Coconut candy (kẹo dừa)

Coconut candy or kẹo dừa, one of the most popular candies in Vietnam, esp. in the South, along with banana candy! Both of them are purely traditional candies from Mekong Delta. Coconut candies are mostly from Bến Tre, the coconut's homeland!

          In small workshop in Cái Bè (Tiền Giang), the workers demonstrate how to make the candy!  

Kẹo dừa is simple but very tasty! Mainly with original coconut flavor, sweet, soft...sometime mixed with durian or pandan leave flavor or roasted peanut. I enjoy durian, but I don't like coconut candy with durian flavor, I prefer a combination of coconut and peanut! Long in the past I didn't like how to unwrap the paper from the candy as they sticked together : the paper and candy! Nowadays we have double wrapping: inside with edible rice paper and outside oil paper! The problem solved!  

             Coconut candy made of coconut cream mixed with malt sirup...

Coconut candies are very affordable, so affordable that's why kids in Saigon rarely request these candies as gift from anyone, but people from Mekong Delta keep buying it as presents to their relatives living in big cities like Saigon, Hanoi...and everyone always enjoy regardless of their value.

Eating coconut candy, I prefer taking not only one but two pieces...at once, in order to feel the rich and tasty coconut flavor, but at the same time my mouth can do exercise...because the coconut candy is not that soft, always pretty chewy!

              It could be added with durian flavor or roasted peanut to enrich the taste! 

The production line for coconut candies is quite simple, but to make a good quality candies is far from ease! We need to select a right coconut with super fresh flesh, then grate them, press them to extract the coconut cream and milk! The next step is how to mix with the good quality malt sirup...and this is the maker's secret how much to add the sirup or probably some other ingredients...we never know!

           Ready-to-pack candies! 

The coconut candies have been exported to some markets as US, Canada or Europe, to be sold in some grocery stores for overseas Vietnamese or other Asians who loves the flavor of this special candies, there was a time or maybe still now, the legal fight between a famous Vietnamese coconut candies manufacturer with Thai or Chinese ones as they produce candies somewhere else in China or Thailand, different flavor, different quality, but always label as "Product of Vietnam"!

          The final packaging with the maker's label! 

I regret that no one in Vietnam can build up a good brand for coconut candies from the Land of Coconut - "Bến Tre", with super quality, in rich collection, with eye-catching packaging so we can be proud of it as the Swiss - with their chocolate! Let's hope for one beautiful day!