The sap of the local date palm is hugely popular, and Jhenaidah is famous for date jaggery. But the local date fruit itself is almost worthless: ripe dates lie neglected at the foot of the trees as food for birds. Now Ahsan Islam Shahin of Jhenaidah has made an unusual drink from those dates. Made from date seeds, it rivals coffee.

Shahin, originally from Arappur in the town, now lives alone at Jargram in Kumrabaria union of Sadar upazila, where he has built a small farmhouse on 43 decimals beside the Nabaganga river and quietly researches farm innovations. He studied electrical and electronics and once worked in Dhaka, but left his job for the countryside. He grows sugarcane, mango, lemon, guava, papaya and vegetables, along with medicinal plants and flowers, but his greatest creation is the date-seed drink.

"Nobody eats local dates; they fall under the trees and rot," he said. "I wondered if I could do something with the seeds. On YouTube I learned that date-seed coffee is very popular in the Middle East, and then I started making a drink from local date seeds."

After collecting the dates, the seeds are separated from the flesh, washed well and dried in the sun. They are roasted until crisp in a pan filled with sand, cleaned of sand and dirt and ground in a blender. The powder takes on the colour of coffee and is drunk like coffee. Shahin also makes jaggery from the fleshy part of the fruit.

Locals say people come from far away to taste the drink and to learn how it is made, and Shahin teaches them freely.

Sadar upazila agriculture officer Md Nur-E-Nabi said the drink is delicious. Although it has long been drunk in the Middle East, Shahin is the first in Bangladesh to make this coffee alternative from local date seeds, and the office is supporting him.

Professor Dr A T M Mizanur Rahman of the Department of Applied Nutrition and Food Technology at Islamic University said coffee contains caffeine, which can be habit-forming and cause other problems with long use, but date seeds carry no such risk. He said the drink is safe, aids digestion, helps reduce obesity and helps control anxiety, diabetes and high blood pressure.

Source: Jagonews24 (reported by Shahjahan Nabin). First published in Bengali on The Agro News.