"Tremella is also one of the important symbols of Chinese food therapy culture. Since its establishment six years ago, Jinyan'er has been committed to 'doing one thing well: making tremella,' telling the story of Chinese tremella, allowing more people to benefit from tremella food therapy, and redefining the new heights of Chinese tremella." — Chen Qinghua, founder of Jinyan'er.
In recent years, the health and nourishment track has remained highly popular. Contrary to expectations, the loyal user base of this track is not the middle-aged and elderly who have urgent health needs, but increasingly younger groups. Products are no longer the traditional raw materials for stewing that the older generation used; instead, many new health products have sprung up like mushrooms after rain. Whether it's probiotic milkshakes, collagen drinks, or traditional nourishing products like instant cereal powder, instant fish maw, and freshly stewed bird's nest, they all tell us that whether they are ingredient-conscious or traditional nourishment enthusiasts, young users tend to prefer products that are convenient, quick, and offer a better experience. As the book "Transformation and Reconstruction" states: In the next decade, all industries are worth redoing. It is in this environment that the Eastern nourishing tremella brand "Jinyan'er" emerged. The origin of the brand dates back to six years ago when founder Chen Qinghua's love and sharing for his family. At that time, Chen Qinghua's child developed bronchitis at the age of five. To avoid using strong medication that might harm the body's foundation, following the advice of a traditional Chinese medicine expert, they switched to tremella food therapy. After his wife also adopted tremella food therapy, she noticed a significant improvement in her weak constitution that had persisted since childbirth. Because his family benefited personally from tremella food therapy, Chen Qinghua was pleasantly surprised and couldn't help but wonder: "Since tremella has such health benefits, why hasn't it received market attention?"
It is said that without investigation, one has no right to speak. To resolve his doubts, Chen Qinghua visited tremella experts and traditional Chinese medicine experts across the country for multi-faceted verification. He was amazed by the thousand-year-old food therapy culture of tremella, but also regretted that the current tremella food therapy culture has been marginalized and the quality of tremella has degraded, turning what was once a royal nourishing delicacy into dishes with hard, dry texture and thin, watery colloid. "Why is China's precious tremella food therapy culture not valued? Why can't tremella have a place in Eastern nourishment? How can I provide a better tremella food therapy experience for everyone?" With these questions, Chen Qinghua returned and plunged into the tremella industry. He spent six years and invested 300 million yuan to re-establish quality standards for tremella, build a total of 1,066 high-altitude ecological organic tremella cultivation sheds, and create a 70,000-square-meter standardized industrial park—all for a single high-quality tremella. From then on, the financial world lost a fund manager, Gutian gained a simple mushroom farmer, and the Eastern nourishment industry gained a craftsmanship brand and a new artisan. However, a path never taken is bound to be bumpy. At the beginning of the brand's establishment, how did Chen Qinghua, an outsider, find a breakthrough?
Getting to the Root of the Problem
Starting with Growing a Good Tremella
When he first visited industry experts and proposed creating a tremella nourishment brand, the feedback Chen Qinghua received was mostly negative: "The user market is too narrow," "Tremella has low economic value as a crop," "Tremella lacks innovation potential," and so on. However, these negative comments did not make him lose confidence in the tremella industry; instead, he keenly captured the current dilemma of the tremella industry from this negative information—the poor quality and eating experience of tremella cannot meet the refined dietary needs of the existing user base. The root of the problem lies in the quality of tremella products. At that time, China's tremella cultivation bases were mainly concentrated in Gutian County, Fujian Province, which accounts for about 90% of the country's tremella production. It is the largest tremella production area in China and even the world, known for the saying "The world's tremella looks to China, and China's tremella looks to Gutian." As the most mature place for tremella industry-academia-research, Gutian has a leading scientific research team for tremella. To fundamentally change the quality of tremella, this is an excellent testing ground. With the original intention of "doing one thing well: making tremella," Chen Qinghua's efforts for tremella became a stepping stone, opening the door to the Fujian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, a fungal research institution. The two sides hit it off and established the Tremella Industry Research Institute to conduct in-depth research on tremella quality optimization. Through gene sequencing technology, they selected tremella strains with quality far superior to wild ones, carried out generation after generation of optimized breeding, and developed a special culture medium that can effectively enhance the nutritional components of tremella based on the strain characteristics. From then on, the tremella that originally grew from rotten wood or cottonseed hulls, hard and yellow, was finally restored through repeated experiments to the 'snow ear' described in ancient books—moist, white, and with dense colloid. According to follow-up analysis by the Fujian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Jinyan'er tremella not only has significantly higher nutritional content than ordinary tremella, but its core nutritional component, high-molecular-weight tremella polysaccharides, accounts for 84%-93%, far exceeding ordinary tremella.
Redoing the Tremella Industry
Ordinary tremella is often stored and sold in dried form, with a dry yellow appearance and a slight fungal smell typical of dried mushrooms. This type of tremella requires a long stewing time, basically 3-4 hours, and has a sandy, crispy texture with thin colloid. The reasons are twofold: first, the inherent quality difference of tremella itself; second, the existing processing equipment and technology are limited to simple high-temperature drying, which is also an important cause of nutrient loss. This means that for Chen Qinghua to lead Jinyan'er to break through the constraints and stand out in the context of the cultural disconnect of tremella food therapy, he must focus on both quality and industry, which is equivalent to redoing the tremella industry from scratch. To pursue the ultimate quality of tremella, the Jinyan'er team, together with the chief edible fungus expert of the Fujian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Lin Yanquan, and his research team, developed a scientific and organic cultivation method. They built 1,066 high-altitude ecological organic tremella cultivation sheds in the mountains around Cuiping Lake in Gutian County, Fujian Province, thereby creating a new category of high-altitude ecological organic tremella, providing a stable raw material foundation for the Jinyan'er brand. On the industrial side, Chen Qinghua invested 300 million yuan to build a 70,000-square-meter standardized workshop in Gutian, introduced advanced instruments from home and abroad, and discussed with technical experts methods to maximize the retention of tremella's nutritional components. At the same time, they revolutionized the way tremella is consumed, using technology to reduce the time for tremella to release colloid to as little as 5 minutes. By building its own industrial park, Jinyan'er became the first enterprise to establish a full industry chain in the tremella industry, standardizing tremella products and ensuring the safety and quality of tremella food therapy. With stable raw materials and industry support, Jinyan'er successively developed and launched classic products such as the Pure Series (20-minute simmering) and the Gold Series (5-minute brewing). Once launched, these products topped the sales charts on major platforms in the tremella category and even the nourishment category. Whether Chen Qinghua's six years of efforts were worth it, consumers have directly given their answer through their actions.
Starting from Sentiment, Not Limited to Sentiment
Adhering to Long-termism in Brand Building
The Jinyan'er brand originated from sentiment but is not limited to it. Since the products hit the market, many brands have entered the tremella nourishment track, attracting users with low quality and low prices to get a share of the pie. However, only by building a self-owned supply chain—covering strain selection, cultivation, and processing—can one provide customers with safe, stable, high-quality products and services. But that means rising cost pressure and enormous financial pressure. Chen Qinghua clearly recognizes that this is the right thing to do; although it is difficult, it must be done. Adhering to long-termism is both a brand strategy and the founder Chen Qinghua's unwavering original intention. In the new consumption era, high-quality tremella nourishment is being recognized by more and more consumers. Chen Qinghua leads Jinyan'er to redefine the new heights of Chinese tremella, bringing the disconnected tremella food therapy culture back into the public eye, and telling the story of Chinese tremella through actions.