One of the benefits of doing a website about candy is the number of times I’ve been invited/gone to candy making facilities. Some of the places I’ve visited are giant factories while other times it’s a place that’s smaller than my kitchen. I can’t say I’ve ever had a bad experience at a candy makers domain, so when given the opportunity I never turn it down. On a recent trip to Vietnam I was given the opportunity to visit a really fascinating place that makes coconut candy.
The most interesting part of this factory is that it’s not very big, yet they do so much. They literally start with whole coconuts, with the husks and all and finish with a packaged candy. The first step in making these coconut candies is getting the coconut out of husks. You often hear about candy makers using local ingredients, these local ingredients are literally grown just outside the factory, harvested and brought in to be husked. Best of all, they use each and every part afterwards as well.
After clearing out the meat of the coconut they send it to this machine that basically gives you ground coconut on one end and coconut milk on the other. This is the kind of machine I could watch all day, and frankly I’m not entirely sure how it performs it’s magic.
The other good thing about a candy making facility like this is that there’s no secrets. The ingredient list is two things, coconut and malt (for sweetening). The malt is brought in separately, they don’t have a facility to make that, but the coconut and malt are mixed together and heated up. One of the sources for the fire to heat the candy mixture is actually the coconut husks.
After the coconut and malt mixture is cooked and has turned into a taffy like consistency, it’s spread out on a table, flattened and cut into strips. The strips are then cut into small squares using the most intense large knife I’ve ever seen in a candy kitchen.
As a note, this is the best time to sample this candy, fresh off the line.
After it’s cooled a bit, it’s sorted and sent off to the packaging machine. Fortunately the candies that don’t fit the right size and shape are also available as more samples.
Watching people make candy from the raw ingredients until they’re packed in a bag is pretty amazing. It not only shows great skill, but also great care. If you every find yourself on Unicorn Island in the Mekong Delta area of Vietnam, why not watch them make some coconut candy.
