Ben Tre Mekong Delta Day Tour: Coconut Candy Workshop and Tropical Fruits Cafe

Tropical fruits treat in Mekong Delta.

Our second stop for the Ben Tre Day Tour is a little coconut candy workshop and fresh fruits cafe located in the middle of nowhere marshland in Mekong Delta, Vietnam.

It was actually a very nice surprise to visit this lovely and secluded place. You are one with nature here and there are no direct neighbours. We travelled by motorised sampan boat from the Brick Kiln factory and arrived here in 20 minutes. Taking the boat is the only way to reach this candy workshop and cafe, and that’s quite special I think.

Here we are on the boat and almost there:

The narrow tributary rivers of Mekong Delta. We are almost there!

We just arrived at the candy farm and tropical fruits cafe.

We were shown the traditional way of making coconut candies, from raw material, a fresh coconut to the final product, the candy. Local ladies were packing the candy droppings into a paper wrapper and putting them inside plastic packs. We sampled a few freshly made ones while they were still warm and sticky. Delicious!

Then we were ushered to a table with plates of tropical fruits on display. It looks like we are getting some fresh fruit snacks and some locally made drinks. Ah, just about time as I am getting a bit hungry seeing the fleshy fruits. I know them all!

We were offered mangoes, bananas, jackfruit, pomelo, and Longan. There was also a little saucer with a salty concoction to dip dry the fruit. I am very familiar with this. In Asia, we tend to dip fruits in salt, and in Vietnam, I discovered that they have many flavoured salt dips. I even managed to buy a few in the supermarket in Saigon to bring home. One of my favourite salty dips is the spicy shrimp flavour salty dip.

We were also served with local hot tea with honey and calamansi (a small round tropical citrus fruit). Then our tour guide did a round of strong local alcoholic shots, which of course, I obliged. I must, of course, try!

It was time to leave and our sampan boat has arrived to pick us up for our next Mekong Delta destination. Stay tuned.