Aglibut: Magalang's sweet tamarind

At PSAU in Magalang, a sweet tamarind variety is being grafted to make the town the tamarind capital of the country.

✓ Reviewed by our editors

Discover Pampanga Editors · October 2026

Tamarind pods, one cracked open, with seeds (illustrative photo)

Illustrative photo. Photo: Ivar Leidus on Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA · via Wikimedia Commons

Most tamarind is sour. Magalang is betting its future on one that is not.

A campus with a long history

The Pampanga State Agricultural University in Barangay San Agustin started life in 1885 as La Granja Modelo de Magalang, an agricultural experiment station. It survived a revolution, a closure, several renamings and a world war to become PSAU.

Aglibut

Today PSAU grafts and propagates the Aglibut sweet tamarind, which the town says is on par with Bangkok tamarind; the mayor calls it the sweetest tamarind in the Philippines. From it come candies, a tamarind shake that Magalang claims as its own, and PSAU products from wine to soap, shampoo and conditioner.

The tamarind capital

Magalang holds a Taramindu, or tamarind, Festival and has said it aims to become the tamarind capital of the Philippines, with plans for a tamarind pasalubong centre. Read our pasalubong guide.