From the memory of the times to the cycle of travel
China has a rich food culture, and "what to eat" and "how to eat" constitute an important identity for people, especially on specific days, specific foods and tastes, forming a common memory of the times.
Back in the 80s of the last century, the American writer Paul Soroux saw a jubilant world on the rumbling green train: people were in the swaying carriages, enthusiastically eating melon seeds, drinking tea and chatting, and playing poker. When it comes to the meal, everyone in the waiting hall and in the carriage, everyone carefully carries instant noodles through the crowd and returns to their seats, which has also become a collective ritual and activity in the carriage.
Especially on the Spring Festival train, people not only ate the noodles, but also raised their faces to drink the noodle soup. This last bite of noodle soup is undoubtedly a sublimating part of the whole meal, and it also gives instant noodles an extra meaning in the winter near the Spring Festival: it not only warms the stomach, but also creates a taste of homesickness and homecoming.
Nowadays, the train has been greatly accelerated, people's living standards have been continuously improved, and the use of instant noodles has also changed, but whether it is a young couple staying at home to make noodles, or making a bowl of noodles after overtime to relax for a while, the hot noodle soup still gives people a warm enjoyment. People also have more demands for instant noodles: more than convenience, more delicious and quality.
Taking the light of domestic products as an example, the White Elephant Soup series has become a hit in the online channel of fast food, among which the White Elephant Authentic Old Hen Noodle Soup has been the No. 1 seller in the country for five consecutive years¹.
In fact, it is not difficult to understand the "national popularity" of authentic old hen noodle soup. Chicken soup has been used in Chinese food culture since ancient times. As early as the Qianjia period, Yuan Mei wrote in the "Suiyuan Food List" that "chicken is the most powerful, and all vegetables depend on it", saying the characteristics of chicken to bring out the original taste. Food writer Michael Pollan wrote in "How Cooking Connects Nature and Civilization" that the reason why humans generally like to use chicken to make stock is that the chicken bones are relatively tender, and whether it is used in vegetables or sauces, it can provide more gum, and then enrich the contents of dishes and sauces.
As a new traffic TOP, White Elephant's authentic old hen noodle soup not only insists on using wheat from China's gold producing areas as raw materials, but also uses more than 1 year old hen to slowly boil the broth for 6 hours to replace the powder packet sauce packet, so as to distinguish it from the traditional instant noodle area, establish a new standard and new category of nutritional cognition, so that instant noodles, a national food, keep up with the pace of the times and are still loved by the public.
From the swaying train to today's social platforms, instant noodles have become more topical and life-like from a quick stomach. With "white elephant" as the keyword, the comment section of the popular post gathered thousands of comments, which became an exchange meeting for fans, and the 27-year-old domestic brand faced the market and received enthusiastic feedback from the younger generation of consumers on taste and quality.
Behind the gift of the market, it can be felt that the white elephant is not only the lucky one who is seen under the light trend of domestic products, but also the "elephant" who has been consolidating solid brand barriers and accumulating strength with technology and products for 27 years. In addition to R&D capabilities, White Elephant's products can also satisfy consumers' taste buds and even have social attributes, diversified product series and deep cultivation of soup and spicy assets, White Elephant continues to explore the food characteristics and culture of various places, and strive to restore local cuisine, inherit authentic Chinese flavor, so that the product line is rolled out and connected into a Chinese noodle map belonging to White Elephant.
The Spring Festival of 2024 is approaching again, whether in the south or in the north, a bowl of hot noodle soup is still charming, which is the story of white elephant Chinese noodles, and it is also the long-term vitality and resilience of Chinese consumer enterprises that can go through the cycle.
From pioneering to leading
On January 15, 2024, the new generation of White Elephant Soup Delicious "Zhenwei Soup House" series was officially released, and it has been five full years since the White Elephant Soup Delicious Old Hen Noodle Soup was launched. As the pioneer of "old hen noodle soup", White Elephant has actually been low-key in the "soup" track for many years.
What kind of chicken noodle soup is authentic, what are the doorways, and which ones are exquisite?
