Premium White Bird's Nest: The shape of the bird's nest is complete and full, the color is white and crystal clear, and it is the first time for a swiftlet to build a nest.
First Grade Bird's Nest: the shape of the bird's nest is complete, full, white and crystal clear.
Second Grade Bird's Nest: the shape of the bird's nest is not complete with a few cracks, fuller and whiter in color.
First Grade Bird's Nest Bird's Nest Strips: large strips of white bird's nests that are crushed during harvesting or transportation.
Second Grade Bird's Nest: Smaller pieces of white bird's nest that are crushed during harvesting or transportation.
Triangular White Bird's Nest: A triangular-shaped white bird's nest formed by the swiftlet building its nest in the corner of the wall.
Triangular White Bird's Nest: The root-bonded part of the wall where the swiftlet builds its nest.
White Bird's Nest Mesh: The thin mesh in the middle of the bird's nest that supports the eggs and the baby swallows, with a delicate and lubricious texture.
Shredded Bird's Nest: The tiny shredded bird's nests that are crushed during the harvesting or transportation of white bird's nests.
White Bird's Nest with Hair: The shape of the bird's nest is more complete and fuller, with some hairs in the bird's nest.
Cave White Bird's Nest: picked from caves, the shape of the bird's nest is more complete, less full, yellowish in color, and more difficult to soak.
Superior Bird's Nest: complete and full, reddish color with translucency.
First Class Bird's Nest: complete, fuller and reddish in color.
Triangular Bird's Nest: The red triangular-shaped bird's nest formed by the swiftlet building its nest in the corner of the wall.
First Class Bird's Nest Strips: The larger strips of bird's nests that are crushed during harvesting or transportation.
Second Grade Bird's Nest: Smaller pieces of bird's nests that are crushed during harvesting or transportation.
Crushed Bird's Nest: small pieces of bird's nests crushed during harvesting or transportation.
Superior Yellow Bird's Nest Cake: Processed yellow bird's nest cake, its color is formed by the different foods eaten, with bird's nest strips on both sides.
Superior Golden Bird's Nest Cake: Processed from white bird's nests, mostly made from cave bird's nests and hairy bird's nests, with a harder texture and longer soaking time.
The first-class enterprises set the standard, and the grade classification standard of Swallow Bird's Nest in Indonesia is not only the basis for consumers to buy bird's nests, but also a guide for global bird's nest counterparts to grade bird's nests.
I. Grade
The grade of bird's nest is not arbitrary, there should be a strict technical standard to differentiate the grade of bird's nest.
Second, how to select quality bird's nests
The difference between good and bad bird's nests lies in the six major indicators: origin, hairiness, completeness, cleanliness, taste, and water content.
1. Origin
Southeast Asia is rich in bird's nests, and after the bird's nests are picked by them, the nature is also ransacked. On the cliffs of several small islands in Thailand, many rotten bamboo ladders lead to caves that were once rich in bird's nests. These caves are now abandoned and the swallows are nowhere to be found. As the call for nature conservation grew, the Chinese in Indonesia invented the swiftlet house. The structure of these swiftlet houses is no different from an ordinary house, but keeping swiftlets is not bird keeping, the swiftlets are still wild and foraging for food on their own, the house is just used to attract the swiftlets to gather and build their nests in the swiftlet house, and there is a large amount of swiftlet nests to be collected and accumulated. The nests of the environmentally conscious swiftlet houses will only be harvested after the baby swallows have fledged. The swiftlets will then return to their houses to build new nests, and the nests will be passed on from generation to generation. Eco-friendly swiftlets are cleaner, whiter and more delicate than cave swiftlets in harsh environments.
2. Hair head
"Hair head" is the difference between the weight of the bird's nests after soaking and the weight of the dried bird's nests, the bigger the multiplier, i.e., the better the "hair head" is, and in general, high quality bird's nests have 6-8 times of "hair head". Generally, quality bird's nests have 6 to 8 times of "hairy head". The hair head will be different depending on the origin, location, harvesting season, processing, dryness and humidity, soaking season, room temperature and water temperature, and even the difference between morning and evening.
3. Integrity
Defeathering and cleaning the bird's nests is not an easy task, as the bird's nests have to be clean and intact at the same time. In "The Jade Goblet", Liang Yiqing spent three years of hard work on carving a treasure ship for Zheng He to bring back the bird's nests, but in the end, he lost his strength and lost his hands, thus giving up his previous work. Swiftlet washers of quality brands are equally dedicated and do not dare to slack off in any way. A good swiftlet washer often receives training from childhood, not only to practice the delicate craftsmanship on the fingers, but also to pay attention to "eyes to, hands to, heart to" like a gemstone carver. Only the first-born bird's nests are selected for their integrity, fullness, dense texture and crystalline color, which is the ultimate enjoyment of the art of quality living. The cleanest, the most complete and the best quality bird's nest must be the one with the most heart.
