Liquid Gold —

In early summer, under a light rain, we crest a hilltop and pass from Taichung City’s Xinshe District into Nantou County’s Guoxing Township. There we visit the Gems of Taiwan orchard, at an elevation of 800 meters, which its owners stress produces a “single origin” camellia oil (i.e., pressed from seeds sourced from a single growing area).

This high-yielding camellia variety can increase seed yields more than fourfold.

The best time to harvest camellia oil seeds is at “Frost’s Descent,” the solar term that begins around 23 October. Seeds harvested earlier contain less oil, while seeds left on the tree until they fall are susceptible to mold and become unsuitable for oil pressing. (courtesy of Gems of Taiwan)

The fragrance of grass and nuts

The camellia oil (also known as tea seed oil) produced by Gems of Taiwan is cold pressed from selected seeds of the oil-seed camellia tree (Camellia oleifera). In 2022 they won a gold award for special excellence in a competition for domestically produced tea seed oils held by the Agriculture and Food Agency (AFA). The jury noted that Gems of Taiwan’s oil, with its green and gold tinged luster, has the fragrance of grass and nuts and offers a rich pectin mouthfeel.

Chen Chih-fu, the other founder of Gems of Taiwan, serves us a succession of dishes including tankan (a citrus fruit) steeped in camellia oil, and peanut tofu topped with a camellia oil and passionfruit sauce. The oil’s slightly nutty aroma complements the fruity fragrance of the tankan and the passionfruit. In his cold bitter melon drizzled with camellia oil and kumquat sauce, the smooth pectin of the oil counters the astringency of the bitter melon. And then there is a claypot stew worthy of high-end banquets, made with almond mushrooms, tofu and camellia oil, which completely changes this writer’s impression that tea seed oil only goes with noodles.

Tea oil seeds harvested by Gems of Taiwan are sent directly to Chiayi to be sun-dried and then oven-dried to ensure full drying and so prevent spoilage. (courtesy of Gems of Taiwan)

Because it’s fresh

Tea seed oil is known in Chinese as “bitter tea oil,” but none of the camellia oils that made it into the AFA competition had any bitter flavor, and the tasters were able to savor their fruity fragrance and roasting aromas. This lack of bitterness was due in part to the pressing method used to extract the oil, but the most important factor was the freshness of the camellia seeds.

In fact only 10% of the camellia oil sold in Taiwan is entirely domestic in origin; the remaining 90% is made from seeds imported from China and elsewhere. It takes several months from harvest for the frozen seeds to be transported to Taiwan, so there may be rancid or bitter flavors in the resulting camellia oil.

Camellia oil contains over 80% omega-9 mono­unsaturated fatty acids, making it one of the top two ranking oils in this respect, alongside olive oil. Research by Yen Gow-chin, chair professor in the Department of Food Science and Biotechnology at National Chung ­Hsing University, shows that the smoke point of tea seed oil is 252℃, far higher than the 160℃ smoke point of olive oil, making it suitable for the prevalent cooking methods in Taiwan of pan frying, stir frying, and deep frying. Camellia oil also has functional constituents including antioxidants and gastrointestinal protectants.

“Camellia oil is known as Asia’s olive oil, and in fact it is even better than olive oil,” says Lee Ling-chu, secretary-­general of the Taiwan Agricultural Science and Technology Resources Logistics Management Association (­TASTRLMA). He notes that regardless of whether one uses seeds from Camellia oleifera or from the closely related Camellia brevistyla, the oil from domestically produced camellia seeds has a rich pectin mouthfeel, because the seeds are fresh and are pressed at low temperatures. This pectin mouthfeel is one of the features that enables consumers to distinguish oil pressed from Taiwan-­grown camellia seeds from imports.

The camellia oil pressed from Taiwanese-grown tea oil seeds offers freshness, a nutty fragrance, a clean taste, and a smooth but zesty mouthfeel. (courtesy of Gems of Taiwan)

Comprehensive guidance

Research bodies under the AFA have been going all out to expand the area in Taiwan cultivated with camellia oil trees. The high-­yielding varieties developed by the Tea and Beverage Research Station and the Tainan District Agricultural Research and Extension Station can increase seed production more than fourfold. The technology has already been transferred to the Mei Shan Tea Seed Oil Manufactory Cooperative (a.k.a. Longlife Field) in Chiayi County and to Dongrong Farm in Tai­chung’s Dongshi District.

