You’ve probably tasted the canned liquid called Coconut Water in supermarkets in northern climes. It doesn’t even come close to the real thing. In fact, fresh coconut water is not even in the same UNIVERSE as canned coconut water.
In this post, Millie Martinez, a local Belizean, will show how to get into a fresh coconut, but first a little background about coconuts: What you find inside will depend on the color of the outside. If it’s green (like the one Millie is chopping here), it will contain up to a quart of delicately-flavored coconut water and a sweet jelly coating of coconut meat that you can scoop out of the shell with a spoon (see #5and #6).
If the coconut is yellow on the outside, it has matured and there will be considerably less coconut water, but it will will taste sweeter than the water from a green coco. As the coconut matures, most of the “water” solidifies into the tough, white coconut meat which ends up in macaroons and decorating coconut pies.
Both are good, but they’re two very different items. The machete is the tool of choice for opening a coconut. But before you attempt your first breaking-and-entering, practice chopping at something else for awhile to develop your aim. You’ll have to make ten to fifteen cuts to get inside. If you are a machete novice, don’t do this on a cement surface as you’ll probably nick the blade or crack the cement.
If you decide to open a coconut, use a bigger container than shown in #3 – at least a quart or liter jar. We had a bit of a mess when the glass overflowed.
Here’s a little coconut tongue twister, a conversation between a vendor and a prospective buyer:
“Quiere coco?” “No quiero coco. Como como poco coco, compro poco coco.”
Roughly translated:
“Do you want a coconut?” “No I don’t want a coconut.
Since I eat little coconut, I buy little coconut.”
