Minor health problem - a common sight in urban lifestyle

Do you watch too many screens (computer, mobiles, TV) for a long time, and haveeyes strain? Dry eyes?

Do you feel that you have not enough blood (anaemia)? feeling dizzy when you stand up too fast?

Do you feel discomfort at your joints? Not enough collagen?

Do you usually eat oily food?

Urban people have many of these minor health problems. Usually these are caused by the busy lifestyle and the unhealthy habits we developed.

It is important to treat the sickness/health problem when it is still minor. But since the health problem is minor, many people don't think it is worth it to see a doctor. Most know what is the cause, but none have the time to treat it or change their habits. Those who have eyes strain must stare at the screen to finish their jobs, those who ate too much oily food might find it hard to look for healthier solutions. These minor health problems will become a major one if left untreated/unsolved.

Herbs happen to be the solution to these "minor health problem". There are many ingredients for nourishing effects in the medicine. For example, a common herbs: chrysanthemum, showed beneficial effect to liver, eyesight, heart, kidney, spleen, stomach, throat, adjust blood lipids, and other effects.

But modern people rarely drink herbal medicine. The main reasons are:

• do not know about the efficacy of the medicine
• do not know that if their body's symptoms can be elevated by medicine.
• do not know the herbal formula
• Cooking herbs is sophisticated and a hassle
• taste awful! (the most important reason)

Herbs + Drinks = Ruen

We combine expertise of “Chinese Medicine Store + Chinese Physician + Restaurant”. Create a delicious herbal drink, "Ruen", specifically to combat the "minor health problem".

We see two extremes on the market: very sweet drinks (Tealive) vs very bitter Chinese herbal medicine (Koong Woh Tong). So we want to make a product that is both herbal and delicious.

Our ultimate goal is to be like a modern drink, sold in office building, mall, convenience store. It will be easy to serve and convenient to pick up, therefore customers can drink the "Ruen" every day on the way to work.

5 "Ruen"s from our recent R&D：

Secret Mullry（明目）

Ingredient: Red date, Crysanthemum, cassia seed, mullberry leaf, Buddleja officinalis

People often ask if we have a good tonic for the eyes, because they often look at the computer screen for prolonged time. This cause them to have eyes strain. This inspired us to develop "Secret Mullry". We use some general and familiar herbs for this product. It tastes slightly bitter.

Memsis Eight（八珍）

Commonly known as Bazhen soup. "Memses Eight" main function is to increase blood production. It is most beneficial when you drink it during menstration. 

Ingredients: Codonopsis, Rehmannia, Chuanxiong, Poria, Black Date, Angelica, Atractylodes, Angelica, Moxibustion

Mung and Coix（绿豆薏仁）

Simple and delicious Mung and Coix ~ Coix has a whitening effect~

Material: mung bean, coix seed

Hawthorn's date（山楂红枣菊花）

Do you feel guilty after eating many greasy food (fried chicken, stir fry, donuts)? Hawthorn's Date would be the best drink for you!

Material: hawthorn, red dates, chrysanthemum

Peach Resin（桃胶红枣龙眼 ）

There are many collagen in peach resin ~ Drink some Peach Resin to nourish your joint. 

Material: peach resin, red dates, longan

There are two main delivery methods:

Beverage form: Ready for drinking and no need for cooking. suitable for the booth. 

Tea bag form: Easy to deliver and refrigerate, suitable for mailing to home/company.

Product development process:

Usually, it is necessary to put the herbs into the stewpot and simmer it for one night, before opening and drink it the next day. Or boil for an hour on the fire to cook 3 bowls of water into a bowl of water. These tend to leave a lot of dregs. Generally, the Chinese medicine shop will advise the guests that the dregs can be used to cook again for once or twice. Only throwing the dregs when the taste start to decrease. 

Because I have been in the science lab, doing experiements. I know that if you want to extract some natural objects (such as chlorophyll), you must first grind the material and then filter it (for example, chlorophyll needs liquid nitrogen to destroy the cells to be effectively removed from plant cells). I feel so wasteful when i see we have to throw away dregs that still have lots of medicinal properties.The lab experiments and the wastfulness of the dregs gave me an idea: Hey, why not grind the herbs and cook them?

When the older generation heard that we are grinding the herbs, they said that nobody do that. But we decided to try it.

After grinding the herbs, the mixture of herbs powder was put into a filter bag and cook with water. It was observed that the liquid is much darker than using non-grinded herbs.

The herbal taste start to decrease at the 4th and 5th filtration. Therefore the optimal extraction of the herbal ingredient is the mixture of the first 3 filtrations. 

During the research period, we even think if we can cold brew the herbs, like coffee. We tried it, and the taste does feel fresher. But we don't even dare to let people try because we did not cook the herbs at all. Unlike cold-bre coffeee, which was roasted before cold-brewing, herbs need to be cooked to make sure there are no bacteria on it.

Our Team

 

Soon Hing Cheong Ginseng Sdn Bhd

We are founded on 1956. Our grandfather escape from China during the cultural revolution. The company has been run for 3 generations. 

Potos of Great-grandfather and grandfather.

Grandfather's retail at Jalan Sultan 

Current Director, Chen Chong Ching

Oriental Bowl Restaurant

We found that many customers asked us to help them cook herbs, bird nests, and sea cucumber. Since there was a demand, we decided to open a restaurant so we can directly serve herbal Chinese food to customers. 

Why crowdfunding?

The main reason we crowdfund is to build a community. We want to gather a group of people who love the sweet beverage that have herbal ingredient in it. Then we put the products in your hands.

The second reason to crowdfund is to gather feedbacks. So you can tell us the details that we missed or the problems that we cannot see. You can even tell us what health problem concern you most, so we can research new products.

Finally, we would like to have some extra money to  design the branding, logo, printing, internet marketing, or even open an online store. 

Budget Plan 

First RM 8000: As part of the crowdfunding contest / class

Next RM 2000: packaging, printing, logo design

Next RM 5000: Internet Marketing, online store

Next RM 10,000: Open shop in office building

The next RM 100,000,000: Run away and looking for Elon Musk to go to Mars.

Milestone/future outlook

Design: For now, what we lack most is the packaging, design, and logo of the product. We have very little experience of this ourselves. After crowdfunding success, the first thing is to find an experienced Design company to do packaging and design.

Recipe: There are currently 3 products for Recipe/cooking that have been determined. Now I want to design more products and prescriptions.

Channel: When the sales volume of the product reaches a satisfactory value, we can negotiate with some convenience stores and put the product in the convenience store.

Booth: In the end, we hope that, like other famous beverage brands, we can open the booth directly in the mall, and now we can sell it and bring the freshest “”Ruen” to everyone.

We have starting to sell in our own retail store!

 

*Please be noted that the herbs in our products are very mild herbs. They are only for nourishment purpose, and cannot treat sickness. If your symptoms is severe or critical, please go see a doctor!”

Your opinion decide the future of "Ruen"

We need your feedback! We want to create Ruen that can help everybody. However, everybody health is different. Therefore we hope that you can comment on the survey below, give us some idea on what new products should we research next! Thank you!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScWBZVtooJwwxzm99DqZszzKxrMZG6AAV9D4ZsMYycuLSLGRQ/viewform?usp=sf_link

 

 FREE! For those who are not participating the funding, Please write down your email, too! We will update you immediately when there are something new!