Couple’s love for grass jelly turns into thriving side business
KUANTAN: Their newfound skill of making grass jelly or cincau unexpectedly led to side income for Muhammad Syafik and his wife Nor Hafsah Omar.
According to Bernama, they were spurred on by their love of drinking glass jelly drinks.
It all started when the couple, both 32, uploaded photographs of their homemade grass jelly on their Facebook page.
“My husband and I just shared the grass jelly that we made after my sister-in-law showed us how to make it last year but I didn’t expect anyone to ask us to sell it,” Nor Hafsah, who works as a bank executive here.
Soon after, she and her husband – a lecturer at the International Islamic University of Malaysia here – started making the grass jelly to sell to neighbours and friends during the movement control order last year.
“During the MCO, we both worked from home and couldn’t go out anywhere. With time on our hands after office work was done, we fulfilled the grass jelly orders,” said the mother of three.
Sharing how to produce the jelly from the leaves of Mesona chinensis, Nor Hafsah said they use just three ingredients, namely the leaves imported from Indonesia, cassava flour and soda water.
She said the leaves are boiled and filtered before being mixed with the other ingredients.
“The mixture will be left to thicken for about two hours before it is ready,” she said, adding that a kilogramme of the leaves can make about 70 containers of jelly.
They use the commercial name “CheGuu Cincau” for their product, said Muhammad Syafik, adding that they are now able to produce about 300 containers a week compared with only 30 initially.
He said apart from the jelly, they also now sell grass jelly drinks and starter packs known as “Cincau Starterpack Homemade” using e-commerce platforms.
The couple is elated that the business they have been running for a year is showing returns as the product is being marketed in 30 supermarkets, sundry shops and petrol station shops around Kuantan; they also work with sales agents in Melaka and the Klang Valley.
In fact, they received so many orders that they had to rent a shop lot as they were unable to store the products in their home.
During Ramadan, for instance, they had to make more than 700 containers of jelly and more than 8,000 bottles of the grass jelly drink.