No Ordinary Herbs

Tinuk muốn có một chiếc xe đạp để đến trường mới, nên em nghĩ ra cách thông minh để kiếm tiền — bán thức uống thảo mộc đặc biệt của gia đình.

1 / 26

No Ordinary Herbs Saptorini

Jingle, jangle! Every time Tinuk saw children riding their bikes to school, she got more excited about saving up money. She wanted to have a bike like theirs. In a year, Tinuk would study at a junior high school that was quite far from her house. It would be easier for her to ride a bicycle there. Hopefully Mom could give Tinuk more pocket money.

However, this afternoon Mom came home with a lot of leftover herbal drinks. Oh no, Mom would be at a loss if she couldn’t sell all her herbal drinks. She wouldn’t have any extra pocket money to give Tinuk. Hmm, maybe Tinuk could help her out.

Tinuk decided to bring the herbal drinks with her to the field. She would sell the herbs to her friends before they played football. Tinuk needed to move the herbal drink bottles out of the basket. She couldn’t carry the basket like Mom could.

“Get your herbal drinks here! Herbs for a healthy body,” Tinuk announced. Tinuk’s friends came up to her. However, they didn’t like herbal drinks that taste bitter. They only wanted sweet herbs. One friend even jokingly asked for a strawberry-flavored one. Hearing that, an idea popped into Tinuk’s head.

Tinuk would make different flavored herbal drinks. Most importantly, they must all be sweet. Tinuk added a lot of cinnamon to the turmeric mix, but…

Yuck! It tasted bitter and smelled strange. There wasn’t even a bit of sweetness to it. It turns out that cinnamon isn’t sweet after all. Maybe the measurements needed to be changed? Tinuk mixed in other fragrant ingredients like lemongrass, ginger, and pandan.

Why is the kitchen such a mess?” Mother asked. “I’m making herbal drinks, Mom,” answered Tinuk. “Have a taste.”

“What kind of herb is this? It’s too fragrant and too sweet.” Mother wrinkled her nose. “It’s rice with aromatic ginger. I mixed in a lot of pandan leaves, so it smells good,” Tinuk answered.

Hmm, that meant Tinuk used too much sugar and pandan. She needed to try other flavor combinations.

However, there was only a little bit of sugar and cinnamon left. Tinuk felt guilty. Mom must not have much money left to buy more herbal ingredients. Tinuk would use some of her own savings to buy more brown sugar and cinnamon.

While waiting in line at the stall, Tinuk saw a shelf filled with various packaged herbs. There was even a picture of a woman who resembled Mom on the packaging. How interesting.

Wow, so many people were buying this drink. Was it because it’s sold in a small bottle? The small picture and name of the drink written on the bottle made it even more interesting. Another new idea popped into Tinuk’s head.

As soon as she got home, Tinuk immediately looked for small bottles. However, she could only find her water bottle.

Tinuk used her savings again to buy plastic bottles. She didn’t mind, as long as more people would buy Mom’s herbal drinks.

Now was time for Tinuk to draw a picture for the bottle. What should she draw? Tinuk wasn’t good at drawing Mom. Oh, she just thought of something. Tinuk would draw Mom’s silhouette instead. Underneath, she wrote down a phone number and the brand name. Tinuk gave it the name Mrs. Marni’s Herbal Drinks. That way people would know that these were the same herbal drinks her mom usually carried around.

Tinuk then photocopied the logo at a photocopy store. She cut out the logos and stuck them on to the bottles, but she wasn’t done yet. There was something else Tinuk needed to do.

Tinuk needed to make a sign to put up in front of her house. Again, Tinuk used her savings to buy cardboard paper and colored markers.

Instead of saving up her money, she had ended up spending more. Tinuk must try her best to make this work.

There was only one more thing left to do. Tinuk had to promote Mom’s herbal drinks so that more people would buy it. They needed to know that Mom’s herbal drinks now come in branded bottles. “If you want to order herbal drinks, you can contact this number,” Tinuk said as she handed out fliers.

"Can I have a bottle of herbs?” Hurray! The first customers had arrived.

More and more customers were right behind them. Not only did Mom’s herbal concoctions sell, but Tinuk’s did too. “Can I order some over the phone to send to a friend?” someone asked. Of course!