12dz Chapter 284 Milk Tea
Chapter 284 Milk Tea
In late May, the commodity fair on Huipin Street in Lu County opened as scheduled amid everyone's anticipation.
There is a wide variety of local products. The silk from the south is dazzling, the new cotton and cotton cloth from the north are soft and comfortable, the fruit wine that Zhao Sheng has been accumulating for a long time is fragrant, and a little precious white sugar also made its debut at this exhibition.
However, Zhao Sheng did not sell the sugar under the name of Luancheng, but asked Zhao Youfu's nephew Sun Jiadao to find a small store for him.
"Shopkeeper, how much do you sell this frosting for?" A businessman from the south walked over and asked curiously.
"Oh, sir, you actually know about this candy?" Sun Jiadao asked curiously with a hint of surprise in his eyes.
"This kind of frosting is available in our South. It's produced further south and is very expensive."
"Sir, you have good eyesight. The price is indeed not cheap."
"Give me a price, and I will buy all the frosting you have." The southern businessman said generously.
"Huh? Is this the legendary frosting? How much is it? I can buy them all." A merchant from the northern barbarians also shouted generously.
"Haha, this frosting of mine comes from Persia. Take a closer look, isn't it very different from the frosting you have seen?" Sun Jiadao said with pride on his face when he saw that these people had a demand for white sugar.
"Well, it's crystal clear, and it's indeed different from the icing sugar I've seen before. Does this mean that this sugar is more expensive?" The southern merchant looked at the white sugar carefully and was surprised.
"How about this, I'll give you one tael of silver for this candy?" Sun Jiadao struck while the iron was hot and quoted a price.
"Ah..." The barbarian merchant was so shocked that his eyes almost popped out, and exclaimed: "This candy is too expensive!"
Seeing this, Sun Jiadao knew that business could not be rushed, so he let the two men into the house, set up a stove, and prepared to make tea.
"Ahem~ I have milk tea here, drink this." The barbarian merchant took off the leather bag on his body and handed over the milk tea enthusiastically.
The clay pot on the stove gradually heated up, and when the milk tea was poured into it, it immediately gave off a strong smell.
"Hey~this milk tea." The southern businessman looked disgusted and couldn't help complaining.
Sun Jiadao took a sip and really couldn't get used to it, so he added a spoonful of sugar to it, stirred it, and took another sip.
"Sure enough, the taste is different with sugar in it." Sun Jiadao sighed, smacked his lips, and said happily.
Seeing this, the southern businessman also wanted to add sugar, but he was too embarrassed to do so in someone else's house.
"Um, how about adding some sugar and trying it?" Sun Jiadao asked maliciously.
The southern businessman saw a cunning look in Sun Jiadao's eyes and did not dare to agree for a moment.
"Oh, you don't want it." After saying that, Sun Jiadao added a spoonful of sugar to the Northern Barbarian merchant.
"Hmm... this frosting is really good. It tastes different when added to milk tea."
"Um, shop owner, please add some for me too." When the southern businessman saw Sun Jiadao added sugar to the northern businessman, he embarrassedly pushed the milk tea in front of him to him and said shamelessly.
"I asked you just now but you refused, and now... ah~" Sun Jiadao muttered, but still added a spoonful of sugar to the southern businessman.
Although the milk tea with sugar has improved, the strong smell is still hard to get used to.
"Boss Sun, what are you drinking?" At this moment, Zhao Sheng and Liang Dong appeared in front of Sun Jiadao's store.
"Oh, it's the prince consort...Mr. Zhao!" Sun Jiadao quickly stood up and greeted him with a fist salute.
As soon as Mr. Zhao saw the fishy smell of the milk tea, he knew what they were doing.
He reached out and took a tea bag from Liang Dong. This was the new tea he had brought from the south and processed himself.
"I'll heat up the rest myself. Sigh, I'm really not used to this tea of yours."
Mr. Zhao took out a portion of the tea from the tea bag and put it into the ceramic pot.
"Shopkeeper Sun, do you have any brown sugar? And some white sugar."
The milk tea at that time was not the milk tea of later generations. It was mainly goat's milk or cow's milk heated with a little salt to keep its original flavor.
Mr. Zhao really couldn't get used to this kind of milk tea, and adding tea leaves and sugar was not authentic.
"Is there any fruit wine? Add a sip." Zhao Sheng instructed Liang Dong.
"Oh, sir, I don't have it here. I'll send someone to get it right away."
Who would carry alcohol around for no reason? As for the tea, Zhao Sheng couldn't get used to the alkaline water here, so he always carried it with him.
Some water was added to the milk tea, the tea leaves were boiled for a while, and then brown sugar and white sugar were added, and a small sip of fruit wine was added. The taste instantly became completely different.
"Come on, come on, try it. This tea tastes very different." After taking a sip, Mr. Zhao enthusiastically invited everyone to taste it.
The southern businessman took a sip, and his frown instantly relaxed.
"Yes, it tastes delicious."
The northern merchant tasted the faint aroma of wine and laughed heartily, saying, "It is indeed delicious!"
"Shopkeeper Sun, how do you sell this sugar?" Zhao Sheng asked seemingly nonchalantly.
"Um~ I sell it for one tael of silver." Sun Jiadao replied.
"What does one tael of silver mean?" Zhao Sheng looked confused.
"Shopkeeper Sun means one ounce of silver for one ounce of sugar," the southern businessman explained hastily.
"Oh, it's a bit expensive. I think five hundred wen per two taels is already good." Zhao Sheng still had a smile on his face, but the meaning of his words was obvious.
"Five hundred coins?" The southern merchant was surprised. "If that's the price, how much stock does Shopkeeper Sun have? I'll buy it all."
"What do you mean you bought it all? What about ours?" The Northern Barbarian merchant said quite dissatisfiedly.
"Don't worry, I have a hundred kilograms of sugar here. It's impossible for you to buy it all." Sun Jiadao said with a big grin, looking quite proud.
One hundred pounds?
The two businessmen secretly calculated in their hearts: one hundred kilograms is eight thousand taels of silver, and they can still come up with that much money.
"We want both!" they said in unison.
"How about this, you two each take half, and don't argue." Sun Jiadao acted as a peacemaker at this time.
The two northern and southern businessmen looked at each other and made up their minds: "Half and half."
So, the two of them made a decision on the spot, paid the money, and got the goods.
"This is Mr. Fu Zhao." The southern businessman mistakenly heard Sun Jiadao calling Mr. Zhao as "Mr. Fu Zhao".
"Where did you buy the tea leaves for the milk tea just now?"
The tea leaves that Zhao Sheng brought just now were in the form of pieces, which the southern merchants had never seen before. Most of the tea leaves in the Great Zhou Dynasty were in the form of tea bricks.
"Oh, my tea is from Beijing, called Maojian. But tea bricks are best for milk tea. It tastes even better with brown sugar and fruit wine. Of course, fruit juice is also acceptable."
Zhao Sheng was also very open-minded. He was determined to promote the north-south trade of tea. After all, the price of tea in that era was still quite expensive.
"My name is Wu Yanqing, a merchant from Wu. I see you still have some tea bags left. Could you please give me the rest?"
Wu Yanqing looked at the remaining tea bags on the table and asked cautiously.
"Sure." Zhao Sheng generously pushed the tea leaves on the table over.
"Thank you very much, Master Zhao!"
Wu Yanqing was overjoyed and hurriedly took the paper package on the table, wrapped it carefully and put it away.