Being a tropical country, Vietnam is lucky to be gifted with many pieces of tasty fruit. And not only local pieces make the brand of Vietnam fruit, there are some pieces even come from neighbor countries but grow so well on the soil of Vietnam in Tra Vinh province that overwhelm their ancestors, wax coconut is one of those kinds.
The story of the wax coconut started in 1942 when a Khmer Monk carried 2 baby coconut trees to Vietnam when returning from Battambang, Cambodia as he was impressed with the special taste of the kind when he was in Cambodia. Somewhere in the 60s of 20th century, a local inhabitant successfully asked for the coconut seeding from the abbot of Cho pagoda and planted it at the green area 4 kilometers from Cau Ke town. Until the year of 20000, wax coconut was still considered invaluable and local people just ate them for fun. Especially, at some period people even cut down the trees because they took to much place.
However, the destiny of wax coconuts changed when the living standards went up. People started to realize that the unusual coconuts with soft copra like beewax and viscous water was a the great ingredients for the beloved smoothy. Only with a little of condensed milk and grinded ice, a mouth-watering glass of coconut smoothy is ready for enjoying in just few minutes. Gradually, the fame of wax coconut has flown to all parts of country resulting the increase demand for the local delicacy. It’s time when farmers started their journey to grow the wax coconut.
But the journey of the farmers was not simple. Wax coconut is a haughty piece, it only give the true wax coconuts when trees are planted in specific part of Cau Ke, Tra Vinh. People tried planting them in many different areas but they only gave normal fruits. And, also not all the fruits produced by a single wax coconut tree are had wax, only around 2-4 of them did. Later, with scientitsts’ interference, the rate of having wax increased but still, they never produced all fruits with wax.
Being the specialty of Tra Vinh province, wax coconuts have special sweetness that even without milk or sugar, eaters once taste it would never forget. Also, the wax coconuts are much more nutritious than others of their family. Thus, the wax coconuts from Tra Vinh have travelled all around the country and become a welcomed kind of fruit that every visitor to the place always try to buy some as a travel gift when returning home. If you travel here, don’t miss this interesting fruit!
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