated stretching, the texture of the syrup will gradually dry out, the color will become lighter, and the sweet, silky sheen will shine, and then it can be cut into small pieces with sharp scissors and wrapped in candy paper.

Such parties are usually held before Christmas, just in time to stock up on Christmas candy.

And it's the time of year that children look forward to the most – when there is a big crowd at home, they can run around with children their age, and they won't be scolded by adults for making a mess in the kitchen and living room.

For them, pulling colored syrup is as fun as playing with plasticine, and you can also sneak a small piece into your mouth, even if the syrup sticks to your teeth, it is incomparably sweet.

Unfortunately, like many time-consuming and laborious traditional festivals, candy parties have since faded out of the ugly life of Chinese people, and many young people have only seen the production of toffee in the display windows of candy stores.

Few people are willing to bother to gather friends to come to their house to pull candy and spend hours cleaning up the mess.

The glorious days of the candy party only exist in the melancholy memories of the older generation.

There is also a word "toffee" in English, which also translates to "toffee".

Many people think that Taffy and Toffee are just American and British names for the same type of sugar, but in fact they represent two different types of candy.

As mentioned earlier, American taffy goes through the step of stretching, and the finished product is soft and chewy.

The British toffee is divided into soft and hard textures, and neither of them needs to be stretched.

Soft toffee is the oldest form of toffee, which uses sugar, syrup, butter, whipping cream and other raw materials, mixed and heated to about 120°C, turned off the heat, and then directly cut into cubes after cooling.

Because it is not stretched, it is softer and stickier than American taffy.

Hard toffees, on the other hand, are mostly heated with sugar, butter, and water (sometimes with a little vinegar and syrup), and after cooling, they form huge chunks of hard sugar, which need to be broken into small pieces with a hammer before they can be eaten.

In addition, American taffy mostly uses white sugar to highlight the milky flavor of butter, while British toffee prefers brown sugar or molasses to give the finished product a richer sweetness.

Later British toffees were mostly hard, and they were often enriched with chocolate layers and nut chips.

Even so, its hard, brittle texture and rugged shape are not as sweet and inviting as saltwater toffee.

In contrast, one derivative of Toffee is more popular in the UK: the toffee apple.

When the apples are ripe, it's time for the toffee apples to shine.

The icing is similar to toffee, the sugar, butter, syrup, etc. are melted with water, heated to about 138°C, and the washed and waxed apples are rolled on the syrup and cooled.

In addition, you can also coat it with chocolate and sprinkle it with various nuts and colored sugar grains to decorate it with colorful snacks.

Just as rock sugar gourds in China are always associated with the lively Spring Festival, toffee apples are a must-have food for autumn festivals in the West.

On Halloween, it's the most popular sweet gift for kids in Trick or Treat.

The "Bonfire Night" on November 5 is an important holiday in Britain, originally to celebrate the crushing of the traitor Guy Fawkes' plot to murder the king, and the preservation of the state and religion.

But after hundreds of years of development, the political color of bonfire night has faded, and it has simply become a reason for people to set off fireworks and party all night long.

Toffee apples are also a traditional dessert on bonfire nights, often decorated with bright colours.

On a cool autumn night, under the light of fireworks, next to the roaring bonfire, holding an apple bright red like a small torch, there is simply no warmer and happier moment in the world.

Apples are generally crisp and juicy, and when you bite into them, the icing melts on the tip of the tongue, and the apple juice then overflows, and the gentle sweetness and fresh acidity complement each other, and the fit is natural.

If saltwater toffee represents the midsummer taste of the Atlantic waves, then a sweet and sour toffee apple is like a whole autumn with a complex taste.

"You see, sir, our sweets are of very good quality, all done by hand, and if the investment is in place, I will be able to muster enough people to triple the production."

Li Yaoyang tasted a freshly baked candy, which was indeed very sweet, a child's favorite.

"$150,000, what can I get?"

Kelly bit her lip:

"40% stake."

Frowning slightly, Li Yaoyang shook his head and said:

"The value of your factory is less than 50,000 dollars, and my 150,000 dollars can account for at least 75%!"

Kelly takes a deep breath:

"But we have new products, and if we have enough money, we will launch new flavors, and we will definitely be able to take the market by storm."

New flavors?

Li Yaoyang was curious, and followed her to a small workshop next door, like a compressed version next to her.

At the same time, a strong aroma of whisky hits the face.

"Sir, try it, this is our new whiskey flavored toffee."

Li Yaoyang's eyes lit up, this is a great idea, at the moment of the prohibition of alcohol, not everyone can drink alcohol casually.

If you can taste both the taste of alcohol and the sweetness, it will surely drive people in need crazy.

He stuffed the candy into his mouth, it wasn't too strong, but it was delicious.

smashed a few mouthfuls, nodded and said:

"Not bad, but I still need to get some more flavor."

