At this time, Gao Xiaozhuang replied with some embarrassment: "Young master, uh... they said that the term civet fragrance may be wrong. They said they only know civet fragrance, or it can also be called civet fragrance."
Gao Pragmatic was speechless after hearing this, and thought to himself: How do I know what this thing is called now? Anyway, in the previous life it was called Civet Fragrance!
He would think so. In fact, this is due to his own lack of knowledge. Whether it is a big civet or a small civet, it belongs to the scientific name of later biology. There are actually quite a lot of names for these two animals in ancient China. Among them, the big civet is also called
Also called pen cat, spotted civet, civet, seven-room civet, black-footed civet, Baogong civet, civet, civet, etc.
Of course, Gao Pragmatic really doesn't know what the name of the civet scent is in this era. He claimed that civet scent was denied by others, so he could only hold his nose and admit it - OK, OK, you are experts, what do you think?
Whatever it is, then it is.
So he coughed dryly and covered it up a little: "Oh, so this thing is called Lixiang in the capital? Okay, then... what is the price of Lixiang?"
"It's much cheaper than ambergris, but it's also very expensive!" Gao Xiaozhuang stretched out a finger: "One tael of silver can only buy less than seven taels of civet incense, and I heard that there aren't many in stock."
Gao Pragmatic nodded and made a mental calculation.
According to the purchasing power of silver in the Ming Dynasty, this price is indeed very expensive, but fortunately, this substance is only used as a fragrance fixative in soap, not the main ingredient. Although Gao Pragmatic did not know this fragrance fixative when making soap
The specific consumption, but since it is not the main ingredient, the dosage will definitely not be particularly large, so it is completely sufficient to support it.
As for the lack of goods, this issue is completely pragmatic and understandable. After all, perfume is not popular in China. China has always used incense and sachets, so civet incense is probably a medicinal material at this time, and most of it is
The kind that is not used in large quantities. As for perfume, it cannot be said that there was no perfume in ancient China, but most of them were similar to toilet water, which focused on freshness, usually ready to use, and also drinkable - yes,
This toilet water is completely different from the toilet water used to repel mosquitoes and relieve itching in later generations.
Of course, the lack of goods is a problem, but Gao Pragmatic believes that it is not a big problem. Where the benefits lie, people follow the trend. As long as his tall young master is willing to place an order, there are many people willing to work for the supply of civet incense - there is nothing my Ming Dynasty lacks.
There will be no shortage of manpower, and there will be no shortage of civets on the mountains in this era, but there are many, many people who are short of money.
He even thinks that if the soap business continues to be booming in the future, it might be possible to spawn farms that raise civets artificially for scent and sell them. Of course, these can only be regarded as long-term plans under ideal conditions, and the current focus is definitely not
We should focus on these things.
Therefore, it has been tentatively decided to use civet fragrance as the fragrance fixative for soap. There is only one remaining problem, diversification of fragrances.
He vaguely remembered that when he was in the county party committee, he went to Guangdong with a delegation to inspect the daily chemical industry. A local daily chemical company introduced them to the development history of some flavors. It seemed that it was around 1857 that humans began to use lignite resin.
The hydrocarbons obtained were nitrated, and the resulting product had a scent similar to almond oil and musk oil. Since then, due to the rapid development of the chemical industry, artificial and synthetic flavors have become popular.
But it is certainly impossible for him to skip natural flavors and go for synthetic flavors now. Because the extraction of natural flavors cannot be a bottleneck limiting the production of soaps. After all, the required raw materials are abundant enough in this era. Instead, it is to produce artificial flavors.
There are not enough technical conditions. Since the technical conditions are insufficient, it is obvious that there is no cost advantage over natural flavors.
As a result, the range of choices has been greatly reduced, and the only ones that can be considered are natural flavors. Considering the cost, the plant flavors that have sufficient production in the Ming Dynasty must be the main ones. In later generations, natural plant flavors are relatively famous.
There are quite a few, such as sandalwood from India, rose from Bulgaria, mint and star anise from China, cinnamon from Sri Lanka, lavender from France, etc. But obviously, those that are not available in Ming Dynasty do not need to be considered for the time being.
In addition to mint and star anise, there are also bay leaves, cinnamon and the like that can be easily obtained in large quantities in the land of Ming Dynasty. However, except for mint, the others do not seem to be particularly suitable as soap flavors. This kind of use on the skin
Yes, flowers are better.
Thanks to China's vast land and abundant resources, there are many choices of flowers, such as roses.
The beauty, especially the thorns of roses, was considered to be a manifestation of "jealousy" in ancient China, so there are not many masterpieces left, and the reputation of this flower is not very good.], jasmine, osmanthus, white orchid, yellow orchid, magnolia
There are countless categories suitable for manufacturing fragrances.
Of course, don’t be too ambitious at the beginning. You might as well choose the three scents of mint, jasmine, and osmanthus, which are particularly unique, to test the waters, and introduce the rest slowly. For example, if the rose scent can be exported to Europe, it may be quite popular.
However, if it can only be sold in the Ming Dynasty before then, it needs to at least lay the groundwork in the literary world - such as a widely read masterpiece, otherwise the group that is interested in it may be too niche -
Who would think that they are jealous?
As for the extraction method of essence and sesame oil, Gao Wuzhi is not very clear about the level in the Ming Dynasty, but he feels that since China was already good at making sachets and sachets in the Tang Dynasty, it even developed to use flowers to make sauce in the Ming Dynasty.
, brewing wine, and scenting tea, then extracting essence and making sesame oil should be a piece of cake.
To take a step back, even if the extraction level is found to be insufficient, there is no need to worry at all. He still has two or three methods that are not too technically demanding to use. All of them were learned from that chemical company during that inspection.
The chief of the production department learned it when he talked about the development history of flavor production. Although his explanation was not very detailed at that time, it should be more than enough to cope with the current level of flavor production.
After clarifying these production matters, Gao's pragmatic mood began to relax, and the next thing to consider was to increase the added value of the product as much as possible.
The two best ways to increase the added value of products are monopoly and branding.
Monopoly issues are easy to deal with. The third uncle is now in power, and there is no such thing as the Anti-Monopoly Law. As long as technical confidentiality is in place, other dirty tricks can be ignored at least for the time being.
Therefore, the only thing to deal with is the brand.