I first learned about Mountain Ant as a tonic supplement around 1994. I was in Hong Kong. As I was want-to-do every day I have ever spent in Hong Kong, I explored every herb shop that I came across (which, in Hong Kong, means almost every block). I discovered that there were at least a dozen popular products that were Ant-based. With names like “Every Young,” and “King Ant,” I was very attracted. From the first day I ever took an Ant elixir, I knew I had found something extraordinary. I bought them all, and read all the packing slips which told the story and science of Ant in some detail
(there was no internet quite yet).

Ant is a powerful energy tonic that I can really feel on both a short and medium-term basis (I don’t know about long-term because I take other great Qi tonics every day). That year, when Yanlin and I went on our first adventure to Changbai Mountain and to its Duanwood Reishi and Ginseng plantations, we found out that the ants used in the tonics are sourced from the Ginseng plantations of Changbai Mountain. The ants live symbiotically with the Ginseng.  I arranged to buy 25 kg - and just like that, I was in the Ant trade!

A number of years later, we learned that Ant could be extracted in the same way that herbs were extracted, making it in some ways much more potent. I wasn’t sure if I personally wanted to consume my Ant as a raw material or as an extract. I couldn’t decide which was better. So we made the Ant extract, which naturally yielded out at a 10:1 concentrate ratio, and combined it 50:50 with raw ground Ant. Ah, this product has no equal! ‘Tis perfection! Every day? Absolutely, a couple of capsules, sometimes more.

“Ginseng is the king of herbs, but Ant is the herb of kings”
– so it is said in Ginseng/Ant country.