Tropical Cooking with Travel Man - 2nd Beverage: Santolada
Vote for my Santolada!!!
The santol tree here inside the premise of our boarding house is bearing lots of fruits this month. Since, we are all Bicolanos, we will never forget how its flesh (usually the half-ripen ones) can be made into a variety of Bicol Express (with smoked fish and red pepper or labuyo cooked in coconut milk) and its seeds can be concocted as Santolada - just like lemonade.
Santol in the USA or Canada is called wild mangosteen or lolly fruit. It is also widely known as sour apple among the international tourists who happened to enjoy it during the month of June, July or August or when the wet season starts here in the Philippines.
That's what I'm going to share with you about my home-made tropical beverages. If you happened to miss my cocoa drink, this Santolada will also be new to you.
More often than not, the locals will just sip its sour-sweet seeds for just some sets of seconds and will just throw it somewhere in the backyard.
I've seen something differently about it. My childhood days were spent climbing santol trees in our homestead just to get the ripe fruits ahead from my older brother.
So, now, your self-proclaimed chef of the house easily prepared the utensils and the seeds, clean water and brown sugar. Woolah, It's Santolada-in-the-houseI Come on, let's have a sip!
Just like that. If a drink mixer jug is available, then, you can really extract the juice then add rum or mix it with other juices, such as orange juice for a twist of cocktail drinks, like Princessa and rum stinger.
Add lots of cubed ice for a very cool, satisfying afternoon drink.
Note: It's largely available in the Philippines, this Santolada drink. I don't know if it's commercially viable already.
(With personal opinion and biases from travel_man1971 aka Ireno A. Alcala -June 19, 2012)
Preparation Time: 10minutes or less
Ingredients
- 1/2 kilogram santol or sour apple, seeds separated from pulp
- 1 liter drinking water
- 500 grams sugar, organic, brown
- 1 piece pitcher, glass or plastic
- 1 piece ladle, for mixing
- 10 pieces glasses, for drinking
- 1 piece kitchen knife, preferable Chef's knife
- 1/2 kilogram ice, cubes
How To Do It
- PREPARATION: Separate the seeds from pulp, by cutting santol fruits crosswise.
- MIXING: Put the sugar and seeds in the pitcher. Mix it with ladle and add the water gradually. Have a taste test with a separate spoon. Add the cubed ice.
- SERVING: Like I said, 5 happy kids and 5 elders will gulf this drink in a jiffy, quenching their thirst in a hurry. Enjoy!!!
| Nutrition Facts | |
|---|---|
| Serving size: 250 ml/glass | |
| * The Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet, so your values may change depending on your calorie needs. The values here may not be 100% accurate because the recipes have not been professionally evaluated nor have they been evaluated by the U.S. FDA. |
What becomes of the Santol pulps?
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Santol, the Lolly Fruit or Sour Apple or Wild Mangosteen
Santol tree is also included as one of the most important components in Philippine Medicinal Plants. It became adapted and established here in the country but it came from Malaysia, Laos and Cambodia. It is also cultivated in India, Indonesia and Andaman Islands
With its scientific name, Sandoricum koetjape, it is found out that it is high in carbohydrates, fair in Vitamin B and iron but low in Vitamin C.
It's oiled leaves serve as tonic drink for mothers who just gave birth. It's barks and roots or even leaves are usually pounded or made as poultice for ringworm. rashes and other skin infection.
Santol is rich in sandoricum acid and what's fascinating about this plant is the recent studies done by scientists with their latest discovery of its anti-cancer properties.
Roots are aromatic, carminative, antispasmodic, astringent, stomachic, and tonic.
Fruits are considered as natural astringent.
