Unique Ben Tre floating coconut market - Episode 3: Variation of once-discarded dried coconut water

13/02/2023 1140 0
Ở các vựa thu mua, chế biến dừa khô dọc đôi bờ sông Thom, tôi thấy thợ lột vỏ, cạy cơm, gọt dừa, người nào cũng có chiếc bình lạnh đựng nước uống. Tôi cứ đinh ninh thợ hằng ngày lăn lóc cùng trái dừa thì nước giải khát trong bình phải là nước dừa.

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Bringing dried coconuts to the barn along the Thom River - Photo: HUNG ANH

But Mr. Pham Van Minh, who has nearly 10 years of experience working in many jobs at the Thom River coconut market, laughed: "In the jar is iced tea. It's not that the owner forbids the workers to drink coconut water, but every day the workers touch and smell the coconut, bored to death, who can drink it?"

Nutrients once flooded the river

Mr. Minh said that after 2000, dried coconuts from different places were brought to purchasing warehouses along the Thom River and were processed very neatly: the shells were supplied to businesses and coconut fiber production facilities; As for the coconut shells (coconut seeds), the owner puts them on boats and takes them to the Ham Luong River to sell to transport ships for export to China.

After a while, because exported coconut seeds were subject to more stringent standards, the number of coconuts that could not be exported abroad was quite large in coconut granaries, while the domestic market could not consume them in time.

Since then, businesses and facilities processing products from dried coconut meat have appeared, helping coconut barn owners in Thom River deal with the quantity of coconut seeds that do not meet export standards.

"As I remember, back then people only took two things from dried coconuts: the threads in the coconut shell and the coconut meat to process into other products. The remaining parts of the coconut were considered waste products, including nutritious coconut water," Mr. Minh said.

According to him, splitting a 1kg coconut to get processed coconut meat can yield from 250 grams to 300 grams of pure coconut water, depending on how thick or thin the coconut meat is.

If on average each year Thom River coconut market buys and sells about 150 million coconuts, of which 50% are qualified for export, the remaining 50% are used for coconut meat for processing, then the amount of dried coconut water obtained is very large.

"Everyone knows coconut water is very nutritious, but a normal person cannot drink dried coconut water every day to replace regular water.

There are many coconut peelers who, when they first started working, thought that dried coconut water was easy to drink and that the more they drank, the more nutritious it would be. But after just a few days, they panicked when they saw coconut water. Therefore, for workers who have worked for many years in coconut barns along the Thom River, almost everyone is bored when they see coconut water," Mr. Minh said.

Meanwhile, Ms. Cuc, a coconut peeler, said the special thing about dried coconut water is that it is difficult to preserve. Coconut water taken out of the shell, left out in the natural environment from the day before to the next day (about 12 hours, usually called overnight coconut water) has a sour taste, cannot be used for anything, must... be thrown away.

Therefore, before dried coconut water was used as a raw material to produce coconut jelly and coconut water, a large amount of coconut water was damaged and poured into the Thom River.

"Back then, people only identified the culprit that made the water of the Thom River black because of pollution for many years as coco peat, a waste product in the coconut fiber production process. No one paid attention to the large amount of dried coconut water being dumped into the river every day, which also contributes to pollution.

But for many years now, dried coconut water is no longer a waste product. Every day, there are trucks going to coconut processing facilities to buy dried coconut water for 10,000 VND/30 liter barrel. Even though it's cheap, coconut water is no longer thrown away and wasted like before," Ms. Cuc said.

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Everything in today's coconuts makes money, including the water that used to flood rivers and canals - Photo: HUNG ANH

Becoming useful products

Ms. Cuc said that nearly ten years ago, she worked as a worker in a raw coconut jelly production facility. Due to poor health and heavy work, Ms. Cuc switched to coconut peeling.

"Dried coconut water from the warehouse must be brought to the coconut jelly production facility within 12 hours to avoid becoming stale and sour. Before production, coconut water must be filtered to remove impurities, mainly coconut fiber dust mixed up in the process of breaking coconut shells to get water," Ms. Cuc said.

After filtering, coconut water is added with nutrients, then boiled and cooled. Producing a batch of raw coconut jelly must go through 17 different stages, of which the most important stage is the fermentation process.

The fermentation process of coconut water lasts from 15 to 20 days at the appropriate temperature, ensuring hygiene. After fermentation, dried coconut water will form raw coconut jelly with an ivory yellow color. On average, for every 3 liters of dry coconut water, 1kg of pure raw coconut jelly can be obtained.

 

According to Mr. Minh, in recent years Ben Tre coconut jelly has been a famous product, popular with the domestic and export markets. Currently, the selling price of 1kg of raw coconut jelly ranges from 70,000 VND to 75,000 VND.

Thanks to that, the huge amount of dried coconut water in the coconut barns along the Thom River is no longer considered a waste product.

According to scientific documents, coconut jelly is called Nata de Coco, originating from the Philippines. This is a food gel product obtained from the fermentation process of old coconut water (dried coconut). Coconut jelly is almost transparent, chewy and often used as candy or served with drinks and used as an ingredient in foods.

Studies show that coconut jelly is a healthy food because it is rich in fiber, low in calories, does not contain cholesterol and is good for the digestive system, so it is popular with many people.

Mr. Minh said that in addition to producing coconut jelly, part of the dried coconut water at the Thom River coconut market is sold to coconut water production facilities, a famous product of Ben Tre coconut land.

"Producing coconut colored water from dried coconut water takes a lot of effort, firewood and the yield rate is very low. However, currently the selling price of pure Ben Tre coconut colored water is quite high, about 250,000 VND/liter," Minh said.

According to the owner of a coconut water production facility in Ben Tre, to get 1 liter of coconut water, you need about 20 liters of dried coconut water, equivalent to 60-80 coconuts, depending on the size, but you must get fresh coconut water, not sour. After filtering the coconut water, put 10 liters in the pot and cook for 2 hours.

Then add 4 liters of coconut water to the pot and continue cooking for 2 hours. Finally, add all the remaining coconut water, cook over low heat for 6 hours, until you see the coconut water in the pot has dried up and turned the color of cockroach wings, and you're done.

In total, a 1-liter batch of coconut-colored water takes 10 hours to cook, which is commonly called "making colored water". During the process of boiling pure colored water, absolutely do not add plain water to cook with coconut water. The important thing with the job of "making colored water" from coconut is that the worker must always be on duty at the kitchen to watch the fire and not let the batch of colored water burn.

Because pure Ben Tre coconut water has a delicious flavor and eye-catching color, plus the production process takes a lot of time, effort and the cost of cooking ingredients (firewood, charcoal), the selling price is very high on the market.

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Over the past 20 years, Thom River coconut market has had a scene of crowded boats and warehouses close to bustling businesses, mainly thanks to the profession of making coconut fiber. Someone became a billionaire...

HUNG ANH

Source https://tuoitre.vn (Tuoi Tre Online)

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