The Stepmother’s Counterattack: Raising a Child in a Bygone Era
Chapter 227 - 226: New Product Launch

Chapter 227: Chapter 226: New Product Launch

Shen Mingzhu was purchasing apples to prepare apple gummies.

In this era, candy was both a rare commodity and an indispensable basic need for the people.

People bought candy for social exchanges, for wedding and anniversary celebrations, and also for holidays and festivals.

A single piece of candy carried the childhood dreams of countless children.

The candy market at the time mainly consisted of milk candy, crispy candy, and hard candies with fruit flavors. There were some gummies available, like taffy, lard candy, tangerine candy, and corn candy. Aside from these, there were hardly any other types of fruit gummies to be seen.

At least, none could be found in Fengcheng.

She was confident that with her knowledge and skills from forty years in the future, she would definitely be able to carve out a niche for herself in the candy market.

This was just her first step in the plan.

Once the apple gummies were successful in capturing the market, she planned to develop even more snacks made from apples, gradually expand their distribution, and promote them nationwide, which could in turn boost the income of local fruit farmers.

Though she was but an ordinary woman, she still wanted to do her utmost to achieve something extraordinary.

The process of making fruit gummies was not complicated and the ingredients were simple, only requiring sugar, lemon, and edible gelatin.

There are many types of sugar that can be used for candy making: sucrose, glucose, rock sugar, maltose, white sugar, and so on.

However, for making candy, these sugars were not used; instead, starch syrup was needed.

Compared to sucrose and maltose, starch syrup had a milder sweetness, a certain viscosity, and moisture retention properties. More importantly, it was very cheap, which could greatly reduce production costs.

Lemons, given the current season, were impossible to obtain fresh, but citric acid could be used as a substitute.

...

Opinions on Shen Mingzhu’s concept and ideas varied among everyone.

Pei Yang naturally supported her unconditionally.

Du Juan and Shen Chaobei were not against her making apple gummies; they just felt that since a new product had already been launched this month, the focus should be on making a profit from potato chips before considering developing new products.

Shen Hongmei remained neutral, neither opposing nor supporting the idea.

Shen Mingzhu also expressed her reasons for the urgency to create new products, "There is one month left before the Spring Festival. If we act quickly, we might be able to market the product before the festival. Everyone knows how well candy sells during the Spring Festival without me having to say it, right?"

"Just think about it, when we return to the village for the New Year, and the villagers are all eating apple candy produced by our food factory. What a proud moment that would be."

It had to be said, Shen Mingzhu had precisely grasped the couple’s pain point of "returning home in glory."

Thus, Du Juan and her husband were persuaded and agreed with Shen Mingzhu’s idea.

With a unanimous opinion, the next step was action.

In addition to the raw materials needed for making fruit gummies, they also needed a commercial wall-breaking machine, known in this era as a crushing machine, a stainless steel pot for boiling sugar, and molds for the candy pieces.

Whether it was materials or equipment, money was needed for everything.

The funds on the books had all been invested in the production of potato chips, and the goods that had been sent out had not yet returned any revenue, leaving less than a hundred yuan remaining on the books.

The family’s savings, however, still amounted to over three thousand yuan, and a portion of that could be transferred for use.

After consulting with Pei Yang, Shen Mingzhu borrowed a thousand yuan in the name of the company’s legal representative for the production at the food factory.

With the money in hand, everyone set out to their tasks under Shen Mingzhu’s arrangement.

Pei Yang went to the sugar factory to purchase starch syrup and fine granulated sugar, while Du Juan went to the food market to buy edible gelatin, citric acid, and preservatives.

Gummies, unlike hard candy, have a high moisture content. Without adding a proper amount of preservatives, they would easily spoil and deteriorate.

Shen Mingzhu herself went to the equipment factory to buy a juicer, and then to a steel factory to custom order stainless steel pots and molds.

Stainless steel pots and molds required a certain production time, and before the equipment was all in place, Shen Mingzhu had already conducted several trials with different ratios. Once she determined the final formula, she began training the candy-making workers.

Since she also had to oversee the production of potato chips, Shen Mingzhu only transferred two workers to the candy production team.

With her included, there were three people in total. Shen Chaobei could come over to help when he was free, and they decided to get the first batch of apple candies produced for now.

If the response was good, they could recruit more manpower later.

Before juicing, the apples needed to be peeled and cored.

Apples that had been peeled were prone to oxidation; they could be soaked in light salt water for 5 to 10 minutes before peeling to prevent oxidization and keep them fresh for a long time after peeling.

The peeled apple pieces were then crushed into puree by a grinder. When poured into pots for cooking, once the puree boiled, corn syrup, citric acid, and pectin would be added in sequence to continue the cooking process.

This step was crucial, and Shen Mingzhu had attempted it many times before mastering the melting point threshold.

When the apple puree and sugar in the pot perfectly fused into a gel state, it was poured into a rectangular stainless steel tray, flattened, and then after it solidified to a certain extent, it was pressed into beautiful shapes using molds.

Finally, they were stirred with fine granulated sugar, cooled, and the apple candies were considered finished.

Shen Mingzhu did not rush to sell or continue production but instead selected several bags of samples to send to the Industry and Commerce Bureau for record filing and to third-party organizations for testing.

This was the necessary procedure for adding new products.

Both record filing and testing took time, and during the wait, Shen Mingzhu wasn’t idle either.

She sent the apple candies to relatives and friends, asking them to promote the product while tasting it.

First, she made an appointment with Zhong Qing, but Zhong Qing seemed to be busy these days and wouldn’t be available to meet her until next week.

Thus, Shen Mingzhu decided to deliver them to Li Bing first.

Li Bing was also a straightforward person. Upon learning of her intention, Li Bing immediately told her to take the candies to the nurses’ duty room.

"Sister Bing, I really can’t thank you enough. You’re always the first one to help me out whenever I have something going on."

Li Bing waved her hand off, "Don’t mention it, I’ve taken plenty of advantages from you. Every time you launch a new product, I get to eat for free, so doing this little favor is the least I can do."

"Alright then, hand me the stuff. There are a lot of people in the duty room right now. If I take it in and share it with them, won’t they all know about your new product?"

Shen Mingzhu nodded in gratitude and handed over the two paper bags she was holding.

"Sister Bing, each bag has three pounds. You take one home, and the other you can share in the duty room."

Li Bing looked at the two large bags of candies, feeling a bit embarrassed, "Oh, why did you bring so much? I’m afraid we won’t be able to finish eating it by the New Year."

"If you can’t finish it, just eat it slowly, and you can save money on buying sweets for the New Year."

"Okay, thanks a lot."

Shen Mingzhu was just about to respond with ’no thanks needed’ when a somewhat familiar voice suddenly rang in her ear—

"Long time no see."

Shen Mingzhu turned her head and saw Yan Yi a few steps away, looking surprised.

Li Bing hastily stepped forward to greet, "Professor Yan, are you here for a lecture today?"

Hearing Li Bing’s title, a quick look of surprise crossed Shen Mingzhu’s face.

Then she thought about it; if Yan Yi could become the chief expert in psychology, how could his education level be low?

Therefore, it was clear that Yan Yi had another purpose when he set up the study group back then.

After acknowledging Li Bing’s greeting with a nod, Yan Yi glanced at the two paper bags Li Bing was holding with a smile in his eyes and said to Shen Mingzhu, "I could see you were having a cheerful conversation from afar. Is there something good? I hope you don’t mind sharing with a bystander?"