Chapter 63: Competing to Buy

Due to the scarcity of high-quality tea leaves, Ye Yaming and Ye Chongming decided to give them away rather than sell them; currently, the tea house only offers mid-to-low-quality tea.

The people present are all seasoned tea drinkers. Once the tea is brewed, they can tell the quality of the loose tea leaves just by looking at the tea leaves. The staff can’t comment on the quality of the loose tea, so they only talk about the taste.

Osmanthus tea is a secret recipe of the Ye family, the only one in the entire Great Jin Dynasty with no other branches. If the price is set too low, it would not only result in a loss but also lower the grade and style of the osmanthus tea. Therefore, even though the tea leaves are not of the best quality and the osmanthus flowers are cheap to purchase, Ye Chongming and Ye Yaming decided to set a relatively high price.

After all, they only produced a few hundred catties, and Ye Hongsheng took most of it to the capital. For tea lovers who enjoy this flavor, they will buy it even if it’s expensive and the tea quality isn’t particularly good.

They don’t worry about selling this osmanthus tea at all.

To make the osmanthus tea more fragrant and to enhance its taste, after Ye Jiaxing came to the tea house, he specifically called the tea master over and gave some instructions on the brewing method.

Therefore, after the tea masters brewed the tea, they didn’t cover it. When the tea was brought to the table, they covered it just before serving and then poured the tea for everyone.

A rich osmanthus fragrance filled the tea house as soon as the tea was poured. Not only the nearby tables but even the tea drinkers a bit further away could smell it.

“Oh, is this osmanthus tea? It really is fragrant,” someone stretched their neck to look over.

Among the tea drinkers who ordered the tea, there were those who were impatient and couldn’t contain their curiosity. They didn’t wait for the tea to be poured, and as soon as the tea master put down the teapot and hadn’t had time to add water, they curiously leaned over to look at the tea leaves in the pot.

“It’s really just tea leaves!” he exclaimed.

This exclamation made the tea drinkers all want to see the tea leaves in the pot.

The tea master didn’t rush them and let them look.

The first impatient tea drinker, after looking at the tea leaves, became curious about the taste of the tea. He didn’t care about the heat, and while others were looking at the tea leaves, he picked up the teacup and took a sip. As soon as the tea entered his mouth, the rich osmanthus fragrance seemed to transfer from the air to his mouth. The fragrance and the freshness of the tea filled his mouth, making him feel as if his soul was filled with happiness. He hurriedly swallowed the tea and exclaimed, “Oh, the taste of this tea is really good. Fragrant, really fragrant. Besides the fragrance, there’s also the freshness of the tea. It’s truly wonderful in every way!”

Hearing him say this, the other tea drinkers quickly picked up their tea cups to taste it, and soon, the sound of praise filled the air.

The tea master, hearing these praises, was delighted and cheerfully poured hot water into the pot before going to brew tea for other tables.

The high evaluation of the osmanthus tea at this table immediately led to a series of orders for osmanthus tea in the tea house. After drinking it, some wealthy tea drinkers immediately bought a few catties.

The shopkeeper happily weighed the tea for them and said, “We only have about two hundred catties of this osmanthus tea in total. Once it’s sold out, there will be no more. Those who act quickly are lucky.”

“Why is there so little?” a tea drinker asked anxiously. He thought it was expensive, so he only bought one catty, planning to come back for more after drinking it. This way, he wouldn’t feel so bad about spending a lot of money at once. But if there were only two hundred catties in total, it would be sold out in less than two days. By the time he wanted to buy more, there would be none left.

“Shopkeeper Lin, you aren’t fooling me, are you?” he asked suspiciously.

Lin Zhensheng said, “Our old master requires us to be honest with our customers. You all know that, right? No matter what, I wouldn’t dare to lie. Our Ye family’s loose tea is limited in quantity, and there aren’t many osmanthus flowers in the city. The production process is also very complicated. In total, we only made a little over four hundred catties, and we have to send half of it to our old customers in the capital. So we only have about two hundred catties here.”

The tea drinker no longer doubted and, without worrying about the money, said to the staff weighing the tea, “Give me two… no, three catties.”

After thinking for a moment, he felt it still wasn’t enough and said, “No, no, give me five catties.”

The osmanthus tea tasted good and was in short supply, making it valuable. When the tea house ran out, other tea drinkers would definitely ask those who bought it to share some at a high price. At that time, he could sell two catties, make back the money for the three catties he drank, and gain some favor. Thinking this, he wished he could buy more.

Lin Zhensheng said, “Sorry, Mr. Wu, because the tea is scarce, our old master wants everyone to have a taste, so each person is limited to buying two catties. We also need to sell the rest in the tea house.”

“Only two catties…” Mr. Wu said anxiously, wanting to argue with Lin Zhensheng.

Another person who had a good relationship with him quickly pulled his sleeve and gave him a meaningful look.

Seeing this, Mr. Wu, though full of doubts, kept quiet.

After leaving the tea house with the tea, he asked his friend, “What’s going on? Why did you stop me just now? Don’t you want to buy more?”

He then explained his plan.

Since they were friends, both from modest backgrounds and living frugally, his friend wouldn’t laugh at him but would think it was a good idea.

His friend shook his head and said, “It wouldn’t work. You’d offend those wealthy and powerful people who didn’t get to buy the tea. If you want to buy more, there’s a way. Just have someone from your family come and buy it. The tea house only recognizes people, not whose family they belong to. Why offend people?”

Mr. Wu immediately patted his forehead and laughed, “You’re still the smart one.”

In the tea house, most people, like Mr. Wu, were amazed by the osmanthus tea and bought one or two catties. A few didn’t buy it, thinking it was too expensive and not worth the high price for loose tea with added osmanthus fragrance. It wasn’t that they didn’t think the tea was good.

Seeing the silver flowing to the counter, someone with a lively mind quickly asked Lin Zhensheng, “Where is your old master? I have something to discuss with him.”

The Ye family had no more loose tea, but he did. The osmanthus flowers in Lin’an City were out of season, but there were still some in the capital. The capital is north of Lin’an, so the osmanthus flowers must bloom later. If he went to the capital to buy osmanthus flowers and made a large amount of osmanthus tea, even if he only made a small profit, it would still be a big profit.

Lin Zhensheng smiled and said, “Our old master made new osmanthus tea, so he naturally took some to Master Zhineng at Chongshan Temple to taste. He left early this morning and isn’t here.”

“Ah?” the person exclaimed in disappointment.

Master Zhineng of Chongshan Temple was a tea enthusiast. If he drank such good tea, he would be delighted. And he was connected with many influential people. With his recommendation, even if Ye Chongming wanted to cooperate, he would never choose him.