Cai Zhi Zhai is a time-honored candy store in China. The full name is Suzhou Caizhizhai Candy Store. Located in Guanqian Street, Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province, it has branches in Shanghai and other places. Founded at the end of the 19th century, it is famous both at home and abroad for its wide variety of Soviet-style candies with unique flavors. Caizhizhai produces and sells hundreds of candies. Mainly include various pine nut gummies, plum cakes, nine-system tangerine peel, agarwood olives, etc. Its characteristics are exquisite selection of materials, fine processing, rich nutrition, sweetness and deliciousness. It not only has the characteristics of traditional Chinese candy, but also absorbs the advantages of Western candy, making it unique. Certain raw materials in candies are not only delicious, but also have nourishing and tonic effects, integrating pharmacology into sweet foods.

Caizhizhai candy is well known to Suzhou people of all ages. Caizhizhai Candy Shop, located in the east section of Guanqian Street, is a time-honored brand with a history of more than 100 years. In the ninth year of Tongzhi in the Qing Dynasty (1870), Jin Yinzhi (a native of Henan), the founder of Caizhizhai, purchased simple tools such as a sugar stove, a small copper pot, a bluestone table, scissors, and a small amount of candies with a meager capital of 500 copper plates. The raw and auxiliary ingredients are set up at the entrance of the original Wu Shixing Tea Shop at No. 73 Guanqian Street. At first, they only sold zongzi candies, and put a sign on the stall that read "I live in a small sugar stall at the entrance of Dongzhusi Lane, Xuandu". They boiled and cut the candies in public. Because the cut out candy resembles a rice dumpling, it is named Zongzi Candy. Legend has it that this sugar-making technology originated from Xie Yunshan in the late Ming Dynasty as recorded in "Wumen Biaoyin", so it is also called "Xiejia Sugar".

After more than ten years of operation, Jin Yinzhi accumulated some capital. In the 10th year of Guangxu (1884), with the help of his son Jin Yixuan, he established his own store at No. 72 Guanqian Street (now part of Chunyang). It produces and sells candies, roasted seeds and nuts, and preserved fruits, and it continues to this day. No. 72 Guanqian Street was originally Caizhizhai antique store. The original owner and his wife often interacted with Jin Yinzhi and were very friendly. Later, because the couple was old and had no heirs, they planned to return to their hometown in Ningbo to spend their remaining years, so they transferred the lease of the antique shop to Jin Yinzhi. After moving in, Jin's business flourished. In addition to producing and selling Su-style candies and roasted seeds and nuts, they also added Su-style preserves, and the business flourished day by day. However, the store still did not have an official brand name at this time. Customers who came to Guanqian Street originally only knew that this place was the "Cai Zhi Zhai" antique store, so they still called each other casually: "Go to Cai Zhi Zhai to buy candies." Jin Yinzhi followed the trend and officially designated the store as "Caizhizhai". Shortly thereafter, Wang Shunqing Dental Clinic moved next door, and Jin Yinzhi expanded the store into a two-bay medium-sized store and handed over the store management to his eldest son Jin Yixuan.

Legend has it that during the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, when Cai Zhi Zhai was prospering, the Empress Dowager Ci De fell ill, and long-term treatment by the palace doctors failed. The Suzhou Weaving Bureau sent Cao Cangzhou, a famous doctor from Suzhou, to Beijing to diagnose the Empress Dowager's pulse. In addition to prescribing the prescription, Cao also offered the Caizhizhai Fritillary Candies he carried with him as a tribute to Cixi to help with the medicine. After eating it, the condition improved, and the Fritillary Candies were listed as tributes from then on, making Soviet-style candies worth a hundred times as much. Jin Yinzhi made a homemade sign with "Gongtang" carved in the shape of a dragon on a black background and hung it in front of the store, and it became famous ever since. The miraculous saying that "Caizhizhai's secret tribute candy can cure the Queen Mother's disease" is spread everywhere in Suzhou city.

After the claim that Caizhizhaigong Candy could cure the Queen Mother's disease became famous, Jin Yinzhi took advantage of the situation to make a big fuss in promoting the trademark. He specially asked a painter to draw a "Picture of Picking Zhi" as a trademark. The pattern shows an old man holding a crutch, going up the mountain to collect medicine. The basket contains Ganoderma lucidum and fairy grass. Another old man hangs a gourd on his shoulder, implying that there is a panacea inside. It means that the candies and preserves of Caizhizhai have medicinal effects, and regular consumption can ensure health and longevity. From then on, the saying that Caizhizhai was a "half-cup medicinal shop" spread in Wudi. Suzhou-style candies with rich ethnic and local characteristics have also begun to take shape in the Suzhou candy industry represented by Caizhizhai. In the 33rd year of Guangxu's reign (1907), when the Suzhou Confectionery (Fruit) Company was established, Jin Yinzhi was elected as the supervisor.

Caizhizhai's financial resources are getting stronger day by day, and his family business is huge. Jin Yinzhi was afraid that his descendants would have disputes over the property rights of Caizhizhai in the future, so he made a will during his lifetime, specifying that his eldest grandson Jin Yi'an was the manager of Caizhizhai and the owner of the "Caizhizhai" sign. After the third generation of Jin Yinzhi established their own businesses, they successively opened Yue Caifang branch, Guangzhizhai and Caizhichun in Guanqian Street, Yuecaifang and Caizhizhai candy stores in Shanghai, and Caizhizhai in Changshu. . In order to establish a business and make a fortune, the competition among brothers in business and the golden sign of "Cai Zhi Zhai" is becoming increasingly fierce. In 1936, Jin Yi'an served as the chairman of Wuxian Tea, Food and Confectionery Industry Association. Later, a lawsuit arose between the brothers, which cost a lot of money. In addition, his house suffered a fire and his wife and brother took away a huge sum of money from the Yue Caifang branch in Shanghai. He suffered great mental trauma and was depressed all day long. He died in 1942.