The AFA has commissioned TASTRLMA to guide farmers in improving field management of camellia oil trees. Besides offering online digital learning, ­TASTRLMA also arranges for farmers who have outstanding field management skills to give hands-on demonstrations of their operations. For example, such demonstrations have been held at Dongrong Farm, which is adept at variety selection and the use of farm machinery. They have also been organized at A Beautiful Land, a farm located in Hualien County’s Ruisui Township, where they prune their camellia trees into a round shape so that their flowering is described by farmers as “explosive” and ­every branch gets sunlight. As a result, their seed yield per hectare is four times that of most farms.

The conversion of betelnut orchards into camellia oil orchards is bringing about a quiet revolution in Nantou County, a major center of betelnut production.

To speed up the removal of betelnut orchards, holes are bored into the betelnut palm trunks and concentrated boron is injected into them, leading to rapid dehydration.

Premium domestic seeds

Under a program for building an industrial value chain for oil crops, which has been running for nearly ten years now, the land area in Taiwan planted with tea oil trees has increased by at least 50%, reaching 1,570 hectares distributed widely across 17 counties and cities. In order to differentiate domestic tea oil seeds from imported seeds, district agricultural research and extension stations and other agencies, drawing on the European olive oil evaluation system, created a flavor wheel for domestically produced tea seed oil, as a basis for building the reputation of Taiwanese camellia oil as a premium-­quality product.

Lee Ling-chu says that the goal is for the Taiwan brand to play a leadership role in the tea seed oil industry and become internationally recognized. They want to draw on the lessons of European olive oil: Although Spain is the world’s largest producer of olive oil, Italy enjoys a competitive advantage thanks to its brand reputation.

Camellia oils that authentically reflect the Taiwanese terroir are being developed through work in multiple areas, including the selection of high-yielding varieties, improved field management, and advanced oil pressing processes. Besides being used for cooking, the oil can also be drunk fresh from the bottle, and is said to have health maintenance properties.

Consumers who wish to buy tea seed oil made in Taiwan from domestically grown seeds simply have to keep an eye out for the Traceable Agricultural Product (TAP) or Taiwan Organic labels on the bottles. Prices start at around NT$1,000 for 250 milliliters.

Lee Ling-chu, secretary-general of the Taiwan Agricultural Science and Technology Resources Logistics Management Association, notes that under Taiwan’s national standards, only oils produced from seeds of the species Camellia oleifera and Camellia brevistyla can be called camellia oil or tea seed oil.

Chang Wei-chin, head of the camellia oil production and marketing group of Emei Township, Hsinchu County, remarks that tea seed oil trees age well: the older they are, the better the flavor of the oil they produce.

Chi Ke Shan’s tea seed processing plant can produce customized oils in small batches.

An excellent reputation

In 2017, 18 farmers got together to form a ­production and marketing group for camellia oil in Emei Township, Hsinchu County. In 2018 they raised over NT$10 million in capital and set up the Chi Ke Shan Company to press their own tea seed oil in a facility licensed for processing organic produce.

This company set up by camellia seed farmers is regarded as the TSMC of tea seed oil. Not only does it offer customized small-batch services, but the oils it produces have an excellent reputation. At the first AFA camellia oil competition, the top three prizewinners were all oils pressed by Chi Ke Shan.

Chi Ke Shan CEO Chang Wei-chin tells us that camellia seeds have three layers of protection. The outermost is the skin of the overall fruit, which will crack when sun-dried or oven-dried. The next is the shell of the individual seed, which is very likely to not dry fully when the seed is sun-dried, and this is sure to affect the flavor of the oil. The third layer is the seed membrane, which is similar to the thin skin of a peanut inside its shell. However, while some people prefer to eat their peanuts with the skin left on, the membrane is the most bitter-tasting part of the camellia seed.

Many oil pressing plants do not remove the shell or membrane when processing camellia seeds. But when Chi Ke Shan set up their factory, they added an advanced cooling process, and installed specialized technology such as blowers and dust extraction equipment in the drying ovens to remove impurities that can affect the flavor, including residues from the fruit skin, seed shell, and seed membrane. The resulting pressed oil is not at all bitter, contrary to most people’s impressions of tea seed oil.

In 2023 Chi Ke Shan mastered control of the thermal profile of the drying and pressing processes, enabling them to customize flavors according to the wishes of camellia oil companies. This was a very prosperous year for the production and marketing group, during which they earned considerable unanticipated ­revenues.

