Cai Zhi Zhai（Suzhou Candy）

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Cai Zhizhai is an old Suzhou teahouse and candy shop, founded in the ninth year of Qing Tongzhi (1870), specializing in all kinds of Suzhou candies, pastries, fried goods, and candied fruit. The main store is located at 91 Guanqian Street, Suzhou City.

Suzhou candy (Cai Zhizhai brand) is a representative of traditional Chinese candy, known for its variety and unique flavors. The rich pine nuts, walnuts, almonds, melon seeds, as well as peanuts, sesame and other natural fruits are scattered among various candies. When you take a gentle bite, it's sweet, crisp, oily but not sticky; the fragrance of flowers and fruits slowly wraps around the tip of the tongue, instantly refreshing the heart and spleen... Pine nut soft candy, plum cake, nine-made Chenpi, agarwood olives, and the whole body of yellow transparent zongzi candy, carrying how many sweet memories and beautiful expectations.

The production skills of Cai Zhizhai Suzhou candy are excellent, precise and rigorous, using the traditional Chinese method of simmering sugar with open fire, adding natural fruit ingredients, plants, and flowers for processing.

History

Cai Zhi Zhai was founded in the ninth year of Qing Tongzhi (1870) by Jin Yin Zhi in Guanqian Street, Suzhou. Initially, he set up a stall to make dumpling candies for a living. Later, he expanded his business with a storefront, increasing the variety of sweets, preserves, and roasted goods. Cai Zhi Zhai paid attention to the medicinal function of food. When Empress Dowager Cixi summoned the famous Suzhou doctor Cao Cangzhou for consultation, Cao Cangzhou brought Cai Zhi Zhai's fritillaria candy to assist the medicine. After Cixi was very satisfied with it, she named it "Fritillaria Tribute Candy". As a result, Cai Zhi Zhai became famous and was also known as the "half-panel medicinal shop", and its business was booming.

In 1954, when Zhou Enlai attended the Geneva Conference, he presented Cai Zhi Zhai candies to people from various countries, so Cai Zhi Zhai candies were also referred to as "national candies".

In the late 1980s, due to a surplus of staff and blind innovation, product quality declined, and Cai Zhi Zhai faced difficulties in operation. Starting in 1997, it redeveloped traditional crafts, focused on quality, self-produced and self-sold, and quickly won back the market. By 2000, the Cai Zhi Zhai brand was changed from Suzhou Food Factory to Suzhou Cai Zhi Zhai Food Co., Ltd.

In 1991, Cai Zhi Zhai was awarded the "Chinese Time-honored Brand" by the Ministry of Domestic Trade of the People's Republic of China (now the Ministry of Commerce), and in 2010 it was once again rated as the "Chinese Time-honored Brand" in the second batch of evaluations by the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China.

Starting in 1998, Cai Zhi Zhai gradually opened branches or distribution points in Suzhou and surrounding areas, changing the history of "only this Suzhou family, no branches in other cities".

In 1999, the Guanqian Street store was rebuilt with a garden-style decoration, and the Cai Zhi Zhai Tea House was opened on the second floor.

In 2004, the General Administration of Quality Supervision of China recognized the Suzhou Candy (Cai Zhi Zhai brand) origin mark.

In 2005, under the leadership of Cai Zhi Zhai and other time-honored Suzhou enterprises, the Suzhou Time-honored Brand Association was established, and the chairman of Cai Zhi Zhai, Chu Min Hui, served as the president of the Suzhou Time-honored Brand Association.

In 2009, the craft of making Suzhou-style sweets by Cai Zhi Zhai was included in the list of intangible cultural heritage of Jiangsu Province.

In 2015, Cai Zhi Zhai was awarded the "Chinese Time-honored Brand Inheritance and Innovation" award by the China Federation of Commerce, and entered the first batch of the "Professional Education Ethnic Culture Inheritance and Innovation Teaching Resource Library Chinese Time-honored Brand Sub-library" of the Ministry of Education.

In 2016, Cai Zhi Zhai opened up space in the hall to make Suzhou-style sweets and pastries on the spot, and sell them directly on the spot.

Current Situation

The main store of Caizhizhai is located at No. 91 Guanqian Street, Suzhou. The second floor is equipped with Caizhizhai Tea House, where you can enjoy tea and appreciate Pingtan performances.

Caizhizhai currently operates more than 300 varieties of Suzhou-style candies, roasted goods, preserved fruits, pastries, and salty snacks. Representative products include zongzi candy, pine nut candy, Suzhou-style crispy candy, relaxed candy, creamy plum, clear water tangerine peel, creamy melon seeds, shrimp seed pomfret, jujube paste sesame cake, etc. Caizhizhai products are all made of traditional craftsmanship, made with natural materials.

In response to constantly changing consumer demand, Caizhizhai actively develops new formulas and products to cater to the market and has received praise. Caizhizhai was among the first of Suzhou's old brands to enter the online e-commerce sales channel, so online sales have developed rapidly.