Tongkat Ali

Last week I drove south to JB and visited two beverage companies. Both are very large and successful businesses, distributing their products at home and export markets like Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, S.Korea, Indonesia , Middle East and EU. Although their core business are in ready-to-drink coffee and tea, both companies have started to develop a niche segment of the market. Targeting at male adults, they promote coffee and tea with traditional herbal ingredient, Tongkat Ali.

Tongkat Ali is Malaysia's answer to viagra, and it is a flagship product for the biotech industry. There is considerable interest in this herb, as so much have been played up on its reputation of having aphrodisiac properties. Many in this industry are actually hoping that Tongkat Ali, can be widely accepted like the ever-popular Ginseng. Tongkat Ali can be in the form of beverage and pill.

Tongkat Ali, which means "walking stick of Ali" is a slender evergreen shrub with bitter brown fruit. The plant can be found in Malaysia and Indonesia. Known as Eurycoma longifolia jack, its functional properties are blended into the coffee and tea mix.

Although I do not think too much about the potent beverage and its testosterone enhancing claims , I have no qualms to sell more tea to these factories.