Finding the right smell
At one point, the couple even considered buying a house near Mt. Qilan for Li’s father, but another idea struck them: why not bring the woods home? With this in mind, they sought out a factory specializing in making high-end furniture from native cypress wood.
Once they had obtained a regular supply of scrap wood, they carried out several experiments and eventually decided to further purify their oils through redistillation, a process that preserves the true essence of the Taiwan cypress.
Developing saleable products and standardizing the fragrance turned out to be arduous tasks. Having successfully sourced their cypress wood, the couple faced the all-important question of how strong the fragrance should be. It was only after much pondering that their idea of “Taiwan’s scent” came into focus. When pressed, Huang finally divulges their secret recipe: “What we do is to preserve the original smell.” Just as the “secret ingredient” that makes the noodle soup of the Kung Fu Panda’s father special is in fact “nothing,” Huang and Li also strive to be faithful to the native fragrance of the wood: “We distill one kilogram of oil from 1000 kg of cypress shavings.”
Huang’s beloved oils have attracted the attention of Italian, French, and Australian aromatherapy companies, who asked her for price quotations. Despite their generous offers, however, Huang has refused to sell them her oils. These companies wished to use cypress oils as ingredients to make perfumes and other aromatic products. “We could have raked in money immediately if we had sold them our oils as raw materials, but the products they made would not have had the scent of Taiwan.”
There have also been customers from Japan requesting that the oils be diluted to suit the Japanese preference for milder fragrances, but Huang insists on adhering to her original recipe.
Huang and Li are resolute: “What we want to be is a Taiwanese brand producing things in Taiwan from Taiwanese ingredients, in order to be true to what this island has to offer.”
Thirty-odd years ago Huang was a flight attendant. When passengers asked her where she was from, she would proudly say “Taiwan.” But the name meant nothing to them; they only knew Thailand. Today, Huang and Li have invented a catchphrase: “We want to bring you not just a tree, but an entire woodland.” Now they are presenting Taiwan to the wider world through one of the island’s unique scents.
Beginning with simple essential oils, Kuai Shan Fang has developed various other products over the years, from shampoos and shower gels to soaps and hand lotions. These have attracted attention both in Taiwan and overseas.
A devoted son, Chris Li has gained a comprehensive knowledge of Taiwan cypresses. He and his wife Rachel went to great lengths to devise the best formulation for their cypress oils.
Taiwan cypresses grow extremely slowly. It took 2800 years for a seed to become this 43-meter-tall tree. (photo by Jimmy Lin)
Kuai Shan Fang uses scrap wood from high-end furniture making. The source is pure and uncontaminated. (courtesy of Kuai Shan Fang)
The excellent wood of Taiwan cypresses was often used to make top-tier furniture when Taiwan was under Japanese rule. (courtesy of Kuai Shan Fang)
At Kuai Shan Fang, Chris Li and Rachel Huang are working hard to bring the distinctive scent of Taiwan’s woodlands into the homes of people around the world.