In the 1920s, Caizhizhai's candy and roasted seeds and nuts became famous throughout the country. Tourists and Suzhou residents in Suzhou would bring some gifts to their relatives and friends when visiting other places. Foreign missionaries and foreigners in mission schools and hospitals in Suzhou also bought some as rare items and returned home. In the 1930s, merchants from Tianjin Port came to Suzhou to purchase Caizhizhai candy melon seeds and sell them abroad. In the 1940s, Hong Kong companies Tong Shun Hing and San Yang purchased goods from Shanghai Cai Zhi Zhai and continued to distribute them for many years. In the 1950s, the foreign trade departments of Shanghai and Suzhou organized the export of Caizhizhai candies in a planned manner.

Cai Zhi Zhai set up a stall in the ninth year of Tongzhi (1870) in the Qing Dynasty and passed it down to four generations before liberation. In practice, it has created many famous brand products with national and Suzhou local characteristics. For example, candies include loose candies, rose jam candies, crispy loose candies, crispy peach balls, soft loose candies, thin-skinned candies, light candies, heavy loose candies, light peach candies, almond candies, egg yolk peanuts, clear water hawthorn cakes, rose jam, etc. The roasted seeds and nuts include vanilla watermelon seeds, rose watermelon seeds, salt and pepper torreya seeds, salt and pepper walnuts, etc. The candied fruits include white sugar dried bayberry, nine-made plum peel, rose half plum, nine-made tangerine peel, and more than 100 varieties.

Among them, the golden and crunchy crispy candies, the white and fragrant easy candies, and the sweet, fat and soft soft candies are the representatives of Soviet-style candies. They contain pine nuts that are beneficial to the lungs and qi. The sweet and crunchy peach balls contain uncoated walnut kernels, which can moisturize the lungs and relieve coughs. Bright red and transparent clear water hawthorn cake has the effect of lowering blood pressure. The fragrant rose paste has the effect of dispersing blood stasis and relieving pain. Sweet and salty salt and pepper walnuts have the effect of nourishing qi and blood. Delicious white sugar dried bayberry, Jiuzhi plum peel, Jiuzhi tangerine peel, etc. have the effect of strengthening the stomach and digesting food. Other famous products such as roasted seeds and nuts with grains of hyacinth, roses with thin shells and thick kernels, and creamy watermelon seeds are all famous for their "clean, small, and fragrant" properties and have the effect of promoting body fluids and moisturizing the intestines.

The operating characteristics of Cai Zhi Zhai are the front shop and the back shop. Its advantages are strong adaptability, safe consumption, and fresh products. Customers can often buy candies and melon seeds that have been freshly baked. Cai Zhi Zhai has a strict system from material selection to production. The raw materials are purchased from high-quality fruit accessories from famous producing areas, and the goods are sorted and sorted to distinguish the grades, meet the material requirements, maintain the color and fragrance, and prevent deterioration; the feeding and production processes are exquisite, such as Minghuo candies using the slurry extraction method, sand The candies are made using artificial sanding methods to ensure that the products are of high quality and delicious.

After liberation, as early as 1953, a party branch was established in Caizhizhai store, which strengthened business management within the enterprise, promoted store owners to accept socialist transformation, and changed the service target from a small number of people to the public. . In 1954, Premier Zhou Enlai attended the Geneva Conference and entertained international friends with Caizhizhai's crispy candies, easy candies, and soft candies. Soviet-style candies are world-renowned. In 1958, 200 boxes of Caizhizhai candy were exported; in 1959, 50 boxes were exported. In 1963, Hong Kong came to Caizhizhai to shoot the movie "Two Sisters". In 1978, the President of Mexico visited my country and ate Caizhizhai’s soft candies in Suzhou and praised them highly. During the "Cultural Revolution", Caizhizhai's "golden sign" was smashed, the store name was changed to "Hongqi Store", and the traditional features of the front store and back store were also cancelled. After many twists and turns, it was not until the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China that the store name and front store and back square were restored in 1979. In 1984, Caizhizhai expanded its business building with an area of ??1,020 square meters. In 1986, a building of 1,229 square meters was also built in Houfang. The century-old store has received new development.

In recent years, Cai Zhi Dai has used the new candy assembly line to automatically package Soviet-style candies, and bagged them into "Cai Zhi Zhai Pine Nut Wedding Candy", which is printed with "Tongzhi Founded, Century-old Store" and Cai Zhi Zhitu also printed a congratulatory poem: "Pine nuts have been passed down from generation to generation, sesame seeds are blooming higher and higher, peanuts often bear fruit when they fall to the ground, and walnuts are a good union for hundreds of years." It not only introduces the traditional Su-style candy of Caizhizhai, but also pays tribute to good luck and good cooperation. , so it is loved by the public.

At the 1996 Shanghai Commodity Fair, the traditional products exhibited by Suzhou Caizhizhai: rice dumpling candies, pine nut candies, sesame crisps, rose melon seeds, crispy plums, and marinated dried tofu from Suzhou Food Factory were very popular. Some Shanghai customers praised it after tasting it: "It is an authentic Suzhou Caizhizhai product and tastes good."