Insider Insight: Where Do Our Coconut Aminos Come From?
Our business is built on that husky glory, the coconut. Of just as much importance is the tree that produces it. However, without our incredible suppliers, we’d fail to do either the tree or the hairy fruit justice.
One such gem of a supplier is the incredible Linda, from the Philippines, who supplies our delectable and sought after coconut aminos. This is a story about why we love her coconut products and are happy to put The Coconut Company name on them.
Coconut suppliers matter
Anyone working in retail knows that suppliers have the ability to make or break the business. For food products this is even more the case. There is a huge spectrum containing the Good, the Bad and the Ugly when it comes to coconut product supply. What matters for our distributors is that they are only getting the good stuff for their consumers.
That means exceptional in terms of taste, awesome in terms of minimal processing, outstanding in terms of sustainability and frankly excellent in terms of ethics. Tall order, we know. But we make it possible.
Being a small enough company, without complicated supply chains, means we can offer complete traceability and transparency to consumers and distributors. That’s where the relationship between The Coconut Company and Linda comes in.
A love story
The story of Linda’s relationship with the coconut palm is a love story which forms part of our own story. It tells a tale of returning home to re-discover a rich tradition (yes, humble coconut, we’re looking at you).
Linda returned to her home area in the Philippines following a corporate career. She reignited knowledge of her mother’s skill, and indeed a dying art: crafting natural vinegar from the coconut sap.
Coconut sap is the glorious oozing sweet liquid which comes from the coconut tree blossoms. It’s not from the coconut itself.
It’s not an easy sap to harvest. Think about it, the flowers are at the top of the tree! However, it’s worth harvesting because of its incredible use in various healthy coconut products such as coconut amino sauces and coconut vinegars, but also because it’s a sustainable process and environmentally better than many other farming techniques.
Coconut blossom sap is bursting with goodness. It’s crammed full of vitamins and minerals (gram for gram it has 6 times the zinc of carrots and twice the iron of broccoli!). It’s also rich in amino acids and has a low GI rating. From this sap come two of our main product types: when it’s fermented and aged it becomes vinegar; when it’s heated it becomes coconut nectar.
In creating a business to harvest coconut blossom sap, Linda breathed life in to the local community. This is, very much, a local business. The farms and factory are locally run; for and by locals. All are certified organic by Ecocert SA and have the Fair Trade accolade too.
This also explains why harvesting the sap is so sustainable. The coconut trees aren’t damaged at all by sap harvesting. Each tree continues producing sap for over 20 years. It cannot be mass-produced because of the complicated harvesting technique. That’s a good thing!
Bringing Linda’s coconut vinegars and aminos to you!
We’re proud to say we work with Linda and can directly see where our coconut vinegars and coconut amino sauces come from. It gives you (and your consumer) complete traceability from coconut palm to bottle. What’s not to love?
If you want to feel good about the coconut products you source, and know you’re choosing exceptional products that don’t just taste good but are good to farmers and the environment, then Buy in Bulk and get your hands on the good stuff.