If you want to drink coconut water, do not buy the coconuts that have a solid brown shell. The solid brown shell indicates the coconut is mature. At this point, there is either no water or virtually no water in the coconut. When the coconut is mature, then it's only good for the coconut meat which you would need to scrape to remove.

In order to get the coconut water, you need to find "young coconuts". Many grocery stores now sell young coconuts. A young coconut has a green skin but in some situations the green skin is chopped off leaving a fibrous shell. Before buying a young coconut, simply shake the coconut close to your ear to hear how much water is in the coconut.

When you open the young coconut you can tell just how young it is by scraping off some of the coconut meat. The softer the coconut meat, the younger the coconut. The more solid the coconut meat, the older the coconut. With a young coconut, scraping the coconut meat is almost like cutting melting butter.

Do not put the coconut into your juicer as you cannot juice a coconut. Instead, this information is being provided because coconut water is a nice drink that can either be drank in combination with your juice or separately.

Do not confuse coconut water with coconut milk. Coconut water is almost clear in color but coconut milk is white. Coconut milk is made by pressing the "milk" out of the coconut meat and then combining it with water. Drinking coconut milk, by itself, can be hard on the body. Traditionally, coconut milk is added to soups, curries, etc.

Coconuts, believe it or not, are naturally buoyant. This is because coconuts have a natural husk around them which floats in water. A coconut, once it drops from the tree, can actually float for up to 10 years in the ocean. This is how coconuts literally traveled (floated) around the world.

Although there are many sources of coconuts now, in my humble opinion, the most delicious coconuts come from Thailand which have a really nice and gentle sweetness to them.

When traveling, especially in Asia, you will often find young coconuts being sold on the street. Instead of drinking a soda, drink a young coconut. Young coconut provides the body with natural electrolytes and moisture. Truly, young coconut water is one of the best naturally occurring beverages.

Coconut water is extremely refreshing and although you can now buy young coconuts in many grocery stores, if you cannot find them then either look for coconut water in a can and/or go to an Asian grocery store to see if you can find the young coconut there.

There are so many benefits to drinking coconut water, including the natural ability to bring oxygen to the cells, raising your metabolism (weight loss), balancing your pH (acidity level), cleansing your digestive tract (you can almost feel the coconut water doing this as coconut water enters your body) and so much more.

Coconut water is a good drink, due to its natural electrolyte capabilities, to have after exercising.

Properties:

Energy: cool
5 Elements: earth
5 Flavors: sweet

General Information:

Nothing to report.

Cautions & Suggestions:

Since coconut water has a strong yin (cooling) energy, drinking coconut water during periods of cold weather is not necessarily the best thing to do. Instead, coconut water is best drank on hot days. Remember, although coconut water is delicious, drinking more than one coconut per day on a regular basis can still cause an imbalance even during hot weather periods.

While coconut water has yin (cooling) energy, the coconut meat has yang (warming) energy.

Benefits:

Nothing to report.

A coconut which has been stripped of its husk. The top has been hacked off and it is shown here as served in a hawker centre in Singapore, with a straw with which to drink the coconut water. In some places it is also called coconut milk. It is very sweet.

Photo by Benjaminong.