Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 188 Nurhachi can't eat fine chaff

Of course, Guo Kang is also very clear that it is easy to convince Theodora, and the next thing is the highlight that he will face today.

Not long after, Cao Jian brought some servants to serve the tea, and invited everyone to taste it.

The high-grade tea leaves of the Zizhang Khanate, or "tea" in the original sense, were basically bought from the East.At the beginning, some people tried to grow it by themselves, but it may be that the water and soil are not acclimatized, and the planting has not been good. Everyone still likes to import.

However, the tea-drinking atmosphere brought by the Purple Horde made the local Greek "tea" popular.

In the mountains of Greece, there are some plants called "camellia" growing.Local shepherds often collect their leaves and dry them to make this "tea".

Greek camellias in different regions have some differences in varieties, tastes and processing methods.Some like it fresh, others like it brewed.However, the way to use it is similar. They are all boiled in hot water, soaked, and then drunk.

This kind of camellia was originally only a drink used by mountain people to improve their taste, and sometimes it was sold in towns and entered the market.However, after the rise of the Purple Horde, influenced by the atmosphere of the upper class, many Greeks also began to consciously pursue "drinking tea".

When they could not get oriental tea, they began to think about how to use native tea, so they started the process of active selection and planting.The early tea farmers were mainly shepherds in the Peloponnese peninsula part-time. Later, as the oriental atmosphere became stronger, some businessmen also began to invest in the establishment of tea gardens, making it an industry.

In addition to local consumption, Greek businessmen often make glazed pottery bottles imitating the Yuan Dynasty style, copy some Chinese characters on them that they may not know the meaning of, put some local camellia, and then claim that this is "Seris high-grade tea" and sell it to those who don't know how to do it. wealthy Western European landowners.

After three or five times, the Western Europeans also found out that something was wrong, and they cursed the old Greek liar and cheated others.Some chambers of commerce even have special tea appraisers to distinguish between genuine and fake tea, so as to prevent sellers from shoddy tea.

Of course, this relatively cheap local tea has also become a means for many less wealthy Europeans to brag about their wealth and status. Anyway, most of the local nobles really can't tell each other;
In turn, this kind of impersonation made the real upper class aristocrats especially like to emphasize that their tea and porcelain were unique and genuine oriental products, and tasting tea gradually became a popular habit.If you can't taste the place of origin, the pros and cons, you will be ashamed to pretend to be stylish in front of other nobles.

It can only be said that the development of things is sometimes really unexpected.

Naturally, Cao's tea was specially bought, but Guo Kang himself was not very particular about it, so he never cared much about it.

Everyone chatted and tasted it.Holding the teacup, Theodora took a sip, then turned to Guo Kang and asked, "What do you think of this batch of tea leaves?"

Guo Kang also took a sip, but after thinking about it for a while, he couldn't think of any difference, so he said in a low voice, "It should be... all okay, right?"

"Actually, I think we don't need to care too much about this." Seeing that Theodora had nothing to say, he took the initiative to explain: "Think about it, these Seris teas that have been transported across the ocean are probably not high-grade. I heard that the real good tea producing areas were strictly controlled by the Ming Dynasty, and they were not allowed to be exported casually."

"If you want me to say, instead of buying at a high price, it's better to drink local ones. Anyway, it's made of vanilla in water, so it doesn't matter if the taste is a little different. I tasted it and it still tastes good."

However, Theodora was not very satisfied with his evaluation.

"You're just like the Nurhachi raised by Jeanna. You're used to eating weeds. If you feed it chaff, it won't be able to eat it." Diodora shook her head and said, "This is the excellent crystallization of Seris civilization. Where is a vanilla?" thing."

"All right, all right, I'm just an ordinary Serisian, and I don't understand the Serisian civilization." Guo Kang said helplessly, "I just read this today, and I think we should really save some money. You practice drinking tea." , It’s useless, why don’t you save the money and go to make steam…”

"Tiantian is Brother Tian, ​​and the rest of the days can't be passed?" Theodora was impatient, and didn't even care about religious issues: "Why don't you marry Brother Tian?"

"Ah..." Guo Kang didn't know how to answer now.

Fortunately, the embarrassing time didn't take long, and the servants brought up desserts again, and everyone was invited to taste them.These small breads and biscuits successfully diverted the topic between them, so that Theodora did not continue to ask.

In this day and age, fluffy sweet buns are not as expensive as they used to be.At least, in places like Italy, it is already something that wealthy citizens can consume, and special recipe books have appeared to teach everyone how to cook.

After the popularity of this kind of food, there are more and more tricks, but the characteristics are similar.Both need to put a lot of sucrose, eggs and other materials, and sometimes depending on the economic situation and taste needs, honey, roses, saffron and the like are added to adjust the taste.

The largest amount used here is sucrose.The good news is that the Purple Horde Khanate can now produce this thing by itself, and finally it doesn't have to rely entirely on imports.

Sugar production was first developed in India and Persia, and later, the Arabs brought these agricultural products to all parts of the world.They consciously selected varieties and expanded the planting range, allowing crops such as sugar cane, cotton, bananas, eggplants, and lemons to spread.This period is also known as the "Arab Agricultural Revolution".

At that time, sugarcane was still called "Persian reed". The Arabs brought it to Egypt, Morocco and Iberia, and began to grow it in large quantities to make sugar.

But later, with the advancement of the Spanish Reconquest Movement, the local agriculture was greatly damaged, and the sugar industry also collapsed.The center of gravity of sucrose shifted to the Eastern Mediterranean.

The Arabs also introduced sugar cane to the islands of Crete and Cyprus, which were then controlled by Italian traders.After the rise of the Purple Horde, it seized many islands, as well as the sugar cane manors and sugar workshops in these places.

The most important thing is that the oriental "white sugar" technology took shape in the Tang Dynasty.

The people of Seres could produce purer and truly "white" sugar, which was far superior in quality to those yellow and red products made by Indians and Arabs, and after that, no one else could learn it for thousands of years.Therefore, white sugar has been a bulk commodity exported by sea at least since the Yuan Dynasty.

And the Purple Horde Khanate also acquired the technology of making sugar by recruiting craftsmen, which formed a huge advantage over its counterparts in the Mediterranean world.

Because of their importance, these plantations were under the direct jurisdiction of the Great Khan.Before, the queen told her adoptive mother during a private gathering that the couple planned to use the sugar cane factory in Cyprus as Theodora's dowry, which surprised others.

It can be said that the biggest shareholder of these desserts is Theodora herself, so Guo Kang doesn't know whether to persuade everyone to eat less sugar.He was worried that if he kept saying that, he would be considered as Nurhachi who couldn't eat chaff.

(End of this chapter)