How about using coconut milk to make tea, coffee and
shakes? It is a possibility, going by research currently on at the
Central Plantation Crops Research Institute, Kasaragod, Kerala.
“Initial
experiments have shown encouraging results. We hope to introduce
coconut milk as a substitute for dairy milk,” P. Chowdappa, Director of
the institute, told
The Hindu
.
He said the institute had made vanilla and
chocolate shakes with coconut milk. “I have had all, even tea and
coffee, and they taste very good,” he said.
He said
the new use of coconut milk would help small and marginal farmers, as
sale of the raw nuts alone would not be profitable for them. The value
addition, part of the institute’s continuing research, would help.
Coconut chips, virgin oil, neera and snowball tender coconut had earlier
come out of its research pipeline.
Referring to the research in the coconut sector, he said more focus was being given to developing tissue-cultured palms.
Though
the institute developed three varieties of palms tolerant to root wilt
disease common in Kerala, farmers could not be supplied enough seedlings
because fewer mother palms were available. Hence, the focus on
tissue-cultured palms.
