Buko Shake: What is it?

The buko shake is a very tasty treat which is a favorite among smoothie enthusiasts in the Philippines. “Buko” is the Tagalog term for coconut. The main ingredients of the smoothie are coconut meat, coconut juice and sugar. These are just the most common ingredients. There are a lot of things that you can add to these ingredients. You can get creative when making your own buko shake. You can add evaporated milk, condensed milk, honey, lime, pandan jelly, etc. It's your shake so make it your own using your very own ingredients. What's great about it is that it's very easy to make. All you need is a blender and of course, the necessary ingredients.

Most of the malls operating in the country have shake stalls and these usually offer buko shakes. These are extremely popular during hot days and in the summer season.

Buko Shake Recipe and Procedure
Here's a very simple and easy to follow recipe that you can follow to make your own tasty and thirst-quenching buko shake.

Ingredients of buko shake: coconut water or juice, grated coconut meat, ½ cup of evaporated milk, 3 tablespoons of brown sugar

Instructions:
1. Put both the coconut meat and juice in a single container then have them freeze overnight.
2. The following day, place the frozen coconut meat/juice into a blender and turn on the machine.
3. Add the milk and sugar depending on your taste.

The above is but a simplified buko shake recipe. As we said earlier, you can go creative when making your own recipe. For example, some people prefer the grated coconut meat intact meaning they are added only into the shake after juice, ice, sugar or cream are mixed in the blender. Some also enjoy their shakes more if there are pandan jelly cubes added to it. And some prefer their shakes sweet so they go with condensed milk instead of evaporated milk. Instead of sugar, you can also make use of honey as an alternative.

Buko Shake Franchise
As we said, coconut shakes are really popular in the Philippines. It is after all a country filled with people who love sweets. That said, it's big business in the Philippines. The shake stands that you see in shopping malls, food courts and market places in the country are usually under a buko shake franchise. This can be a good business to get into. You don't need a huge capital to get started. However, you should be very careful with the company you are getting the franchise from. That is if you want to get into the buko shake business. Or you could just skip the whole franchise thing and strike out on your own. It's more risky but at least you have full control.

Anyway, now that you know how to make buko shake, you should turn on that blender and start blending a cool and tasty smoothie. And one last thing, don't confuse buko shake with buko juice. Because a lot of people think that the two are the same thing. They are wrong, of course.