Chapter 311 - 158: Tasting Event

Chapter 311: Chapter 158: Tasting Event

April 10th.

Hailufeng Company held a product tasting event at the Paris Peninsula Hotel in the city.

Ten days prior, they had sent out email invitations to all the major high-end restaurants and upscale pastry shops in Lingnan Province, as well as to the country’s major ice cream manufacturers.

Although nearly a thousand invitations were sent out, only 683 people confirmed they would attend the tasting.

Of course, this number didn’t include the assistants and other staff they brought with them.

In total, over a thousand people had come to the Paris Peninsula Hotel today.

To host the event, the sales department had booked the grand halls on the second and third floors of the Paris Peninsula Hotel.

Chen Wei and his son, Chen Jiajun—a father-son duo who had previously purchased White Truffles from Hailufeng Company—were operators of a high-end restaurant. Upon receiving Hailufeng’s invitation, they decided to attend in person. Hearing that the tasting was for a brand-new, spice-type strawberry, they even brought two of their restaurant’s pastry chefs along.

They stepped out of the elevator.

And were greeted by the sight of a bustling crowd.

Chen Wei spotted quite a few old acquaintances from the industry.

"Boss Tian, you came for the tasting too?"

Hearing a familiar voice, the portly Boss Tian turned and saw it was the Chen father and son. His face broke into a smile so wide his eyes disappeared. "Boss Chen! Long time no see. How come you haven’t dropped by Ancient Brocade Hall lately?"

"I had my gallbladder removed two months ago and have been resting at home these past few months," Chen Wei explained with a smile. "Since this event came up, I thought I’d bring my son along to see the world a bit."

"Ah! Once you get old, all sorts of health problems crop up. I’ve got high blood pressure and high cholesterol myself," Boss Tian sighed.

Chen Wei shook his head. "Let’s not talk about that. Has the tasting started?"

"It has. I’ll take you over to get some food."

The group weaved their way through the sea of people.

Before long, they squeezed their way to the tasting stations.

The stations were laden with all sorts of desserts and drinks.

There were Western-style cakes, crème caramel, ice cream, canelés, and cookies.

There were also Chinese-style mung bean cakes, chestnut pastries, and yolk pastries.

And a variety of bottled drinks, including milkshakes, milk tea, honey water, coconut milk, and plum juice.

"Help yourselves to anything. I just tried some, and it’s all excellent," Boss Tian said, picking up a bottle of chilled plum juice and taking a small sip.

Chen Wei took a disposable plate and a set of disposable utensils from a server, then picked up a small piece of cake from the mountain of cakes in front of him.

The two pastry chefs didn’t hold back either.

"Huh?"

"What is it, Master Yang?" Chen Jiajun asked, having just picked up a bottle of honey water when he heard one of the pastry chefs make a surprised sound.

Master Yang didn’t answer right away. Instead, he took another bite of the ice cream before confirming his thoughts. "This vanilla ice cream... they actually used real vanilla seeds?"

"Really?" Chen Jiajun had tasted vanilla ice cream made with real vanilla before. He hurried over to the ice cream station in a few quick strides and asked the server for a scoop.

After a taste, he found it truly had a complex vanilla flavor—a rich aroma that artificial vanilla extract could never replicate.

Moreover, he could tell that the amount of vanilla paste used in the ice cream must have been enough to achieve a very high concentration.

Nearby, Li Du, the head of raw material procurement for Baxi Ice Cream Company, was also stunned, along with the perfumer and flavorist his company had sent.

The person who spoke was the bald perfumer:

"Manager Li, the amount of vanilla paste in this ice cream is extremely high. It’s basically equivalent to using about 0.6 to 0.7 grams of vanilla seeds, or 6 to 14 grams of vanilla paste, per liter of ice cream."

"Oh? And what’s the usage rate for the vanilla paste in our ice cream?"

"We use 1.5 grams of high-concentration vanilla paste per liter of ice cream, which is equivalent to 0.15 grams of vanilla seeds," the other flavorist, a man with glasses, replied in a low voice.

In reality, standard high-concentration vanilla paste isn’t that expensive. Purchased in large wholesale quantities, it costs about 700 to 800 yuan per kilogram.

Baxi’s vanilla ice cream, on the other hand, only used 1.5 grams of vanilla paste per kilogram, for a cost of about one yuan.

Of course, using only 1.5 grams of high-concentration vanilla paste per kilogram of ice cream only provides a slight boost in vanilla flavor. For people with less sensitive palates, it’s even difficult to distinguish between natural vanilla and artificial flavoring.

Using a higher concentration, like in the ice cream before them, would certainly enhance the customer’s tasting experience. This was also one of the selling points used by many high-end restaurants.

The bespectacled flavorist raised his eyebrows slightly. "If our ice cream were to achieve this flavor concentration, we would need to use 10 grams of vanilla paste per kilogram."

Clearly, this was a usage rate that Baxi Company couldn’t afford. After all, the retail price for a kilogram of their vanilla ice cream was only 33 yuan, and the wholesale price for distributors was even lower, generally around 28 yuan.

The cost for 1.5 grams of vanilla paste was 1.125 yuan.

The cost for 10 grams of vanilla paste would be 7.5 yuan.

This would cause their costs to skyrocket, eating into their already slim gross profit margin.

Therefore, Li Du and the others didn’t believe this level of vanilla ice cream could be sold cheaply. If their company had the brand recognition of Haagen-Dazs, they could, of course, use better raw materials or a higher concentration of vanilla paste, and then offset some of the ingredient costs with a higher price.

Besides the people from Baxi Company, representatives from Five Rams Ice Cream Factory, Meiji Ice Cream Company, and Haagen-Dazs Company were also quietly discussing the various desserts and drinks at the tasting stations.