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Uses of coconut - #46

This young man is a Toddy Tapper. He deftly climbs coconut palms, cuts the ends of the flowering branches and then gently taps the remaining stem with a water buffalo bone twice a day for 12 days to encourage the flow of juices.

He collects this extract in a gourd which he hangs at the end of the flowering fronds. When enough of this white sap has accrued he brings it to government licensed Toddy Houses where it further ferments until it has reached the strength of beer.

Habitués can buy a liter bottle for about $1 and it's one of the very few alcoholic drinks you can readily purchase in Kerala. When he climbed down from this palm we tasted it fresh from his gourd. A delicious, slightly fizzy fermented, coconut milky drink - delicious.