Coconut
vinegar-making in Sorsogon
Vinegar You Can Almost Drink
Tuba,
a local alcoholic drink made from the sap of a coconut tree, turns sour
after two or three days. After eight to 12 weeks of fermentation,
tuba becomes pure and natural organic vinegar.
BY TAMMY DE CASTRO
Bulatlat

FIRST STEP: Tuba
gatherer extracts sap from the spadix – the first step in tuba
processing |
If only we can drink
the fresh tuba before it becomes vinegar.
Tuba,
or the sweet, freshly-gathered coconut sap was a popular alcoholic
beverage in the Philippines in the early 50’s. However, it never reached
the level of large-scale, commercial production. Now, tuba is
getting a boost with the production of organic coconut vinegar.
Sorsogon Foods
Enterprises, owned by Erlinda Corsiga, makes “Lola Conching’s” Coco
Nectar, Organic Vinegars. The first step in making coconut vinegar is the
collection of tuba.
|
Tuba
turns sours after two or three days. After eight to 12 weeks of
fermentation, tuba becomes pure and natural organic vinegar.
Hurry now, and drink
your vinegar before it turns sour.
Here are the steps to
show how vinegar is produced and processed in Corsiga’s coconut farm in
Brgy. San Rafael, Bulan, Sorsogon.
Tuba,
or coconut sap is extracted from a spadix, or the tender, unopened
part of a coconut floral branch. The tuba gatherer has to climb up a
coconut tree, wrap abaca or rattan strip along the length of the selected
branch.
The wrapped branch is
then tapped with a hardwood mallet so as to carefully bruise and rapture
the tender tissues of the floral branch, which is then gradually bent
downward. The tip is tied down with abaca string to a nearby leaf branch.
The bending procedure
is repeated daily for one to two weeks until the floral branch droops.
When the branch is drooping halfway down, the tip is cut open with a sharp
knife.
After three days, sap
starts dripping from the branch, and is collected in a bamboo segment or
plastic container fastened to the branch. The daily slicing of the tip of
the branch allows the sap to flow continuously.
The mouth of the
bamboo or plastic receptacle is covered with a piece of fibrous net of
light brown stalks locally called “guinit”. This keeps out the
rainwater, insects, mice and lizards.
The tuba
gatherer transfers the sap collected in the bamboo segment to a longer
bamboo segment which hangs from his back as he climbs up and down the
trees.
The collected tuba is
filtered through a sieve of abaca fiber into a five-gallon plastic jerry
container.
Fermentation
process:
The tuba is
poured into a fermentation vessel where it becomes vinegar after a couple
of weeks or months when it reaches its natural acidity level.
The fermented tuba is
then filtered and pasteurized -- heated for 15 minutes -- and then poured
into sterilized bottles and sealed. Organic vinegar is chemical free. It
has no additive dye, flavoring, artificial colorings and preservatives.
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