New Haven (Re)invents Mouthwash

Green tea doesn’t do it for me — as a beverage.

As a mouthwash? Much better.

And honeysuckle — it turns out that helps the sea salt go down. Though you can’t really taste it.

Fruit punch ended up being my favorite flavor when I tested out the four flavors in a new line of New Haven-produced ​“natural” mouthwashes.

Bill Qian invented and is selling the new mouthwashes. Since 1999, Qian has sold other manufacturers’ products at Naturegene, his downtown New Haven herbal-porducts store. Three months ago he added his own NatureGene brand. The idea behind it is to offer an herbal alternative to chemical-tasting mouthwash loaded with alcohol, and leaving an aftertaste ruined by artificial coloring. Naturegene’s product comes in four flavors: green tea, sea salt, coconut and fruit punch.

I visited the eclectic shop to meet Bill Qian, the owner and founder of Naturegene. After nearly 30 minutes chatting about their store and product, Qian and his crew (including sales manager Lilian Martinez and storage manager Tao Li) sent me home with 50 mL bottles of their four flavors.

Qian said his mouthwash contains ​“not all-natural ingredients but more natural ingredients.” Each flavor has a trademark component: Sea salt has honeysuckle, green tea has aloe vera, fruit punch has dandelion, and coconut has lilyturf root.

I hadn’t used mouthwash since the days when my mom supervised me while I conducted my nightly dental routine. Since then, there’s been a large container of Listerine in my childhood bedroom, seemingly preserved from the chemicals and alcohol. But what do I know? I never use it.

I was apprehensive to try Qian’s brand. I saved the taste test for my night shift at my job, figuring it could be a merry break from manning a desk. Naturally, my coworkers helped me out.

Click on the video at the top if you’d like to watch my taste test.

In the end, I liked fruit punch the best; my friend preferred sea salt. My coworker spoke highly of coconut while I myself enjoyed that taste the least. In spite of our differences, we all agreed that the mouthwash flavors were subtle and gentle on our teeth.

At Naturegene, Qian has traditionally focused on the sale of Chinese herbal medicine, in line with his Chinese roots.

In 2016, he generated the idea of cooking up his own mouthwash. He visited his hometown of Suzhou, China, and began to conduct market research; he learned that 40 percent of Americans reportedly don’t use mouthwash. He began interviewing some of them to find out why. Often, their avoidance of the product revolved around its strength and fervent use of chemicals.

Buyers can purchase the resulting mouthwash in batches of 50mL, 90mL or 930mL (the ​“family size”) in one of the four flavors. Nine other stores also carry the product, including Elm City Market and C‑Town –– as well as Orange Cigar and More, which, according to Qian, sells the mouthwash with the idea that people would want to rinse their mouth after a smoke. The product is also available on Amazon.