Soft deer antler agarwood pills, Chuseok gift: Handong Hyoryeokhwan

Agarwood deer antler pills (chimhyang nogyong-hwan) with a soft texture that carry your care

The holidays are coming: what to give my parents?

With Chuseok (the Korean harvest holiday) approaching, I found myself wondering what to give my parents this year. It's been a similar gift every year, so this time I wanted to prepare something with a little more care.

Since it was for my parents, I compared everything carefully, right down to the ingredients and the manufacturing process. That's how I came across Hyoryeokhwan (효력환) from Handong Nogyong Yeonguso (Handong Nokyong Research Institute, the Handong Deer Antler Research Institute). There are so many kinds of deer antler products out there that it's hard to pick one just because it says it contains deer antler. So I also looked at which ingredients were used and how it was made.

What caught my eye was that Handong Nogyong Yeonguso makes its products on the basis of 40 years of deer antler research know-how. Because it's something for my parents, I found myself checking which ingredients went into it rather than simply comparing prices. After comparing a number of products that way, I settled on Handong Hyoryeokhwan.

What I especially liked, as a Chuseok deer antler gift, was the traditional bojagi (Korean wrapping cloth) packaging. With a holiday gift the product itself matters, but when the wrapping is already taken care of it makes life easier for the person preparing it, doesn't it?

A dedicated shopping bag comes with it too, so there's no need to arrange any wrapping separately. Since it's a gift, I thought it was a classy, tidy set-up for carrying over and handing to them in person.

Ingredients that bring deer antler and agarwood together

The first thing I looked at when choosing the product was the ingredients. It blends 18 prized traditional ingredients, including New Zealand deer antler, agarwood, deer horn, brewer's yeast, red ginseng, cornus fruit (sansuyu), Korean angelica (danggui), achyranthes root (useul), prepared rehmannia (sukjihwang), poria (bongnyeong), Korean yam (ma), jujube, Job's tears (yulmu), licorice and polygala root (wonji), so I liked that it was built from several ingredients together rather than deer antler alone.

When picking a deer antler pill for my parents I looked at the manufacturing process along with the kinds of ingredients, and they say a five-round kneading process based on traditional pill-making techniques is applied. With pill products, no matter how good the ingredients are, if they're too hard or chalky it's hard to keep taking them, right?

Maybe it's the five rounds of kneading, but the texture has little of that typical chalkiness or bitterness; it's soft and chewy. Each pill is individually packaged, so it's easy to take one at a time, and I thought that made it a good fit for my parents too.

I also liked that the product is made in a HACCP-certified facility. Since it's for my parents, I end up checking not just the ingredients but the manufacturing environment before choosing.

One pill a day, so it's easy to keep up with

When the product arrived, the packaging was elegant and neat. One box holds 30 pills, which makes it easy to take one a day, and since it's in pill form there's no need to mix it into water or prepare anything, which is convenient.

To be honest, you do feel a slight bitterness at first, but no artificial preservatives are added and only pure ingredients and honey are used, so a subtle sweetness lingers after you've eaten it. With most other pill products, they stick to your teeth as you chew, which is annoying, but Hyoryeokhwan has such a fine grain that it doesn't really stick.

The smell isn't a strong herbal-medicine smell either, just subtle, so there's nothing unpleasant about taking it. For something my parents will be taking, it matters that the method isn't complicated and that there's nothing off-putting about it.

How to take it: one pill a day in the morning on an empty stomach, either let it dissolve slowly or chew it, then drink some lukewarm water. Taking it in the morning seems like the best way not to forget and to keep it up, so I'm going to tell my parents they only need to take one pill a day. Since the method is simple, it should be easy for them to keep up every day.

A gift worth preparing with care for the holidays

After carefully comparing the ingredients and composition, the reasons I chose it were that it contains a range of ingredients including deer antler and agarwood, that a five-round kneading process is applied, and that it comes from Handong Nogyong Yeonguso with its 40 years of history. It ships neatly wrapped in a bojagi and shopping bag, so you can carry it straight over as a gift, which is super convenient.

At the holidays, I think the feeling that you've prepared a gift your parents actually need matters more than the price. Every single pill feels carefully prepared, which makes me feel good as the giver too. This holiday I'm going with Handong Hyoryeokhwan, bojagi wrapping and all, and handing it over in person. If you've been looking for a deer antler pill for your parents, or an agarwood deer antler pill, I recommend Hyoryeokhwan from Handong Nogyong Yeonguso.