Thursday, August 12, 2010

The Coconut Oil Mill at Trivandrum

The smell of coconut oil that comes out of the oil bottle you purchase from the nearest retail store is no where close to the original smell. To get that authentic smell, you need to visit a coconut oil mill. Walk in, and you are hit by an invisible curtain of heavy, warm, almost suffocating coconut flavour... I wondered if I would get high if I stayed too long.

The coconut mill crushes sun-dried coconuts...


... into golden yellow coconut oil ...


... and oil cake - which goes into cattle feed and biscuits ...





At the center of it all is the crusher machine. It takes in the dried coconut from the attic above. The pipe coming down from the attic chops the coconut into smaller pieces, which are then force fed into a horizontal, spiral tube which crushes the oil out. The oil drops down in the circular tub below. And the oil cake comes out into the basket, at the end of the tube.

Fresh coconut oil, they say, is healthier than the refined version. All I can say is, when you see that coconut being converted into that golden yellow oil, all you are thinking is, "I need something to fry.. NOW!!!"

3 comments:

Vijay Praveen said...

That oil cake is what we call.. punnakku

Anonymous said...

We are from Vietnam looking for punnakku like the pics, quantity is about 500 - 1,000mts per shipment, Please do not hesitate to contact with us. ingevietnam@gmail.com Mr Tuong. Tks

nourishyourlight said...

Can you tell me where the coconut mill is in Trivandrum? thanks