Travel to ancient times and become rich women with your bestie

Chapter 222 Peppermint Essential Oil

"Second Aunt! Where did you say you saw roses before? Tell me!"

"I never said that. Don't tell me I never saw a rose."

"Second Aunt, our two families are the closest, you can't just focus on making money for your family..."

A young woman chasing an older woman hurried past the two men, allowing them to overhear the conversation.

While I felt amused, I also felt relieved. At least it showed that roses did exist and they could make rose-flavored desserts.

After informing everyone about the matter, the two went straight home. As for those families who were not informed, they believed that they would all know within two hours.

Even if this group of people didn't say anything in order to make more money for themselves, seeing so many people picking mint leaves and rose petals, one could guess that they were planning to sell them for money.

When the time comes, if you ask around, you'll find out that they are collecting things here.

What they have to do now is to wash the steamer that was ordered last time and prepare for distillation.

The kitchen at home was too small, so Zheng Yuan and Duan Minmin decided to go to the workshop. First, it was more spacious, and second, Mr. Chen used to make his own liquor, so if there was any problem, they could ask him to help.

The two men carried the things to the workshop. Just as they put the steamer down, many people came, all of whom were there to give them mint leaves.

Zheng Yuan and Duan Minmin were impressed by the speed and called out Old Lady Chen to collect the things with Duan Minmin. The main reason was that they were not very familiar with using the scale and were afraid of delaying things.

Zheng Yuan went back to get saltpeter, and then made preparations with Mr. Chen.

There aren't many mint leaves delivered this time. They must have been picked from their own farm. I wanted to see if they were really being sold at such a high price before deciding whether to pick them somewhere else.

Seeing that the first person actually received the money at eight cents per pound, the eyes of the people queuing behind him lit up, and they were all thinking about where to find more money later.

There weren't many people delivering mint leaves this time, and they were all collected and stored in a short while. There were only seven or eight kilograms in total, but there were actually two large baskets.

Eight cents per pound sounds very expensive, but in reality you may not be able to collect a pound even if you spend half a day picking.

Duan Minmin and Old Mrs. Chen moved the things to the kitchen door, then fetched some water, washed the mint leaves twice, and put them aside to dry.

Old Master Chen had already set up the steamer inside, and Zheng Yuan had made a large basin of ice, waiting for it to condense.

Everyone in this room is from Old Chen's family. They already knew that this ice was invented by the two of them, so they don't need to avoid them when doing things.

Once the mint has dried out its surface moisture, you can start making it.

Zheng Yuan and Duan Minmin spread the mint leaves evenly on the bottom of the steamer according to the process they remembered, then put the cleaned pot on it, added ice cubes into it and planned to let Grandpa Chen light the fire and start steaming.

"Wait a minute, are you planning to start steaming?" Old Master Chen had been watching from the side without saying anything, but when he saw the two were about to light the fire, he hurriedly spoke up to stop them.

"What's wrong, Dad?" The two looked at Grandpa Chen in confusion.

"You haven't even sealed it properly, yet you're planning on steaming it. You need to put a layer of wet cloth here." Old Man Chen pointed to the upper pot used for condensation, and then pointed to the place where the pot and steamer were in contact below.

"If it's not sealed well, as soon as the water below rises, the air will escape, and what comes out will be pure water vapor."

"Yes, yes, we were careless. We didn't think of this. Fortunately, Dad is here today, otherwise our work would be in vain. But how do we seal it?"

In fact, it is not the two of them who are to blame. The main reason is that the distiller they used before were all made of glass, and the condensers, flasks and other things were all sealed, so there was no need to worry about the sealing problem.

"It seems that you haven't prepared anything. Shitou, go back to the warehouse and get the two or three pieces of cloth that I used for distillation in previous years. Oh, and bring a bag of bran with you."

After receiving the order, Shitou put down the toothpaste can in his hand and ran home.

The two were a little confused. If they were not going to seal it, why did they have to bring cloth and bran?

It was not until Shitou came back with the things that the old man spread the wet cloth strips on the contact area between the steamer and the pot, and sprinkled the rice bran evenly on the edge of the pot. Only then did the two of them sigh at how profound the wisdom of the ancients was.

Isn’t a wet cloth dipped in water the best sealing tool? Putting rice bran on it further enhances the sealing performance and it is also easy to obtain.

Everything is ready, now it's just a matter of fire and time.

Old man Chen helped the two to light the fire, and the three of them stared at the condenser tube of the steamer without blinking. The two of them specifically asked Carpenter Li to make this tube longer to prevent insufficient condensation in the pot above.

However, the pipe was made of bamboo, so it was difficult to see what was inside. The three of them could only stare at the water outlet.

"Tick!"

There was a clear sound of water dripping into the basin. At this moment, there was no better sound than this.

The three of them hurried forward and saw that liquid was indeed flowing out of the water outlet.

"Tick, tick..." As the first drop of distillation dripped, the following distillations rushed out one after another.

Soon the whole kitchen was filled with a rich mint aroma, and my mind felt a lot clearer.

Less than ten kilograms of mint were distilled in a short while, but looking at the contents in the basin, the two men frowned.

Although I knew that the rate of essential oil distilled would not be very high, I did not expect it to be so low.

There is only a thin layer of essential oil floating on half a basin of pure water. Although the essential oil content in toothpaste does not need to be that much, it is too little. I am afraid that even a hundred bottles cannot produce this.

Looking at the thin layer of essential oil, they were a little discouraged. How many mint leaves would be needed to produce this amount of essential oil?

Or maybe dry and grind the mint leaves and put them in?

But they soon rejected this idea. It would be fine to grind mint leaves into powder and put them into tooth powder, but putting them into toothpaste would probably speed up the deterioration of the toothpaste, which would not be worth the loss.

Just when the two were worried, another group of people came to deliver mint leaves. Duan Minmin went out and collected them with Old Mrs. Chen.

This time we harvested much more than last time, a total of 25 kilograms, filling several large baskets.

But no one has ever sent this rose, so I guess it must be hard to find.

Looking at the mint leaves piled up like a small mountain, the two men cheered up and prepared to finish distilling them and see how the situation goes.

We have already collected so much, and it is not possible to give up halfway now. If the oil yield is low, we can just distill more. At worst, we can set the price of these upgraded models higher.

Although ordinary people may not buy it, the target customers of the upgraded version are originally the rich and powerful, so even if the price is a little higher, as long as the marketing is good, it should not be a problem to sell it.

Besides, there is not much essential oil, but there is a lot of hydrosol. Hydrosol is a good thing. When the time comes, I can sell this thing and at least I can make back my investment.

After figuring this out, the two of them stopped thinking about it and quickly washed and dried the mint leaves and put them in the steamer to distill them.

By the time we had lunch, all the mint leaves that had been collected had been distilled, and nearly thirty kilograms of mint produced about 150 milliliters of essential oil.

But the good news is that I got three big pots of mint hydrosol, and all the ordinary toothpaste has been canned.