Shi Mei Yu

Shi Mei Yu traces its founding to 1774, when Shih Chih-ting opened the original shop in Quanzhou, Fujian; a second generation later brought the business across the strait to Lukang, and it moved to its current home in Yuanlin, Changhua County, in 1971. Seven generations on, it remains a family-run incense maker with more than two centuries of continuous operation behind it.

The house's defining product is what it trademarked as 'original-color incense' — sticks and coils left uncolored and unscented by synthetic dye or added fragrance, made instead from the natural tone and smell of the agarwood and sandalwood used to produce them, a stance the company has promoted for more than 20 years as both an environmental and a health-conscious choice. It also produces low-smoke lines built around the same natural-ingredient approach.

That focus has been recognized outside the shop itself: Shi Mei Yu's products meet Swiss SGS and Taiwan CNS testing standards, and the company won a 1996 Taiwan Commerce Achievement Gold Award and a 2000 National Quality Award gold medal, external validation for a business that markets itself squarely on ingredient transparency rather than scent alone.