Lin Yi-cai (林義財) began learning how to make soap in the mid-1940s because of the dermatitis on his hands. After trying every brand of soap on the market and failing to find anything that did not exacerbate his condition, Lin set about trying to concoct a gentler cleanser. He developed a system for extracting lye that resulted in a product that is kinder to the skin, and went on to found Mei Sheng Tang Chemical Co. with his younger brother in 1957.
At peak production in the 1970s, Mei Sheng Tang produced 60,000 bars of laundry and body soap a month. Unfortunately, the market was hit by the popularity of body shampoo in the early 1990s, and Mei Sheng Tang’s business shrank to just a few small batches of laundry detergent for old customers. The Lin brothers soon decided to shut down the operation.
In the following years, though body shampoo dominated the market, soap made by hand with natural ingredients was gaining in popularity as environmental and health awareness grew in Taiwan. By the early 2000s, some of the fourth-generation Lins began to consider reviving the family business. After much discussion and careful consideration, they decided to give it a go.
The new operation is named Tea Soap Handmade Soaps, since its signature product contains green tea. Tea Soap started with a small shop in New Taipei City’s Sanxia District. In 2010, the Lins turned their family’s old workshop, also in Sanxia, into a tourism factory. The facility looks different than it did when the Lin brothers first began production a half-century ago, but four generations later, the family is still making some of the highest-quality soap around.
Write to Jim Hwang at cyhuang03@mofa.gov.tw
A worker at Tea Soap Handmade Soaps’ factory uses water to regulate the temperature of a boiling concoction of fats, lye and water in a vat that has been in the Lin family for decades. (Photo by Chin Hung-hao)
After two days of boiling the concoction and then extracting the lye, ingredients such as water and tea powder are added to the mixture and stirred to ensure even distribution. (Photo by Chin Hung-hao)
Semi-finished soap is boxed and left at room temperature for two days until half-dry. (Photo by Chin Hung-hao)
Half-dry soap is cut to the proper size, stacked and then baked dry before packaging. (Photos by Chin Hung-hao)
A Tea Soap Handmade Soaps employee peddles some of the company’s products along Sanxia Old Street near the store while wearing an old-fashioned street vendor’s outfit. (Photo by Chin Hung-hao)
The workshop has developed soaps with different ingredients such as tea and orchid. (Photo by Chin Hung-hao)