Camellia Oil
About us
When Jin Wang moved to New York City from Vancouver in 2009, she missed the oil that she grew up using in her parents’ and grandparents’ kitchens in the Hunan province in China. As a child she would travel into the mountains and her grandmother would take a small sprig of bamboo and make it into a straw to sip sweet Camellia nectar directly from the blossoms of the Camellia tree. She always told Jin about the restorative properties of Camellia nectar.
Fast forward to New York, Jin wondered ‘Why are American cooks insistent on using Olive oil when Camellia oil is so beautifully flavored, and so practical in the kitchen?’ Its healthy properties are well known among Asian natural food enthusiasts and many Asian women apply it directly to their skin as a moisturizer.
Jin decided to team up with Lingrui because she has known its founders and respected their company philosophy since Lingrui’s inception over 20 years ago. She understands their deep commitment to the people of the region having been brought up themselves in the unchanged small villages where the economic life stems from Camellia oil and subsistence vegetable and rice cultivation. Lingrui has focused their business success on the use of all native plants and herbs sourced locally to create natural medicines popular across China for their restorative properties. Lingrui has been so committed to supporting the subsistence farmers they built the first, and likely the only for many years to come, state-of-the-art right sized cold press for Camellia oil production to provide a living wage to the individual family-farmers who work across these mountainsides.
WHERE IS OUR OIL FROM?
ShanCha Extra Virgin Camellia Oil comes from the ancient Camellia trees of Xinxian County in Henan Province, along the foothills of the Dabie Mountains, which serve as the watershed for the Yangtze and Huai Rivers. This remote region of Central China, where the north meets the south, is resplendent with clean air and fresh water. It also has had the perfect microclimate for Camellia trees for over a thousand years. This natural stand of over 200,000 acres of old growth and regenerating Camellia trees is the source of ShanCha Extra Virgin Camellia Oil. The seed pods are collected by hand and the seeds carefully harvested to guarantee their finest quality.
WHAT MAKES SHANCha UNIQUE:
What makes ShanCha so unique is that we know the farmers who collect the Camellia seed pods themselves. They only collect from the old growth forests across the hillsides adjacent to their regional villages. The trees have never been sprayed or fertilized and the environment where they flourish is within a pristine mountain preserve. The harvest takes place only for a few weeks each year. The fresh pods are then air-dried to release their nuts inside the pod and the nuts are cold pressed locally by Lingrui’s own small batch Camellia oil press which ensures the quality and purity of the oil. The result is ShanCha premium organic Camellia oil.
OUR COMmItMENT
We produce what we believe to be the finest Camellia oil in China. Sourced from an old-growth forest that continuously regenerates its trees, these Camellia seeds are completely organic. The trees have never been sprayed or fertilized and the environment where they flourish is resplendent with clean air and water, providing a perfect habitat for the forest ecosystem. At ShanCha we are committed to providing the highest quality fully organic Camellia oil to our customers and we are committed to protecting these natural forests that provide a habitat for a myriad of rare and distinct local plants and animals. At ShanCha, we feel you can taste the freshness of nature in ShanCha Camellia Oil.
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Jin Wang and ShanCha are committed to the protection of this 200,000 acre forest that are the source of what we believe is the finest Camellia oil in Asia. Because Camellia seeds are harvested by hand, without intruding on the fertility of the continuously blossoming trees, ShanCha can protect the southern Xinxian forest lands from unwanted intrusion and destruction. The farmers of the surrounding villages have been sustainably harvesting for over 25 generations and share ShanCha’s commitment to the preservation of this land. Using traditional methods of hand grinding the farmers from these villages have made a subsistence living from the forest for over 500 years now. In order to protect the traditional way of life ShanCha has partnered with Lingrui in the introduction of a local cold-press grinder, to extract oil from seeds in small batches. This single point of mechanization is allowing farmers to increase production sufficient to move their lives from subsistence to a local living wage.
SUBSISTANCE FARMERS ARE
THE KEY TO ECONOMIC VIABILITY
The subsistence farmers who have chosen to remain in the cluster of 20 or so villages in the forestland of Xinxian County in Henan Province are some of the poorest in the nation yet they remain dedicated to staying in their ancestral communities. Follow what ShaCha and Lingrui are doing to help foster community based efforts to bringing more economic stability to these remote region.
WHY DO WE FOCUS ON LOCAL?
We believe that Camellia seeds brought directly to the ShanCha cold-press by the farmers themselves is the best way to ensure the integrity of the oil. We never mix seeds from other regions, which could affect the oil’s quality and taste. Camellia oil in China is often a blend of oils from different regions in order to lower the price as it is one of the most expensive and sought after oils in Asia. We do not support this practice. We believe consumers need to know exactly where their food is coming from and we support our farmers by ensuring they receive a higher competitive price for their crops than they would selling to a consolidator. This makes Camellia oil a profitable cash crop that brings much needed income into the households of a very poor region.
