Now when it comes to spicy tiao, everyone may think of Weilong, which seems to be the only spicy tiao brand. But when I was in school, spicy strips were a general term for a type of snack. In that era when the spicy strip market was booming and toys were popular, as long as you went to the canteen near the school, there would be a row of spicy strips on the table. Tang Monk Meat, Stinky Dried Beef, Dengying Shredded Beef, Big Pulled Tenders, and a bunch of other things I can’t name, Weilong is just one of them. I wonder if you have ever eaten spicy strips other than Weilong? So how did Wei Long have the last laugh in this battle royale? How come other brands that once dominated the canteens have disappeared? In this issue, let us review this spicy war.

The predecessor of spicy strips is the traditional delicacy Jiangdong in Pingjiang, Hunan, which is a snack made of dried tofu and hot sauce. In 1998, floods occurred in Hunan, and the output of soybeans, the main raw material, dropped sharply. Some people in Pingjiang came up with ideas and replaced dried tofu with noodles, improved the taste of sauces, and invented spicy strips. Since Hunan did not produce wheat at that time, As a result, a large number of people from Pingjiang moved their positions and set up factories in Henan, a major agricultural province. The era of barbaric growth of spicy strips came. On average, five spicy strip factories are established every day, and the speed is shocking. There are Li Xiaopeng spicy strips and Mao Jinsong spicy strips. Among them, an entrepreneur named Liu Weiping later founded Weilong spicy strips. However, some have left their hometowns, and some have stuck to their guns. Some spicy strip manufacturers have chosen to stay in Pingjiang to build factories, and have gradually expanded in the local area. The most representative one is Yufeng. At this point, China's spicy strips market has become polarized between the north and the south. In addition to brands, there is also taste. The spicy strips in the south are spicier, while the spicy strips in the north are sweeter. It is said that one brand accidentally added some sugar to the spicy strips. , the result unlocked the student market, and also left an unsolved question for eternity: should authentic spicy strips be sweet and spicy or purely spicy?

However, the hygiene problem of spicy strips does exist, especially since so many spicy strip factories have emerged in a short period of time, and the products sell for around 50 cents. I hope they can make something clean and hygienic. It’s really hard to force someone to do it. Behind all this is the lack of unified standards and regulations in this industry. Take additives as an example. Ningxia believes that spicy strips are convenience foods and cyclamate is not allowed to be added. However, some places in Henan believe that spicy strips are high-end and can add cyclamate in a limited amount.

From today’s perspective, Weilong is a company bursting with Internet thinking. Don’t you dislike Latiao being dirty? Then I will upgrade the factory and change the packaging, so now the packaging background of Weilong that you see is white, and I just have to write "clean" on the packaging bag. And since some people are dissatisfied with the low-end spicy strips, we followed the hot trend and played with various skills. Not only did we link up with the most popular runaway comics at the time, we also recreated Zhang Xinyu's Northeastern Wind Broken Flower Group and used snakeskin bags as the The zero era of inspiration. In short, wherever there are hot spots, there is Weilong.

Why are the spicy strips brands that I ate when I was a kid missing? Finally, in 2019, the State Administration for Market Regulation issued an announcement on strengthening the quality and safety supervision of seasoned noodle products. Spicy noodles are uniformly managed according to the production license category of convenience food seasoned noodle products. Since then, spicy noodles have had unified national production licensing standards. Latiao 2.0 has arrived. In this competition in the new era, Weilong, who is better at marketing, finally has the upper hand. Although there are also overturning incidents, Weilong still comes out because of his strong ability to create rumors and publicity. It became popular, and later it was successfully launched on the market, which made many people directly equate the word Weilong with spicy strips.

However, I found that the current Latiao Jianghu is not just a traditional player. Outsiders such as Baicaowei and Three Squirrels have also left the industry. You can do it for the dragon, but I can’t. And their mature packaged foods Technology and the reputation accumulated over the years may also be potential threats to traditional players like Wei Long. Finally, I would like to share with you an experience. Just to write this question, I went to the supermarket downstairs and bought a few packs of spicy strips, but I couldn’t finish any of them. It’s not that their taste has become worse, but that I, who have been spoiled by potato chips, biscuits, pistachio cake, Coke, and Snow Mei Niang over the years, no longer think spicy strips are a rare delicacy like I did when I was a child. Hey, Latiao is still the same Latiao, but I am no longer the me in elementary school.