TURQUOISE COCONUT

I know I am in the desert, and I know that good fresh young sweet coconuts are not going to show up here, but I must say all that I know has not stopped my yearning or constant sharing about how much I would like to drink Montserrat coconut water. 

Because I wouldn’t stop talking about my real coconut water, one of my friends said he would help me quench my longing. He went out and bought some, he told me how sweet his special find was. He said it reminded him of the coconut water back home in Montserrat, “and they even put the coconut jelly in it”. When he said jelly I was totally convinced he had found the right one.

My friend pulled out a tall turquoise can with a caricature of a red headed, blue, green parrot, and the description of the contents. The shock of it had me say out loud, this is not coconut water. Which started a passionate discussion about what coconut water is. I decided the best way to make my point was to read the ingredients on the can, Young Coconut juice, (I just want to interject here that no decent coconut water would call itself juice); water, young coconut pulp, sugar, sodium Metabisulphite (a word that is difficult to pronounce and the way I promised myself that if it I cannot speak the word then I cannot eat the food).  I was very annoyed that they would do such a terrible thing to a perfect drink. Coconut water already has every ingredient it needs, why put processed sugar and sodium Metabisulphite in it? Even on the can they told you of all the good things about coconut water. Did they think they could improve on it? This drink contains electrolytes; it is high in potassium, and has a small amount of sodium and sugar. It is easily digested, low in fat and re-hydrates the body. A friend of mine even told me a funny story, she said when she was a little girl growing up in Montserrat, they told her to drink coconut water because it was good for her kidneys; but they said she shouldn’t drink it at night because it would make her wet her bed.

My friend was vexed because I told him his coconut water was rubbish. Even so he did do a really generous thing for me, and in-spite of my ungraciousness I really did appreciate his effort.