Kelly said excitedly:

"Yes, as long as the money is in place, everything is easy to say."

"Let's go back and sign the contract with Wang Hong, but I want 49% of the shares, this is the final condition!"

"This..."

"You can discuss it with your family, and decide to find Wang Hong at any time."

"Thank you, thank you sir!"

——————————

Li Yaoyang doesn't think there is anything wrong with investing in a family workshop, in fact, the future of Quanchou and even the world's largest candy company was originally a small workshop.

Over the course of more than 100 years, Mars has built a vast confectionery and pet food empire.

There are 11 brands worth more than $1 billion, including well-known candy brands such as Dove, M&M's, Snickers, and Tefun;

Well-known pet food brands include Baolu, Royal, Weijia, etc.

The Mars family behind the "candy empire", from a small chocolate bean to today's candy and pet food double field ranked first, 100 billion Mars enterprises, spanning three generations, through a hundred years, has a dramatic "waste prince" story.

There are also giant mergers and acquisitions that have teamed up with Warren Buffett to "buy, buy, buy", all of which originated from that small workshop.

On September 24, 1883, Frank Mars Jr. was born, but he did not bring much joy to the family, and at a very young age, he fell ill with polio, and his mobility was very limited.

In order to soothe him, his mother often made him a handmade chocolate candy, and when he saw little Frank in the process of making chocolate for the first time, he was deeply attracted and found the greatest joy in life in the process.

At the age of 19, Frank embarked on his own business path, selling sugar, making his first pot of gold and owning a family of his own.

After their marriage, Frank and his wife continued to process and sell sweets, but they were not the only confectionery sellers in the area, and Hershey's, which had been building up for several years, had begun to industrialize and build a chocolate factory in the area.

Frank's business was severely affected and his life became increasingly strained.

At this time, his son Forrester was born again, which made the family even worse, and the wife gradually despaired of the life in front of her, and filed for divorce from Frank on the grounds that she could not afford to raise a child, and took her son to the country of Maple Leaf.

Frank suffered a double blow from the mall and the love field.

However, Frank also met his second wife, who in 1910 remarried, and his wife, Ethel, was a teacher.

After their marriage, they co-founded a company in Seattle called Mar-O-Bar (the predecessor of Mars), which specialized in making a candy made from a mixture of caramel, nuts and chocolate.

But the road to business was not smooth, and when I returned to my hometown 10 years later, I had only accumulated a measly 400 US dollars.

When he was at the most difficult time in his business, he met his son unexpectedly.

In 1923, Frank, who was on a business trip, received a call from the police station, it turned out that his son had been arrested for illegally posting advertisements, and the police department asked him to go to bail, and in this way, more than 10 years after his first wife took away his son, the father and son were reunited.

Admittedly, his son Forrester seems to have a more natural acumen for sweets, and he contributes a small idea to his father.

In the early days, sugar and liquid syrup were the main body of candy, which was not easy to carry, so Forrester suggested that the easy-to-melt maltose should be wrapped in chocolate and other nuts added to make it taste better and easier to preserve, and Mars's classic product, the "Galaxy Bar", was born.

With this new product, Mars candy began to emerge, and in 1930, the father and son updated the product, which became the "Snickers" that has been popular for generations.

With this product, Mars became the second-largest confectionery company in All-Ugly after Hershey, the maker of Hershey's chocolates.

For Frank, who has experienced too many business failures, he is already very satisfied with the status quo and does not want to continue to expand.

However, his son Forrester, who had just graduated from Yale University, wanted to take advantage of the victory and continue to expand his territory, which gradually caused a rift between father and son.

The son's growing ambitions and disagreements between the two sides led to a growing conflict between the father and son, and Frank did not allow his son to participate in major decisions, nor did he have any shares in the company under his name.

Forrester preached everywhere that he had invented Snickers, that he had saved Frank's business, and that he had tried in vain to claim a third of the shares, which eventually hit Frank's bottom line, and the father and son broke up completely.

Frank expelled his son from the house, giving him only $50,000 and the overseas agency of the "Galaxy Stick".

This was the beginning of Mars's journey into the world, and the beginning of the 30-year "deposed" prince's path of revenge.

Frustrated, Forrester came to Berkshire, England, but instead of running the company immediately, he traveled to the factories of the great chocolatiers to learn how to make confectionery products more suitable for European tastes.

Janetab Lyle, Henry Nestle, etc., have left his figure.

The year after he left, his father, Frank, died of a heart attack.

According to Frank's wishes, Forrester's stepmother and sister Patti each received 1/3 of the shares, and the stepmother's half-brother Kubenbach received 1/6 of the shares, and Forrester received nothing.

It wasn't until after the death of Forrester's stepmother that he inherited some shares from his stepmother.