Liubiju Sauce Garden, located at No. 3 Grain Store Street outside the Qianmen Gate, is one of the oldest and most prestigious long-established brands in Beijing. Liubiju was founded in the ninth year of Jiajing (1530) of the Ming Dynasty, and has a history of more than 490 years.
Liubiju is famous for its pickles and is also the oldest and most famous sauce garden in Beijing. Liubiju has 12 kinds of traditional products, namely thin yellow sauce, spread soy sauce, sweet sauce radish, sweet sauce cucumber, sweet sauce snail, sweet sauce black cabbage, sweet sauce warehouse melon, sweet sauce ginger sprouts, sweet sauce eight treasures, sweet sauce Shi coriander, sweet sauce melon, sugar garlic. Among them, the sweet sauce black cabbage and sweet sauce Eight Treasures are the most famous.
These products are bright in color, rich in sauce, crisp and tender, salty and sweet, not only an indispensable dish on the dinner table of old Beijingers, but also loved by countless military and political leaders and celebrities, and were selected as imperial food for the court as early as the Qing Dynasty. In order to facilitate delivery, the Qing court also gave Liubiju red tassel hats and yellow coats. During the Republic of China period, Liubiju still maintained a significant reputation.
After the founding of New China, Liubiju has made great progress, and its products have not only sold well in China, but also opened up the international market. It is said that when former Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka visited China for the first time, he designated his secretary to buy Rokubiju pickles and bring them back to Japan. After the reform and opening up, Liubiju ushered in unprecedented development opportunities, with sales networks in the northeast, northwest, north China, Jiangnan and other places, and the products are exported to Japan, Australia, Singapore, Thailand, Canada, the United States and more than a dozen countries and regions in Europe.
The reason why the pickles of Liubiju can not be reduced for hundreds of years and have a reputation is inseparable from its strict adherence to the "six musts" in the "six musts" of the "six musts", fine selection of ingredients and strict production. "Six musts" means "rice must be qi, curved tillers must be solid, Cham blazing must be clean, ceramics must be good, fire must be obtained, water springs must be fragrant". In the production operation process, it can be explained as: the material must be superior, the unloading must be truthful, the production process must be clean, the equipment must be excellent, the heat must be properly mastered, and the spring water must be pure and fragrant. The requirements of the "six musts" can be said to represent the highest requirements of the pickle craft accumulated in ancient China for thousands of years.
First, select the material fine. The raw materials of Liubiju pickles have historically had a fixed origin. Liubiju homemade yellow sauce and sweet noodle sauce, its soybeans are selected from Majuqiao and Tongzhou Yongle store in Fengrun County, where the soybeans are full, yellow and oily. White noodles are selected from Laishui County, west of Beijing, as a first-class wheat, this wheat is sticky, processed by Liubiju itself into fine white noodles, this white noodles are suitable for making sweet noodle sauce. Vegetable procurement also has a fixed base and strict requirements.
Second, the process is strict. According to the old workers of Liubiju, Liubiju has a set of strict operating procedures for making pickles, and all procedures are responsible for by one person. For example, in the production of traditional sauce, the beans are first soaked and steamed, mixed with white noodles, pressed on the mill, then put into the mold, the pad is clothed with feet, then pulled into three strips, chopped into pieces, put on the shelf to code well, sealed with a mat, let it make a natural koji. Before fermentation, it is also necessary to constantly brush off the white hairs on the koji with a brush and put enough brine. When the temperature is suitable, after a volt day (60-80 days), the sauce can be fermented. The preparation of pickles is more stringent. Such as the production of sauce cucumber, the selection of Beijing Daxing production of fresh and tender cucumbers, 4-6 per kilogram, must be "top flower with thorns", but also "strip smooth", after pickling and then with 500 grams of homemade noodle sauce sauce, winter to 10 to 15 days to make a jar of Liubiju sweet sauce cucumber. It is this strict operating procedure that guarantees the quality of Liubiju pickles.
Third, Liubiju has learned from hundreds of years of experience in opening stores and is self-contained in operation and management. One of them is to attach great importance to the norms of the employment system. Legend has it that Liu Biju once stipulated that the store does not need "three masters" (that is, young masters, aunts and uncles), and most of the people at the front shop counter are from Linfen and Xiangfen Counties, Shanxi. Liubiju also has extremely strict management of funds. No one is allowed to overspend or borrow funds in the store for a long time, and there is no debt to operate externally. The strict management system avoids the waste of funds and manpower, and lays a solid foundation for the development of Liubiju.
In 2008, "Liubiju Pickle Making Technique" was successfully shortlisted for the national intangible cultural heritage protection list.
Relying on bottles of pickles sold at a low profit, after a hundred years of ups and downs and changes, Liu must rely not only on opportunities, but also on the business philosophy of following the ancient precepts and virtue and pragmatism. Strict rules and regulations and management procedures have allowed Liubiju to exude new vitality under the impact of the tide of the market economy. In the years to come, Liubiju people will continue to carry forward this industrious and pragmatic spirit, and pass on the old brand of Liubiju together with its entrepreneurial spirit forever.
(Source: Beijing Social Science Popularization Series "Dashilar Charm Time-honored Brand"; the original text has been deleted)