Ponche a crème prince

TAKE A TASTE: Taryll Coutou, 21, shows off his ponche de crème flavours.
TAKE A TASTE: Taryll Coutou, 21, shows off his ponche de crème flavours.

It started off as a bet as to who could make the most money for the Christmas season.

Now, two years later, 21-year-old Taryll Coutou is hoping that bet could launch his career as a master ponche de crème maker.

Ponche de crème also known as punch-ah-crème is a milk drink which could easily be mistaken for eggnog in the United States but with a generous amount of alcohol which gives the seasonal drink its “punch”.

Coutou, a tall, strongly built young man who wears his hair in several long plaits, hails from the rural community of Palo Seco, and plays football for the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) in the National Super League Championship Division.

And while he is passionate about football (FC Barcelona seems to be his favourite team, according to his Facebook profile), it may be his culinary skills that seem destined to be his main source of income.

In an interview recently, Coutou explained how he became involved in the making of one of Trinidad’s popular seasonal drinks.

“It started off as a bet between me and one of my friends about two years ago at Christmas to see who could make more money. He used to sell coconut and I never sold anything. I decide I could make punch a crème because I used to give it to family and friends as Christmas gifts. So I come up with the idea as a business.”

Coutou said he learned to make the drink while helping his father, Steve.

Asked if his recipe is different from his father’s, Coutou said, “Well I’m following his recipe, but I have tweaked it to make it mine. He used to make it for everybody home, even the younger ones, so you never used to taste the alcohol. With mine, you can actually taste the alcohol.”

Coutou said on his first foray into the world of sales, and not having a large capital overhead, he would visit local bars to get empty rum bottles which he would then sanitise for his product.

He said the venture was well supported by family and friends in 2015 so he decided that in in 2016, he would “try again” but this time using new bottles purchased from a factory in La Romaine and new labelling.

“But this year, I tried to rebrand it and I actually have a good label. Next year I will try to get it in supermarkets and groceries. Last year, the bottles did not have a logo.

This year I have a slogan and logo because there are different people on social media selling punch a crème so I wanted to be unique and catch the customer’s eye so I came up with Coutou’s Ponche a Crème - your taste buds dream. “I also wanted a logo to match the slogan so I used a tongue because you’re talking about taste buds.”

Coutou’s version comes in two flavours - original and pumpkin, with pumpkin being the darker of the two flavours. They also come in 750 ml bottles.

Why pumpkin? “Because I wanted people to have a choice.” Next year he plans to introduce flavours such as beet root and soursop.

“I make it in my kitchen, but next year I want to go bigger.”

He is able to make ten bottles every half-an-hour and has sold about 300 bottles for the year. Coutou is still taking orders and can be reached via his Facebook page.

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