Nunchi Notes 003: Why TF I Created Good Nunchi

I used to turn into a tomato every time I drank. My face would flush, my heart would race, and sometimes I had trouble breathing. Like a lot of other Asian kids in college, I started taking Pepcid before going out. It felt like this magical little pill, even though I always had a weird feeling about it. It was waxy, oddly small, and I just knew deep down it probably wasn’t good for me.

I gave Pepcid a lot of my money throughout college and most of my 20s. It became part of my routine, and gave me anxiety whenever I ran out of it and had to stop by CVS to get more. But by 2022, something shifted. We were all recovering from COVID, and alcohol was hitting different. I’d have one beer and wake up in the middle of the night with joint pain or feel totally inflamed the next day. And I realized Pepcid wasn’t actually helping my body at all.

That’s when I started asking real questions. What does my body actually need to process alcohol? What does the liver actually do? I started reading everything I could get my hands on, especially articles from the National Institutes of Health and other medical journals. That’s how I found out about ingredients like glutathione, and specifically Setria®, a form of glutathione that’s actually absorbed by the body.

I began experimenting with ingredients already on the market. I tested them on myself, my cousin and her friends at her bachelorette, and on some heavy drinkers in Koreatown. The ingredients worked. Like really worked. It felt like my body was finally being supported instead of just masked.

After that, I searched for a manufacturer. I spoke to a lot of companies that seemed scammy. But thankfully, I found a manufacturer that believed in what I was doing and was willing to take on a small opening order.

I launched Good Nunchi with the support of ThingTesting, which has millions of users, and strangers across the country tried the first batch of capsules. Today, Good Nunchi has a 4.5-star rating, and some incredibly kind reviews that remind me why I started this in the first place.

Right now, I’m in the in-between phase. I’m actually pretty afraid to crowdfund and haven’t launched that yet because I keep telling myself I don’t know enough people. It feels vulnerable to put something out there and ask for support, let alone ask for anything at all. But I also know I believe in this, and I’m going to push myself to try anyway very soon!

Thank you for even being interested enough to read this. It really means a lot.