Tea Merchants of the Song Dynasty

Chapter 111 Fragrant Drink

Even if the soil on a mountain that has never been cultivated is fertile, it still costs a lot to reach the conditions for planting.

What's more, Huangshan is known as the Fairy Mountain, which makes people feel awe and dare not act recklessly.

Jiang Yin's eyes flickered: "But the mountain is the best place to grow tea, and if you can't settle for the next best thing, halfway up the mountain is also fine.

Si Niang, let's go buy some land. We'll buy as much as we can. Once we buy the land, we'll buy tea trees from the tea farmers and transplant the Maofeng tea trees there."

Of course, if you can buy land, you can't plant all the transplanted mature tea trees. You have to set aside some land to plant tea seedlings to prevent the mature tea trees from not surviving.

"That's a good idea." Jiang Si Niang nodded and said, "I'll ask someone to find out."

Originally, she was thinking of buying the tea garden first, but now it seems that, as A Yin said, she can just buy the land and tea trees directly.

Looking at the lush green tea trees, Jiang Yin narrowed his eyes and said, "In your opinion, Si Niang, are these tea farmers willing to sell the tea trees they have carefully tended to us?"

If someone said they wanted to buy her tea trees on Mount Meng, she would definitely refuse.

"Of course." Jiang Si Niang sighed and said, "When I came here, I asked around and found out that many tea farmers who grow Maofeng tea will not continue to grow tea after this year, but will switch to growing grain."

Maofeng tea has never improved and is inferior to other Huizhou teas. If they want to plant it again, tea farmers are only willing to plant other Huizhou teas.

But perhaps they were hurt by the difficult Maofeng tea, and they would rather grow food to fill their stomachs rather than continue growing tea trees.

Jiang Yin was shocked and said, "I can understand that. However, if it is really affected by the growing environment, even if they change to other Huizhou teas, they cannot improve the quality of the tea."

She paused and continued, "Huizhou is very likely to implement a tea monopoly system. If we want to buy land to grow Huangshan Maofeng, we don't need to plant too much.

I can just plant as much as the tea garden in front of me, or I can plant half as much as I want. But I have to buy a bigger piece of land, and plant some flower tea and fruit trees in the other vacant land to avoid being targeted.

We will decide whether to expand the planting when the situation stabilizes in the future.”

Before Huangshan Maofeng became famous, the tea monopoly system was unlikely to target Huangshan Maofeng.

What's more, at present, Huangshan Maofeng is just a small amount of loose tea and will not attract much attention.

But it is not certain in the future. When she finds a way to improve the taste, she will have to continue to sell Huangshan Maofeng as loose tea to other places to avoid the tea monopoly system.

She just wanted to be a businessman quietly and didn't want to get involved in the affairs of the court.

Jiang Si Niang nodded and said, "I understand. Don't worry, Yin. I will pass on the instructions and make sure you are careful and cautious."

She was really afraid of the tea monopoly system, which attracted so much covetousness that even Jiang Yin's parents lost their lives because of it.

After a tour of the tea garden, Jiang Yin gained a lot.

After handing over the work in the tea garden to his subordinates, Jiang Yin and Jiang Si Niang went to their residence in the town.

As soon as you enter the courtyard, you will see that the man lives in the front yard, and Jiang Si Niang and two tea girls roasting tea beside her live in the back yard.

The same arrangement was made when Jiang Yin came over. She and Xiao Luo lived in the backyard, and the others lived in the front yard.

It's a bit crowded, but it's bearable for a while.

Once you decide to buy land to grow Huangshan Maofeng tea, you will have to buy a house in the town.

Perhaps, if all goes well, I can even buy a house in Huizhou Prefecture.

After placing the gifts, Si Niang brought up the fragrant drink she had made.

Fragrant drinks are mostly made with aromatic herbs, which have the effects of promoting salivation and quenching thirst, relieving heat and cooling off in summer, and also have the effect of maintaining health and strengthening the body.

Whenever summer comes, people who have the conditions will drink fragrant drinks to relieve heat and improve health, as well as increase appetite.

There are many kinds of fragrant drinks, including perilla drink, agarwood water, Ophiopogon japonicus water, Erchen drink, snow-soaked plum wine, mint drink, osmanthus drink, Elsholtzia drink, cardamom drink, Fujia summer-relief medicine ice water, bamboo leaf drink and so on.

Among them, the top three are perilla drink, agarwood water and Ophiopogon japonicus water.

Among them, Perilla Drink, also known as Perilla Cooked Water, was a popular drink in the Song Dynasty and was widely popular.

The method of making purple basil drink is very simple. There is even a special book that records: "Take the leaves, bake them on fire with paper, do not turn them over, and put them away after repairing the fragrance. Each time you use it, wash and soak it in boiling water, pour it out, put the soaked purple basil into a pot, and pour in boiling water. Drinking it can relieve chest congestion."

What Si Niang made was Perilla Drink.

In order to better relieve the heat, Si Niang also put the brewed basil drink into the well and let it cool for a while.

Drinking perilla drink in hot weather can invigorate the stomach, relieve heat, enhance appetite, aid digestion, and also prevent colds, chest and abdominal distension, etc.

Jiang Yin took a sip of the basil drink, her face showing enjoyment. After finishing one bowl, she filled herself up with another.

After a moment, she smiled and said, "Si Niang's craftsmanship has become more and more sophisticated. By the way, Si Niang, do you know if there is a tea farmer named Xu at the foot of Huangshan Mountain?"

Previously, Boss Wu gave her a seal and told her that she could ask the tea farmer named Xu for help when she arrived in Huangshan.

She planned to find out who this tea farmer named Xu was before making any plans.

"A tea farmer with the surname Xu?" Jiang Si Niang asked in confusion, "The owner of the tea garden we rented is named Xu. As for the others, I don't pay much attention to them."

She paused and continued, "However, from what I know, this is the only family with the surname Xu."

There are so many tea growers in Huangshan, and she has been in contact with tea growers and tea farmers with relatively large tea gardens.

As for those who planted one or two acres of tea trees, she just collected the fresh leaves and did not pay too much attention to them.

But she registered all those who came to sell fresh Maofeng leaves, and there was no one with the surname Xu among them.

"What a coincidence?" Jiang Yin's eyes lit up, "If I'm not mistaken, the person I'm looking for is this person."

When Boss Wu came to Huangshan, he collected a lot of Huangshan Maofeng tea. I'm afraid that among those Maofeng teas, the majority was produced by the tea farmer named Xu.

So, she guessed that the person Boss Wu was talking about was the one that Si Niang was talking about.

Jiang Si Niang pursed her lips and smiled, "Ah Yin, are you going to look for him? It just so happens that his family also lives in town. If you want to go, I can take you there right now."

After she took over the Xu family's tea garden, the Xu family's life became much easier. At least, they no longer had to pick and make tea.

However, Jiang Yin shook his head and said, "Not for now. We don't need their help right now."

The seal given by Boss Wu represented a favor to the Xu family. Now she didn't know what to do with the seal.

Instead of this, it is better to maintain a normal relationship first.

She hoped that the trip would go well and that the seal would never be used.

She was not worried that ordinary tea farmers could not help. Since Boss Wu gave her the seal, the Xu family must have something special.

"Let's go to the town and have a look later." Jiang Yin said after a moment's hesitation, "Huizhou is a good place. Maybe we can find more good tea from loose tea."

There was no need to consider the already famous Huizhou tea, as she did not want to be involved in the tea monopoly system again.