Back to the front-line R&D team, Zhou Cheng (pseudonym) has worked in White Elephant for many years and is a member of the core R&D team of the Tang Haoyu series. In the past few years, Zhou Cheng's R&D team, "It can be said that it is really a waste of sleep and forgetting to eat, white and black every day, 5+2, which is not an exaggeration." In the morning, we basically went into the laboratory at 8:00 with our bags on our backs, and the main work was to experiment, taste, discuss, and repeat ourselves. ”
From the beginning of research and development, White Elephant's goal for this soup noodle is to make the product itself a classic, familiar and friendly old hen soup flavor noodle in the traditional cognition of consumers: authentic, homely, delicious, pure, fresh and healthy.
In the process of research and development of white elephant soup and delicious old hen noodle soup products, wheat from China's golden producing areas is selected as raw materials, and old hens that are more than 1 year old are used to make soup, and real meat and real ingredients are seasoned with natural spices. Zhou Cheng introduced: "The new generation of white elephant soup is delicious 'Zhenwei Soup House' series continues to upgrade in soup, noodles and dishes, and the recipes and production links of all soup raw materials, pastries and side dishes are 100% guaranteed that no preservatives and trans fatty acids are added. ”
Delicious soup should not only start from the "soup", but also take the "noodles" as the core, chicken, soup, noodles three ingredients, each ingredient selection of materials are very exquisite, each ingredient in the production of the importance is also comparable, indispensable.
For example, the noodle soup of mountain mushrooms in the "Zhenwei Soup House" series needs to select old hens of more than 1 year old for each package. One year is the most suitable time after verification, if the time is too long or too short, the chicken will easily become very woody or unflavored.
Mountain mushroom old hen noodle soup restores the traditional Chinese soup process of home stewing, and each bag of soup stock in each bag of noodles is formed after a variety of processes and 6 hours of slow boiling, just to restore a good bowl of soup. Put the chicken into the pot and boil for 6 hours to fully release the umami substances contained in the chicken, and lock the original taste and nutrition of the ingredients into every drop of the soup.
"Let the noodles become more exquisite" is the expectation of the White Elephant R&D personnel. Whether it is mountain mushroom old hen noodle soup or white jade radish beef noodle soup, each ingredient is finally sublimated in the careful selection and boiling of white elephants, and the soup and noodles achieve and complement each other, which not only meets people's pursuit of delicious and delicious under consumption upgrading, but also leads the trend of fast food health and nutrition in the current era.
The sense of ritual in this bowl of noodle soup reaches its peak at the moment when it is drunk. It is like the epitome of Chinese soup culture, holding this bowl of noodle soup to warm the body, stomach and heart, no matter where they are, it makes diners feel as if they have found the taste and memory that belong to their hometown and home.
From powder sauce to dashi
"Lu's Spring and Autumn Season: The Original Flavor" writes the true meaning of "simmering soup": "The origin of all tastes, water is the beginning." Five flavors and three materials, nine boiling and nine changes, fire for the age. "A good bowl of soup needs to be tempered over time to get its freshness. However, for a long time, there was a stereotype in people's minds that the "soup" in instant noodles was unhealthy, or that "instant noodles" itself was synonymous with unhealth.
In 2003, based on this market situation, Yao Zhongliang, chairman of White Elephant, grasped the pain point of the lack of health of instant noodles in the hearts of consumers and the love of Chinese for soup noodles, aimed at the demand for "soup", focused the product on soup materials, and developed "White Elephant 1 Yuan Big Bone Noodles". Since then, White Elephant has become one of the pioneers of the bone broth instant noodle category in China.
As an advantageous category that continues to be deeply cultivated, White Elephant continues to innovate in bone broth instant noodles, adding the concept of soup, and the first generation of White Elephant Soup delicious series has added more flavors such as old hen soup and spicy beef soup on the basis of bone soup noodles, creating a new track of old hen soup noodles, and its listing once again fills the market gap of "soup noodles" in the industry.
The new generation of White Elephant Soup is delicious and the "Zhenwei Soup House" series follows the characteristics of the product series, replacing the powder packet with the soup bag and sauce packet, which is also the judgment made by the White Elephant product research and development team after many years of research. In the traditional cognition of consumers, the powder bag has always existed in the image of seasonings and additives, and the sauce bag will make consumers feel that "the greasy feeling is heavier", and after the powder bag and sauce bag are brewed, the clear soup is less watery, and the noodles are only reduced to "eating noodles", and the soup is not suitable for drinking.
