I would like you to understand why I cherish every drop and whiff of Hong Kuai essential oil. I refer to it as “Liquid Confidence”. I use Hong Kuai for Respiratory Health. Hong Kuai is part of a regimen to provide “Focus for Young Men 25 Years and Older”.
Hong Kuai (HOE-ng ku-EYE) is treasured by the Taiwanese. They refer to it as Hong Kuai, Kuai Mu, and Hong Kuai Mu. The scientific name is Chamaecyparis formosensis – “false cedar from Formosa”. Another common name is Red Hinoki. When you visit Japan you will see many large red “Tori” shrine gateways made from imported Hong Kuai logs. Many ancient Japanese temples and shrines were built with imported Hong Kuai lumber. All temples in Taiwan are built with Hong Kuai logs and lumber.
Hong Kuai is Taiwan’s most unique essential oil. Hong Kuai trees grow in cloud-covered subtropical Rain Forests near the top of the many 9000 foot towering mountains of Taiwan. Hong Kuai trees are massive in size and ancient in age. Other trees in the Rain Forest come and go every 100-400 years. Hong Kuai trees live to be as old as 3000-4000 years old.
Even after Hong Kuai trees die of old age they remain standing as leaf-less sentinels in the otherwise green forest. Hong Kuai trees do not decay from the wet conditions in the forest. Yet Hong Kuai is a SUSTAINABLE essential oil.
By Taiwanese national law no person is allowed to cut down Hong Kuaitrees – only Mother Nature. In Taitung region where Dr. Ginn Lee distillsHong Kuai essential oil they have received 53 inches of rain so far this year (that’s 4 feet 5 inches). That’s nothing! In the XiangYang Shan and Yushan mountains where Hong Kuai flourishes the annual rainfall is 108-144 inches (9-12 feet of rain each year)!
Such heavy rains and steep mountain slopes cause thousands of landslides each year. These mountain landslides carry Hong Kuai trees and logs into ravines, streams, rivers and eventually the ocean. Each year enormous Hong Kuai logs are collected from the rivers and ocean.
The logs are cut into thick lumber at sawmills. The lumber is used to build temples, monuments and expensive buildings. These wooden structures last forever in the heavy rainfalls of Taiwan. The scrap pieces of Hong Kuailumber and sawdust are collected for steam distillation to isolate Hong Kuaiessential oil.
To me Hong Kuai essential oils smells like “rainforest, woody, sesquiterpenes” and makes me feel “peaceful, confident, focused, decisive and engaged to act”.
Source: Dr. Cole Woolley