4. Cleanliness
If the bird's nest has not been carefully cleaned, no matter the bird's nest, bird's nest, bird's nest net, bird's nest horn, bird's nest crumbles and so on, all of them have bird's nest hairs, and may have egg shells, beetles and other impurities. Buying this kind of bird's nest with hairs is like buying a diamond and having to cut it by yourself. Consumers will have a feeling of spending money to buy a crime, which will form a bad influence. Cleaning bird's nests is laborious and there is no alternative but to patiently handpick them. The natural and safe way to wash bird's nests is: a skilled bird's nest washer will pick 7-8 bird's nests a day with water and tweezers, while a newbie will not be able to pick 1 bird's nest a day. Some traders use medicated water to clean the bird's nests, and when they stir the bird's nests with a stick, the bird's nests will float to the surface immediately, but no one would dare to eat such bird's nests. The best way is to buy international brands of high quality clean bird's nests.
5. Taste
Quality bird's nest has a delicate and smooth taste. If the water in which the bird's nest is stewed is sticky, it is often coated with glue or thickeners.
Different grades of bird's nests have different textures:
A. Premium bird's nests have a smooth and silky texture for ultimate enjoyment.
B. Bird's nest net is the middle part of the bird's nest, which is a thin mesh that supports the eggs and the small swallows, and has a delicate and lubricious texture, which is easier to digest and absorb.
C. Bird's Nest Corner is used by swiftlets to fix the two ends of the bird's nest, it is the "load-bearing beam" of the bird's nest, which is thick, chewy and takes longer to cook, and it is the centralized part of the bird's nest's nutrients.
6. Water content
There are a lot of bird's nests with high water content in the market, which are extremely cheap, but they are a mixed bag. The water content of real bird's nests can reach up to 40-60%, and even if they are put into a wooden box or a moisture-proof box for storage, they will still deteriorate, just like what is known as "Jade and Jade Outside and Flotsam and Jetsam in the Middle" in the book, "The Seller's Word". It is just like the saying in "The Words of a Mandarin Seller". Even if the bird's nest is not stored in a wooden box, it will not produce mold. Buying high quality bird's nest of international brands from famous stores is the best way to eliminate mold from bird's nest.
Bird's nests are produced in Southeast Asia, mainly in Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Myanmar and Hainan Province in China. Among them, Hoi An in Vietnam is the most suitable place for swallows to live due to the weather and environment, so the quality of bird's nests is the best. Because of the low production, the demand exceeds the supply, so the price is more expensive.
The taste of bird's nests varies according to the place of origin. Hole Bird's Nest is mainly from Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia. It is very smooth and slightly rough in the mouth, not soft enough. Indonesian Bird's Nest is mainly made from Bird's Nest, which is relatively cleaner, with less impurities, smoother texture and shorter soaking time.
The secret of buying good bird's nest
The origin of bird's nest should be fixed
There are 28 different types of bird's nests, so if you want to buy bird's nests of the same type every time you buy them, you should know that they are all from the same place of origin (e.g. Sumatra, Indonesia), and that's the only way you can enjoy the same taste of bird's nests with the same cooking time.
The stickier the bird's nest, the more likely it is to be fake
Like abalone and shark's fin, bird's nest has always been regarded as a precious food, but recently Taiwan media revealed that nearly 60 percent of the canned bird's nests on the market in Taiwan are fake, including those made by many famous brands and big companies. Taiwan experts pointed out that these fake canned bird's nests are no different from sugar water in terms of nutrition. Canned bird's nests are also plentiful in the mainland market, is there any guarantee for their quality and nutrition?
There are not many real bird's nests on the market
Is it true that most of the canned bird's nests are counterfeits? According to him, not only canned bird's nests, but also dried bird's nests, which are sold at expensive prices in the market, may be fake. He said that bird's nests are mainly produced in Southeast Asia, including Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia, with a small amount of domestic output. The production of real bird's nest is very small, for example, bird's nest origin in Fujian, only 1 kg - 2 kg of production per year, China's imports from Southeast Asia will not be very large, but the market, drugstores have such a large number of bird's nests appeared, suggesting that there are many counterfeits certainly.
Industry insiders have some ways to identify fake bird's nests that consumers can refer to: when buying canned bird's nests, first gently shake it, real bird's nests can shake with the bottle, silver-white, and transparent, crystalline, elastic (gently pulling it will be telescopic), the liquid is pale white, pale yellow or pale brown, and the taste is fresh and sweet. Fake bird's nest is a snow fungus, flaky, the liquid is more viscous, generally not easy to shake; the second is made of Malaysian gum, the liquid is easy to produce light brown precipitation; the third is made of seaweed gum plus fish skin, the appearance can be fake, but the taste is poor, no bird's nest rich and warm flavor. He said, these methods can only be referred to, bird's nest is best to buy a large drugstore, big stores, brand-name products, which will reduce the chances of buying fake bird's nest.