Chapter 83 Throwing a Stone to Test the Water

Fu Zhengtu went out this morning with Su Taotao's plan.

Su Taotao said, "Fu Zhengtu, please hand in your plan later. I plan to make a pot of coconut candy first. It will be more convincing if you bring the product to test the waters."

Fu Zhengtu lowered his eyes slightly and looked at her.

Su Taotao nodded her head and said, "Remember to tell the leader that I have countless marketing plans for all the fruits on the island. What is written in the plan is only a small part of them."

"I know," Fu Zhengtu looked at her wantonly flying eyes and asked with curved lips, "Do you have enough young coconuts at home? If not, wait until I get off work to buy some."

Su Taotao shook her head: "There are many ways to make coconut candy. This time I can't use young coconuts, I need old coconuts."

Fu Zhengtu thought for a moment and said, "The water in the old coconuts on the island is no longer sweet, and the coconut meat tastes tasteless, so few people eat it."

Most of it is knocked out and fed to the pigs.

Su Taotao said: "That's right, I just want to use the simplest method to turn trash into treasure, so that I can show my value."

Su Taotao does know several ways to make coconut candy. Some require a lot of manpower and resources, some require the assistance of modern machines, and the simplest and lowest-tech method is the one made with old coconut meat.

Coconut water is sweet and delicious, and the coconut flesh is also slightly sweet and tender. It is widely popular among people, and even Chen Chen likes to eat it.

The water from old coconuts has no taste and sometimes tastes sour and unpalatable. It is worse than drinking boiled water. However, the meat of old coconuts is a good thing. When conditions permit, it can be made into canned coconut milk and sold abroad.

But now, Su Taotao uses it to make the simplest coconut candy or coconut meat candy.

Su Taotao held Chen Chen, and Fu Zhengtu carried Chen Chen's "mount", and the family of three went out at the same time.

Chenchen wanted to take Baibai with him, but Su Taotao had to persuade him to give up the idea.

The child wore a small straw hat today. Su Taotao was worried that he would get sunburned, so she made him wear long sleeves and long pants, leaving only his white little feet exposed to the sun.

It was the first time for the little guy to sit on the "mount" his father made for him. His mother pushed him out to "show off on the street". He looked so proud and smiled at everyone he saw.

This was the most attention Su Taotao received one day after arriving on the island.

She hasn't been in the spotlight for a long time.

If her "aloof" and "untouchable" nature weren't already known to everyone, anyone with a child of the same age as Chenchen would probably come up to her and ask her about the stroller.

On the contrary, little Fu Haochen, maybe because he had adapted to the situation or was just too happy, was not afraid of strangers at all. Whenever anyone looked at him, he would smile back, making others blush.

Su Taotao wandered around for a long time before she found a few old coconuts. The coconut stall owner refused to take her money, saying that this kind of coconuts were generally not for sale and were used to feed livestock.

Times have changed, and Su Taotao didn't know what to say. She thanked the stall owner and put the old coconuts in the basket under the car.

The stall owner had a little girl about four or five years old, and Su Taotao gave her a handful of candies.

The little girl thanked him and took it happily. She stared at Chen Chen with her big round eyes and smiled shyly.

Chenchen smiled at her. She shyly hid behind her father, but couldn't help but secretly poking her head out to look.

Chenchen deliberately widened his eyes and tilted his head to look back at her.

She hid back again.

Chenchen thought that someone was playing hide-and-seek with him and laughed happily.

The two children didn't say a word, but they had a lot of fun.

Very interesting.

It was the first time that Su Taotao saw Chen Chen interacting so happily with a stranger.

The child became more cheerful, and she felt more relieved.

She pushed Chenchen to buy two kilograms of sugar.

For lunch, I bought two pounds of mantis shrimp and half a pound of seaweed. For dinner, I bought a pig's trotter and some vegetables. It was complete.

Fu Yuanhang is at the peak of his growth spurt. Su Taotao has been cooking very light dinners lately, so he is always hungry at night but is too embarrassed to say it.

Su Taotao saw him drinking water voraciously and asked him several times before he told the truth.

When he was hungry in his hometown, he would stew sweet potatoes for himself, but here, when he was hungry, he would just drink water.

Chenchen drinks milk before going to bed, but this silly boy doesn't even go to make a cup of malted milk and refuses to tell her.

Twenty-first century nutrition science was not applicable in the seventies. There were no high-salt, high-sugar, and high-fat snacks or drinks back then. All nutritional intake came from three meals a day. Although their family was not wealthy, the children were not hungry.

So Su Taotao stopped worrying about it. She just bought whatever she wanted to eat and she just had to eat less.

Children should go out for a walk more often. They will be happier after a walk.

The only thing that made the child unhappy was that Su Taotao locked his "mount" under the awning downstairs, so his uncle couldn't push him around in the morning.

Even after adding a lock, Su Taotao was still worried about the property being stolen. Although the punishment for thieves is very severe these days, there are still people who are not afraid of death. Some people even dare to steal children, let alone cars.

Su Taotao started making coconut candy with a nervous mood.

The raw materials for old coconut candy are actually very simple, just shredded coconut and white sugar, but peeling and shredding are particularly laborious.

The main reason was that Su Taotao was not strong enough, and it took her a long time to turn four old coconuts into coconut shreds that were not much thicker than paper.

The next step is to make syrup. Su Taotao tasted some coconut water, kept the ones that were not spoiled, and poured them into white sugar to make syrup together. This way, the "original soup and original food" will have a richer taste than directly adding water to boil.

Wait for the coconut milk to completely dissolve the sugar, stir it into a sticky brown syrup, then add the shredded coconut and stir fry continuously until every piece of coconut is coated with sugar color. Now you can remove the mixture from the pan and place it in the same flat plate you normally use to steam sausage rice noodles.

Then take out a rolling pin and press the dough evenly while it’s still hot, making it into a finger-thick cookie.

After letting it cool, you can use a knife to cut it into even-sized candies.

This authentic, traditional handmade coconut candy is ready.

In fact, it can be improved a bit, such as adding peanuts, sesame seeds, etc., which will make it taste more fragrant and delicious. Of course, the cost will be higher, and the selling price will also increase.

Excluding labor costs, the cost of this basic coconut candy is actually about the same as that of ordinary candy, making it very competitive in the market.

Plus, it’s a local specialty, as it’s only available in the southernmost coastal cities. Local people may not be interested in it, and they can even make it themselves if they figure it out. But if it’s shipped to central and northern cities, the market potential will be huge.

These days, transportation and express delivery are not well developed, and fresh fruits from the south are difficult to transport to the north for sale. However, processed products do not have this problem.

If we want to enter the mid-to-high-end market, we can also launch peanut and sesame versions in the future.

After cooling, the sugar cookies will become very hard and you will need to hammer the back of the knife while cutting them.

Next is packaging. Good products must be accompanied by exquisite packaging to leave a good impression on people and sell at a good price.

But in this age of limited conditions, gimmicks should be avoided if possible.

Su Taotao found two cowhide bags, painted the blue sea and sky, coconuts and coconut trees on them, wrote "Produced by xx base handicraft workshop" on the side, and wrote "Traditional handmade coconut candy" in the largest font in the middle.

A simple and clear cover was created successfully.

As the first taster of coconut candy, Chenchen gave his mother a high evaluation: "Great~~"

Su Taotao took a bite and found it sweet and crispy, with a rich coconut milk aroma. The more you chew it, the more fragrant it becomes. It tastes really good.

If Fu Zhengtu takes such a product to test the waters, the chances of success will be greatly increased.