Green Grass Jelly Drink

Previously on my blog I have extolled the virtues of grass jelly, the healthy alternative to raspberry or strawberry with their artificially enhanced red colour and synthetic taste.  Grass jelly was sure to be a big improvement on those with its ‘green’ environmental agenda.  But I understand that there’s a drawback and that was the lengthy cooking process that grass jelly in a packet required.  The instructions on the grass jelly sachet expected consumers to add the contents to water and boil them for three minutes.  This may well be too much for the modern consumer with their busy lifestyle.  It was certainly too much for my daughter Charlotte to whom I sent a packet ( on request I may add ).  When I asked her what it tasted like she informed me that she hadn’t even tried!  And that, after the lengths I went to to send her some.

Well now it’s all different because new, convenience grass jelly drink is available in cans.  I was excited by this find in my local supermarket so bought a can and rushed it home. The ideal mixer for one of my weird bottles of rum or fake gin I thought.  But now I’ve checked the ingredients and found synthetic sweetener and synthetic green colour and synthetic flavour listed on  the side of the can.  In fact, if you remove those from the list all you are left with is water and something called ‘gelian gum’.

So it seems that you can’t beat the traditional method if you want the real taste of grass jelly.  It looks like I won’t be rushing off to the post office with a consignment of canned grass jelly drink any time soon.  Sorry Charlotte.

Grass Jelly Goes Global

Since discovering grass jelly just after I arrived in Vietnam and blogging slightly about it its popularity has increased. I might be the cause of a global taste sensation as people all around the world begin to clamour for the stuff. I'll admit for now that this groundswell of culinary excitement is so far limited to just one of my children but hey, trends normally start small before going viral. Perhaps I should have tweeted about grass jelly. Blogging is so last year.

I have been asked to post my grass jelly back to Northampton so one of my daughters can try it but the only way to do that is to visit HCMC's central post office which I did on Sunday. It's a pleasure to take the bus into town and exchange Phu My Hung's quiet streets and familiar bars and restaurants with the big city life of motorbike mayhem. I added a visit to the city's art gallery to the post office trip and grabbed a drink in the back packer ghetto too.

The ladies at the post office asked me to fill in a form saying what was in my envelop which I had carefully folded and taped so the jelly would survive the journey. This was a bit embarrassing as I didn't want them to think I was some sort of idiot would post grass jelly back to England? They were very sweet and polite about it so I dutifully completed the paperwork and handed the packet and form across the counter. Not happy with my packing or maybe the description on the form they proceeded to open the envelop and tip the contents out over their counter. They looked at the jelly, then at me and started to giggle at one another. Stuck for anything sensible to say to explain myself I told them them that grass jelly was very hard to come by in England, at least for the time being, and people there really wanted to eat it. Once Northampton gets to know about it who knows where it might spread to next. ( Milton Keynes perhaps!! )

I do have a worry however as I had to complete another form which was stuck on the newly re-wrapped envelop. My parcel is now clearly labelled 'grass jelly' and shows my address and my daughter's. When the UK customs sees it there is no way they'll let such a dangerous substance into the country. The jelly will be confiscated and will sit in a warehouse somewhere near Heathrow for years, or be subjected to rigourous drugs tests or maybe destroyed in a controlled explosion as a suspected terrorist device.

If grass jelly is to become the new, must have foody delight, as I'm sure it will, I'll have to find a more efficient and simpler way of getting it out there so the world can enjoy this new taste sensation.