Chapter 1345 Tea
He said, "Tea farmers keep their best tea for regular customers. They won't sell it to me. Besides, do you know how much a brick of good tea costs?"
Zhou Silang used to work in Yizhou City unloading goods for others, and naturally he had met tea merchants. At that time, he asked how much the tea cost.
However, the tea that allowed him to unload boxes of tea was naturally not very good, and the price was moderate.
But this time, when he personally interacted with tea farmers, he realized there were so many different kinds of tea. He said, "Even a small brick of tea like this costs 80 taels, and that's just the average quality. I heard that some wealthy families, those with ten or so tea plants, produce two bricks of top-quality tea in the spring for 180 taels each. And then there's the tribute to the imperial palace, which is even more expensive. You can't buy it even if you have money."
Old Zhou couldn't understand. "This tea is also used to quench thirst. Those two tea trees on the back hill are where anyone who wants to drink it can just pick some, fry it, and make tea. It's bitter, so why is such a small thing being sold at such a high price?"
He could understand why meat and grain were expensive, and he also understood why cloth was expensive. One tasted good, the other looked good, but why was tea expensive?
Zhou Silang shook his head. "I don't understand either, but rich people all like to drink this stuff. They have money, so they can drink it."
Manbao thought for a moment and said, "The master said that sometimes drinking tea is like tasting life. A cup of tea is like a world, a cup of tea is a lifetime."
Everyone in the Zhou family listened in a daze, unable to understand what it meant at all. It sounded very powerful, yet a little unreliable, but because it was said by Mr. Zhuang, everyone in the Zhou family believed it without a second thought.
Old Zhou nodded gravely and said, "Then it seems that this tea is indeed a good thing."
Manbao nodded.
Old Zhou asked Manbao, "Why don't you drink?"
Manbao picked up a piece of meat and said confidently: "Master said that I am still too young. I can't taste the flavor of tea. I only feel bitter. It's better not to drink it."
"Besides, we are young, it is not good for us to drink too much tea," Manbao said, "but Dad, you and Mom can drink more, and Big Brother, you can drink too."
Zhou Dalang said, "I can only taste bitterness, but tea is more thirst-quenching."
It is also because of this that when their family goes out to work, they prefer to make a pot of tea and take it to the fields to drink. When they are thirsty, just take a sip, which is more thirst-quenching and more energetic than drinking plain water.
Manbao said: "Tea is also a medicine. It can prolong life, resist aging and strengthen the body."
The Zhou family suddenly understood. Old Zhou said, "No wonder. I was wondering if those wealthy people would spend so much money on tea just to quench their thirst and endure the bitter taste, right?"
He said, "It must be because good tea can prolong life, fight aging and strengthen the body, that's why it's so expensive."
Zhou Silang suddenly realized what was going on and slapped the table lightly, saying, "I know how to tell those foreign merchants when I get back to Beijing."
Then he looked up at Manbao and complained slightly, "Why didn't you tell me earlier that this tea had this effect?"
Zhou Sanlang asked, "This tea is so good, isn't it more profitable than growing yam and ginger? Can we grow it?"
Everyone fell into deep thought.
Zhou Dalang said directly to Zhou Silang, "When you go out to collect tea leaves, ask how this tea is grown. Do you grow it directly from tea seeds, or do you grow it directly from cuttings like you grow Ligustrum lucidum?"
Zhou Silang nodded.
Manbao felt a sense of crisis and shouted, "Brother, you promised to plant grapes for me."
Zhou Dalang smiled at her and said soothingly, "I have kept all the seeds you gave me. I will ask your sister-in-law to clear out a piece of land in the vegetable garden for you to plant."
Manbao said, "Grapes are vines. One plant can grow very long. I definitely can't grow that many seeds in a vegetable garden."
Xiao Qian said, "It's just a small packet, not much."
The seeds that Manbao brought back were really just a few, but when Manbao saw the picture of the grape vine from Koko, he realized that it could grow so much.
But Xiao Qian and his family had never seen such a thing before. It was not certain whether such small seeds could survive. Even if they could survive, how much space would it take?
Zhou Sanlang said, "If there's not enough space, we can just move it. Didn't you say grapes are fruit trees? All other trees are the same; they can survive if moved."
Manbao thought about it and felt that this was true. The encyclopedia entry said that grape vines could be propagated by cuttings. Besides, her brothers knew much more about farming than she did.
Zhou Sanlang brought up the idea of growing tea trees again, and Old Zhoutou didn't object. He also thought that tea sounded like a profitable business.
Zhou Silang promised that he would ask carefully when he went to collect tea leaves next time.
Zhou Erlang said, "This tea variety isn't cheap, is it?"
Zhou Wulang sighed, "It would be great if I could plant some branches and seeds from the wild like I do at home. There are plenty of tea trees on this mountain."
Manbao interrupted, "Wild tea leaves are too bitter."
Just look at the tea Daohe gave them to drink.
Zhou Silang rolled his eyes and asked Manbao, "Is the Taoist monk Daohe still picking tea leaves?"
"Do you want to buy from him?" Manbao said, "He doesn't have much."
Zhou Silang said, "He doesn't have much, but I remember there are a lot of wild tea leaves on the several mountains near Dali Village. Spring is coming soon, and the tea trees will surely sprout by then..."
Anyway, Ah Liudun couldn't tell good tea from bad; as long as it was tea, it was fine. Besides, the price he paid Ah Liudun wasn't high. As the saying goes, you get what you pay for...
Zhou Silang was calculating in his mind when Manbao said, "Daohe doesn't know how to make tea bricks."
"It's okay. I gave Ah Liudun some loose tea when I was in the capital. They also want roasted loose tea."
And it’s cheap, it just takes up more space.
Zhou Silang was very ambitious and wanted to fill all four carts he brought back with tea and bring them back to the capital, but he didn't have enough money. In order to increase the quantity, he could only try to lower the price of tea.
But the price of tea in the hands of tea farmers is almost the same. If it is too low, they will not be able to compete with the tea merchants they are familiar with.
So in order to buy tea, he had to pay a higher price than other tea merchants, sometimes three cents, sometimes two cents. He always had to pay a little more before people were willing to give him some.
Otherwise, Zhou Silang would not have thought of buying loose tea. There are not many tea mountains in Luojiang County. The country people drink tea by going up the mountain to pick a handful. The more particular ones light fire and stir-fry it, while some people find it troublesome and just dry it in the sun before brewing.
Those are all wild tea leaves grown in the mountains. Just like wild vegetables, they are extremely bitter.
He had seen A Liudun drink tea. They used goat milk to boil tea leaves. Unlike those who only drank tea water, they chewed and ate the tea leaves together.
He also tried it and found that the tea leaves cooked with goat's milk were not so bitter, and the fishy smell of goat's milk was gone.
So he thought that even if it was wild tea, Ah Liudun probably wouldn't mind it. If he really minded, he would just give it to him at a lower price.
See you at 9pm
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