To this end, R&D personnel and product managers "go out" and "bring in" with both hands, and they flew all over China to taste and study local special soups and ponder product prototypes. In fact, every product on the market, every flavor needs to go through multiple rounds of internal research and testing, screening, and elimination. After the actual sales test of the market, in the end, only the taste with high public acceptance and recognition will be retained.
The main focus of the stock is the logic of "nutrition and health", which is slowly boiled with real bones and meat to form a broth, which can dispel diners' concerns about powder and sauce packets. Cook a bag of "Zhenwei Soup House" of mountain fungus old hen soup noodles, when the aroma fills the whole room, put out a bowl in the steaming room, blow a few times, suck a mouthful of soup base, the thick and rich fragrance comes to the nose, take a piece of chicken while it is hot, let the juice run rampant in the mouth, the taste buds are fainted with a touch of fresh mellow, refreshing, tough, slippery but not greasy, a mouthful with a warm flow down the stomach, enjoy the silky, happiness arises spontaneously.
"The light of domestic products" may only be regarded as a reason. Although the label of "domestic products" can often win the goodwill and support of consumers for a while, but in the long run, the aura of domestic products is not always effective, and the young people who have grown up this generation are more real, rational, and more follow their inner needs, pay more attention to the substantive experience of consumption, and have higher requirements for the aesthetics and quality of products. If the brand wants to achieve Changhong and gain a firm foothold, it must be able to withstand the rigorous scrutiny and inspection of the market.
A key stop in the story of Chinese noodles
In the past 27 years of long and silent cultivation, warmth is the background color of the white elephant. Unremitting technology research and development, persistent conscience management, respect for the original natural nutrients and taste experience of food, respect for consumers' feelings and choices of food, low-key and down-to-earth efforts in product research and development and technological innovation, so that today's "Internet celebrity elephant" has the confidence to go through the cycle and win the bargaining chips to stand firm in the market.
From January 26th, White Elephant Chinese Noodles launched the offline activity of "White Elephant Chinese Noodles, Spring Festival Warm Travel", and the "White Elephant Warm Station" will be opened in nearly 30 high-speed rail stations across the country, providing free white elephant soup and delicious old hen soup noodles, masks and other items for the Spring Festival returnees, and launching a number of heart-warming services such as luggage care.
The dotted post stations, one station on the map, one station after the next, relay care. No matter which city you are in, you may be able to find the taste of your hometown on the way home - a bowl of hometown taste "noodles" on the road, although it is not as bright as the light and "noodle soup" in the small home, but with warmth on the way home, even if you are alone, you are no longer lonely.
The speed at which products in the fast food industry appear has skyrocketed, but there are also many that have quietly disappeared in the market competition. For China's convenience food industry, White Elephant's "delicious soup" product has established a new benchmark, which has gone far in years of deep cultivation and has been continuously iteratively upgraded.
Looking back on the way forward, the offline activity of the Spring Festival "Warm Station" planned by White Elephant is also a cherishing and retrospective of the collective memory of the train scene, and replenishing the energy for people in different regions with a rich product map.
The carriage briefly gathered people from all over the world, with their own stories, and when they arrived at the station, they packed their bags and went in different directions, and everyone stayed at this moment and continued to write new pages for their stories. The train not only connects the other country with the hometown, but also contains the parting and reunion, the abundant emotions and the world.
Although the competition in the convenience food industry will intensify in the future, it will also become more and more prosperous. On the long slope and thick snow, the "elephant" dances, telling the warm story that touches people's hearts at the warm node, and then continues to move forward in a down-to-earth and simple way. In this book, which tells the story of Chinese noodles, the current white elephant only opens a romantic prologue, and the future page numbers will continue to be written and answered. On February 2, the Douyin Chinese New Year's Eve party named by the white elephant will be broadcast. Whether it is a bowl of noodle soup on the way back or a party on Chinese New Year's Eve, White Elephant hopes to accompany more Chinese people and welcome another spring and autumn in the hope of love and hope.
Note: 1. The data comes from Frost & Sullivan; according to the omni-channel ex-factory sales (bags/barrels) of various brands of old hen soup noodles in the Chinese instant noodle market in Chinese mainland every year from 2018 to 2022; old hen soup refers to packaged instant noodles containing soup packets or seasoning packets made from old hens; the survey will be completed in November 2023.
Source: Southern Weekly
Review: Yu Zaozao
Editor-in-charge: Huo Yue
Editor: Hu Na