Thursday, January 15, 2015

How to Order Raw Honey and Pollen from Taiwan & Have Them Delivered to Singapore?!

My journey to Taiwan was almost a year ago but i can vividly recollect the time i spent there, especially my chanced encounter with an apiary at Cingjing.

I was so obsessed with the honey and pollen i brought back to Singapore; i had to find some way to have a taste of them again when my supply dried up within a month upon return! 

Being trigger happy when it comes to photo taking can be extremely helpful and i can quote an example here; not knowing how to contact the apiary, i started looking through the photographs i took in Taiwan and voila, here's a picture that showed clearly the website (in Chinese by the way)! 


It didn't take me long to add the contact person on "Line" and i started checking on the possibility to buy the honey and pollen and courier them 3,094 kilometers to Singapore! Like many people who are not well off, i am of course worried i would be scammed out of my hard earned money!

But the pulling temptation of having the possibility of tasting the honey again proved to be too strong and i requested for two sets (one set is shown in the above picture); eventually topped up to five sets to save on shipping costs! 

By the way, the more you buy, the more discounts you receive! The only problem i faced in this transnational transaction is that i have to transfer the money over telegraphic transfer and there is usually a service fee of at least S$20 (5% of my cost if my total purchase is S$400)! 

The package was sent out on the 13th and i received it on 19th! Woah, i sure was ecstatic especially when the person i liaised with mentioned it might take from one to two weeks! 

Despite wanting to tear everything apart so that i can finally quench the ridiculous thirst for honey + pollen, a stock count was still necessary to ensure everything was in order.

Darn my luck - short of two bottles of pollen! I am usually non confrontational and would normally swallow the loss. However, i am buying on behalf of friends and it would not be nice to deprive them of their goods (no, i am not giving up MY pollen)! Haha. Anyway, i contacted the person again.

He was, thankfully, extremely apologetic (Taiwanese are such nice people) and sent out the "missing" bottles the very next day! He added "there is a small gift inside for you too". Ten days later, i collected the parcel from POPStation! 

Happy! Are you curious to know what the gift is?

A small bottle of Longan Honey! It may not be much but it was still a nice gesture! Would i order again? Definitely!!! Now, a question for everyone: does honey have an expiry date?!? 

Answer: Raw honey doesn't although raw honey would ferment upon contact with water; resulting in a breakdown of protein that would make honey turns bad! In food regulations around the world, it is also a must to have an expiry date.

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Website of the Apiary 

Facebook Page

Basic Price (Doesn't Include Courier Charges)
Honey (2800 grams) - NT$900
Pollen (350 grams) - NT$700

Challenges
A few which i thought i should share here. 

As you can probably deduce by now, all communications were in Chinese and even the website isn't non-Chinese friendly. For non-Chinese reading individuals, please get a person who is proficient in Chinese to help you with the orders.

Another frustrating problem i faced was of course the limited payment mode; in this case, only telegraphic transfer. I would have preferred to pay via paypal or credit card anytime! 

4 comments:

  1. what's the courier charges like? Are you still ordering from them?

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    1. My order of five 2.8kg honey, six bottles of pollen cost NT$1,990. I have not ordered from them since as i am the only honey drinker in the family. :)

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  2. Hi.. Thank you sooo much for writing this! Wish I'd read your blog before I went to Cingjing. I bought one bottle back and I getting sadder by the day because it is finishing.
    May I know how do you arrange for the courier? And how much does courier charges?

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    Replies
    1. Hallo! You may liaise directly with the apiary as they would arrange for courier. As the charges differ according to the number of items you purchase, it's better to check with the apiary. :)

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