The brown sugar ginger tea that Cixi used to warm her stomach and regulate her menstruation has now transformed into the best-selling "Fei Chang Nuan" ginger tea on the Internet, which sounds very tempting.

Following the popularity of cultural and creative products on the "Forbidden City Taobao", the 600-year-old Forbidden City has taken aim at consumers' taste buds again. Forbidden City food called "My Heart" has recently been put on sale on Tmall.

Born out of palace cuisine, it focuses on purely handmade products and has a down-to-earth marketing style. As soon as it was launched, the Forbidden City delicacies captured the hearts of many young people.

The creative "Imperial Food" attracted praise from foodies. Not long ago, a press conference was held when the Forbidden City food "My Heart" was put on sale on Tmall.

This is the first time in the history of the Forbidden City that food is sold in such a high-profile manner.

The foods with palace characteristics released this time include smiling chestnuts, imperial concubine cakes, Bazhen porridge, five-nut cakes, ginger tea, etc.

What makes them unique is that they are combined with the cultural connotation of the Forbidden City and originated from authentic palace recipes.

"My Heart" Tmall flagship store currently has 15 products on the shelves.

Looking at monthly sales, in the first two days of this month, 9 food items sold more than 100 items. The most popular chaise cake, packed in 215 grams, sells for 48 yuan, with monthly sales of 447 boxes.

"In ancient times, kings personally conquered and guarded the country, and I can also quietly protect the beauties in the harem to always be full." These product introductions, which have a palace flavor but are still humorous, coupled with exquisite packaging, have attracted many users to like it.

"It has good looks and connotation." "The packaging is so exquisite that it tastes very good and is cost-effective!" Chen Gang, the person in charge of the operation of "My Heart" Tmall flagship store, said that most of the products have been very popular after more than a month of sales.

welcome.

He believes that this is not only because the food "brings the aura of the Forbidden City", but also because all the food is handmade and of excellent quality.

For example, the imperial concubine cake is produced by Master Yang Hongnian of a time-honored brand in Tianjin, and the "Tingting Yuli" chestnuts come from Gongli produced in Yanshan using ancient methods.

The main consumers of "My Heart" are young people.

"There are so many repeat customers, which is beyond our expectation." The headache for Chen Gang now is that all the food is strictly handmade, and the hot-selling food has always been in short supply. The rose cake was even out of stock for several days some time ago. In the end, he had to pre-order before shipping.

Professor Yuan Hongqi, 66, is a co-consultant of the Forbidden City Food.

Before retiring, she was a research librarian at the Palace Museum, specializing in the study of palace life and food in the Palace Museum. She has been there for 41 years.

It was she who unearthed the ancient palace diet recipes bit by bit from the vast old archives of the Forbidden City, and opened up a new way for the Forbidden City food to reach consumers.

Today, Yuan Hongqi is still studying food from the Accident Palace in a secluded courtyard in the Forbidden City.

In the early years, because the files were not organized, Yuan Hongqi could only collect files by hand copying. From 1978 to 2002, it took 24 years to copy the files. The copied files could be placed in several boxes, and the contents involved various emperors of the Qing Dynasty.

daily diet, etc.

Emperors are also ordinary people. From these bits and pieces of food archives, Yuan Hongqi discovered the process of the refinement and changes of the palace diet in the Qing Dynasty, and also compiled a large number of ancient palace recipes.

"But the 'paper stuff' has no taste." Although the Forbidden City has had the idea of ??making palace food before, it has never been able to do so.

These precious ancient recipes for palace food are still just written in black and white, sleeping in historical materials.

This is also the regret in Yuan Hongqi's heart.

This time, the Forbidden City has seized on the consumer trend and officially commercialized these royal dishes, and "My Heart" has finally appeared.

Yuan Hongqi's regrets over the years have been made up for by seeing the food eaten in the palace in the past turned into lively and fragrant snacks and reaching ordinary consumers through e-commerce platforms.

The greatest characteristic of palace food is its adaptability to young tastes and yet to be proven refined.

Yuan Hongqi said that many palace foods came from the private sector, but after entering the palace, the selection of ingredients and cooking techniques became more sophisticated.

Historically, the "Manufacturing Office" of the imperial palace represented royal standards and specifications, and traditional craftsmen represented by time-honored brands would produce and produce in accordance with these standards.

Chen Gang said that the production of Forbidden City food still follows the palace route.

Both the ingredients and the production process are carefully selected.

For example, in rose cakes, the roses used come from Miaofeng Mountain in western Beijing, and the roses here have historically been tributes.

In terms of technology, the research and development and mass production of Forbidden City food are all completed by time-honored brands.

For example, the "Fei Chang Nuan" ginger tea and ginger drink is inherited by Shouquanzhai, which has a history of more than 200 years in Zhejiang.

This is also an opportunity for time-honored brands that urgently need the attention of young consumers and hope to upgrade their brands.

Ding Huimin, an expert on the Expert Committee for the Protection and Promotion of Chinese Time-honored Brands of the Ministry of Commerce, expressed the hope that by creating Forbidden City food, traditional time-honored brands can show new vitality.

Backed by the IP (intellectual property) rich mine of the Forbidden City, Forbidden City Food has huge room for expansion.

Chen Gang introduced that "My Heart" will continue to enrich food categories in the future and launch palace meals with more seasonal characteristics.

However, although Forbidden City Food has made great efforts in marketing and product development, whether the taste can really attract young consumers for a long time still needs to be verified by the market.