Commonly given out (and happily hoarded) as little baggies at Taiwanese fruit stands, plum powder is a staple in Taiwan for sprinkling on fresh fruits. It's closely related to Li Hing Mui powder, the addictive pink powder sprinkled on everything from pineapples to gummy bears to popcorn in Hawaii. The powder is sour, sweet, and savory all at once. We suggest using it with the dried fruit as well—just sprinkle a bit on. Ours is packaged in a glass jar that comes with a tiny spoon.

This delicate plum powder is produced by Shangi, a third-generation plum family business in Chia Yi, Central Taiwan. Having learned how to grow and produce plum products during Taiwan's Japanese era, Grandma and Grandpa Gao set up their own organic plum orchard in the 1950's to sustain a living.

To produce the plum powder, fresh green plums are first brined with coarse sea salt in alternating layers for six months in large vats. Then, the plums are rinsed and sun dried for two months before being ground into powder.

This plum powder is all natural. No artificial sweeteners or food colorings are used (for reference, aspartame is found in almost every commercial plum powder). Ours is just 4 ingredients: plum, salt, sugar, and licorice powder.

This product was made possible by a crowdfunding project on Kickstarter to support Taiwanese farmers that are vulnerable to trade volatility between Taiwan and China. Plum Powder was the most requested reward, and we were able to add it after we hit 1000 backers.

Ingredients and Instructions

50g

ground dried plums, sea salt, powdered sugar, licorice powder

best when consumed within 18 months from production date. best before dates are printed on each jar

Thanks and Acknowledgements

We have many people to thank for helping us realize this project:

-All of the incredible farmers and their teams who tirelessly grew, dried, and packed these amazing fruits

-Feng for all her tenacity and agility in being our woman on the ground, packing and shipping all of the products out of Taiwan
All our friends and families who we put off or ignored or cancelled plans with to get these fruits out

-Hyphen Works for their passionate and thorough creative direction of our kickstarter campaign and our packaging, even when asked at a moment's notice

-Overice and Jessica Chen for turning around the most beauitful fruit illustrations more or less overnight (can i take a bite out of that wax apple? I'm still wondering)

-Leh Lin for dropping everything to join us on a last minute sourcing trip and his help with late night product photography

-Jeremiah Chiu for letting us use his amazing music for our Kickstarter video

- Sony Jin for pushing all the boundaries to rush deliver us the most beautiful packaging

-Xiao Luo and Xiao Yeh for producing cardboard boxes during a paper shortage and driving multiple hours to hand deliver them at a day’s notice

-Bryant for working tirelessly to find us a ship and a container amidst the shipping craziness

-Angeline and Annabel who made sure our products arrived and cleared customs without a hitch

- Melinda Roeleveld, Elisabeth Roeleveld, Christopher Roeleveld, James Smith, and Agnes Cheng for their help with the little ones while we edited video and copy again and again

- All our friends and family who we put off or ignored or cancelled plans with to get these fruits out

And of course thank you to our 1,117 backers, with special acknowledgment to the MEGA supporters below:

Aaron Jen, Acousticsheep LLC, Ada Chen, Agnes Cheng, Alexander Dumitriu, Allison Teng, Angela Juang, Annlie Huang, Arthur Keller, Belle Huang, Bill Himmelsbach, Brian Goldberg, Calvin Szeto, Caroline Chan, Cindy Hom, Debbie Lai, Derek Houng, Edward Liu, Emily Chang, Emily Kuo, Eric Delagardelle, Eugenia Hu, Felix Hu, Grace Flaak, Hanna Huang, Ho Chie Tsai, Ho Tsai, Hui Miao, Ian Anderson, James Lin, Jane Lui, Jean Han, Jeff Ho, Jeff Shieh, Jennifer Liang, Jimmy Qiu, John Wei, Josephina Shih, Josh Ku, Juliana Shyu, Justina Cheng, Kari Parks, Katherine Tsay, Kelvin Yen, King Leung, Larry Debrock, Lilly Lampe, Linda Hou, Lynna Tsou, Margaret Chou, Marcel Molina, Mei Edwards, Misty Burnett, Nikki Depaola, Olivia Tzou, Pamela Rose, Serena Teng, The Chuang Family, Trigg Brown, Wei-Zen Wei, and Xin Liu