Seeds of Camellia oleifera (left) and Camellia brevistyla (right). The latter species is more vulnerable to heat and is mainly grown in the north of Taiwan, while the former is better suited to the south.

Gems of Taiwan founders Chen Sheng-ching (left) and Chen Chih-fu (right) hope that their production of high-quality camellia oil will enable people to better see the value of the land.

Transformation of betelnut orchards

There is another important purpose behind producing camellia oil. The Sunshine Social Welfare Foundation has been working to prevent oral cancer, and in 2015 launched a program to convert betelnut orchards into tea seed orchards, thereby blocking the production of carcinogenic betelnuts at source. In addition, with the help of oil maker Top Tea Oil Production, they have come out with a brand called Sunshine Tea Seed Oil, using seeds grown in former betelnut orchards.

Gems of Taiwan has also joined Sunshine’s program. Because they are cultivating land that was formerly a betelnut orchard, the foundation supplied free instruction in the use of a microbial liquid fertilizer. Chen Chih-fu, whose academic background is in agri­culture, says that this fertilizer is based on Bacillus subtilis 151B1, a bacterial strain that Professor Huang Tzu-pi of the Department of Plant Pathology at National Chung ­Hsing University isolated from the root micro­biome of a native tea tree species. “We have trillions of micro­organisms working for us,” says Chen.

The best evidence of the program’s success is in the harvests from Gems of Taiwan’s well-managed orchard. The first year that Chen Sheng-ching and Chen Chih-fu took over this orchard, they harvested only 100 or so kilograms of camellia seeds, but this figure grew to 500 kg in 2022 and 2,600 kg in 2023. In 2023 they were nominated for the first AFA camellia oil competition, where they won a gold award. Scientific analysis showed that their oil seeds had a high oil content, a peroxide value of zero, and an acidity well below the maximum permitted under national standards. The high quality of their seeds demonstrated the effectiveness of their plant-centered cultivation methods.

Seasonal vegetables and chickpea tempeh, pan-fried with camellia oil.

This dish, tankan steeped in camellia oil, is based on a dish from Sicilian cuisine. The tankan slices are topped off with a sprinkling of nuts.

Vegetarian minced shrimp stir-fried in camellia oil.

From minority to majority

Neither of these two urbane young men, smartly dressed in dark green overalls and tall drawstring rain boots, is the son of a farming family, nor yet were they born in Guoxing Township. Intrigued, we wonder how they got into the business of growing and processing camellia seeds there.

We learn that eight years ago Chen Chih-fu’s father, Chen Wen-hsiung, was prompted by a series of food safety scandals to transform five hectares of betelnut orchards that he owned by having them planted with 10,000 camellia trees. But when the trees reached five years of age and began producing harvestable seeds, there was no one to do the work. Chen Chih-fu and his friend Chen Sheng-ching, both of whom had worked at the Humanistic Education Foundation (HEF) and were then at the Environment & Animal Society of Taiwan (EAST), began working at home because of the Covid-19 pandemic and together they moved to Nantou, at which point they resolutely decided to quit their former jobs and become farmers.

Most importantly, they considered the transformation of betelnut orchards into tea seed oil orchards to be part of a social movement. As Chen Sheng-ching puts it, from campaigning against corporal punishment of children at the HEF or promoting animal welfare at EAST to producing camellia oil (only 10% of camellia oil consumed in Taiwan is made from seeds grown domestically), “we have always been in the minority, but social progress depends on the efforts of small groups” to transform minorities into majorities.

“We want to change people’s perceptions and make people aware that fresh Taiwanese camellia oil is much better than olive oil both in terms of its nutritional value and its convenience for cooking.” Chen Sheng-shing, who holds an olive oil sommelier certification, argues that if people use local oil to make local cuisine, camellia oil can become a representative part of Taiwan’s dietary culture.

Gems of Taiwan aims to set an example for the conversion of betelnut orchards into camellia oil seed orchards, and they plan to establish a camellia oil production and marketing group in Guoxing Township. These two young farmers both believe that this treasure of Taiwan—tea seed oil—will enable people to see the value of the land and make consumers feel proud of Taiwanese crops.

Gems of Taiwan present their camellia oil in cotton–flax bags decorated with pieces of betelnut leaf sheath, symbolizing the transformation of former betelnut orchards.

Noodles served with camellia oil is a simple dish to prepare; it is light but filling and healthy as well as delicious.