Midoori Ice Cream's Message to the CTi TV Reporter: Words Left Unspoken

By Liji of Midoli Ice Cream

Dear CTi Television and reporters:

I am Liji of Midoli Ice Cream. We are small producers from Emei Township, Hsinchu County. We make ice cream by hand using completely natural ingredients and without adding any artificial chemicals.

Before making ice cream, we worked on promoting organic cultivation. When my husband, Lin Shou-yi, was serving in the military, he heard a radio report saying that "Taiwan is a kingdom of pesticides, while abroad they use insects to eat insects in order to reduce pesticide use." He felt that this biological pest control method of using insects to eat insects was good for the whole ecosystem, so in the 72nd year of the Republic of China (1983), at the age of 23, after being discharged from the military, he began working in biological control, slowly changing the thinking of many farming friends. After years of effort, he gained recognition from agricultural agencies and experts, and in the 76th year of the Republic of China (1987) he was honored with the National Top Ten Young Shennong Award. At that time, the young Shou-yi's father used his expertise in biological control to blaze a different path for Taiwan's agriculture.

Later, after Taiwan opened up to the WTO in 2002, agriculture began to transform, so we thought we wanted to use natural, pollution-free agricultural products to make handmade ice cream, so that more small farmers' products could be put to better use. So from that time on we have worked hard until now, and we also have a small ice cream shop at the "Good Cho's" restaurant in Forty-Four South Village, using food to help society better understand these good agricultural products.

The feelings about ice cream that I never had the chance to speak out

On September 12, your television station published a report saying "Forty-Four South Village has many chaotic scenes.... an ice cream costs nearly 100 yuan, making the public sigh that they cannot afford it." A huge ice cream appeared on the screen, and that image was our family's handmade ice cream. Seeing you report it in this way, I am very sad. But because that day the reporter asked nothing besides the price of the ice cream, and I only learned about this matter by watching TV, I want to use this letter to express the feelings I had no chance to speak out.

(1) Our ice cream ranges from 40 to 90 yuan per scoop. The 90-yuan ice cream you reported is the most expensive of them all, because it uses tea leaves from the organically certified Sun Moon Old Tea Factory, and the cost is indeed very high. We also have olive and mulberry at 40 yuan, dragon fruit and pineapple at 60 yuan, and lychee at 70 yuan. But in your report, it seems you ignored all of that.

(2) Our ice cream uses completely real ingredients and does not add any artificial chemical components, so it needs a larger amount of real ingredients in order for consumers to taste the original flavor of the food. For example, the Assam black tea ice cream you reported, because it does not use flavoring, must use double the amount of tea leaves, and they all must be freshly brewed from the first infusion, in order to have enough aroma and flavor.

The other ice creams also all use the most natural ingredients. For example, the pesticide-free lychee comes from Uncle Huang Hsin-yi in Chiayi, and the roses are from Puli, from Mei-Kai-Four-Degrees. In addition, because no artificial emulsifiers or chemical stabilizers are used, they must rely on the food ingredients and fresh milk blending well together on their own, which is why the price is like this.

(3) Many food makers use "already processed ingredients," such as lychee syrup or rose syrup provided by manufacturers, but we do not do that. We process everything step by step from the raw ingredients, and it really takes a lot of time.

Take the 70-yuan lychee ice cream as an example. After buying pesticide-free lychee from Uncle Hsin-yi in Chiayi, we must find several workers to peel off the shells, remove the skin, remove the residue, and remove the inner membrane of the fruit, and then add milk. It takes about 5 hours to finish one tub of ice cream (one tub is 80 scoops). It is really labor-intensive, and the cost is also very high. (Here is Mr. Yang Ju-men's introduction to us, perhaps you can take a look)

About the report, what we want to say is……..

Although making handmade ice cream is actually quite hard, we feel quite happy working hard together with small farmers, so we also work very hard to keep it going and look everywhere for opportunities to promote it. But on the day I saw this report, I felt as if all my efforts had been wasted.

You asked nothing, then selectively took one of the most expensive ice creams, as if we were an unscrupulous manufacturer cheating everyone, and you did not even introduce that it was made with organic Assam black tea. What seemed to us a very precious handmade creation looked terrible in your footage. That feeling was very much like one's own child being called out and scolded in public, and it was truly very hurtful.

I really want to say, if you had doubts, couldn't you first come and ask? I would be very happy to explain to you, and I would also be willing to take you to see the production process. But you reported it like this without asking anything, and I am sad, truly very sad.

I hope next time you can avoid reporting news like this. It hurts many people who are doing things seriously.

Liji and Shou-yi of Midoli Ice Cream

September 12, 2012 CTi Television report

This is the 248 Market's introduction to Midoli Ice Cream http://www.248.com.tw/?p=1437