Drinking coconuts

Last week Alan and I went to a Vietnamese Laos restaurant where we both enjoyed coconut juice. On the way home we stopped at the supermarket to buy some drinking coconuts so that we could make our own. This was my first drinking coconut experience and I would like to share it with you.

So, you've got a coconut and you somehow need to get the juice out of it.

You put the coconut to your ear and shake it.

You hear nothing and assume all the juice has dried up.

Wrong. This is just how it is.

Ok, so how do we open it?

Stand back and look at the coconut. Think about what tools you have at your disposal.

This is how we did it.


Ummmm let us chop the top off!

Yeah, did not work too well.


Oh oh I know! Let's chop down one side and then stab it with a bottle opener!

Some improvement using this method. We managed to scoop some fibrous stuff from the side, to make a channel and then stabbed the bottle opener through to make a hole. Still no juice. Seems like the hole did not go all the way through the coconut.

Let's try to chop the top off again

Done! Just note that to chop the top off like this, you will need to hold the coconut on its side. This means, when you chop the top off, all the juice will pour out onto your bench. Quickly turn the coconut upright and pour the juice into a glass.

Yay we have juice!!!

As you see above, we placed the coconut flesh into the juice to make it tastier.

To scoop the flesh from the nut, simply scrape it out with a tablespoon.

Repeat with remaining coconuts

Two glasses of cold (use ice cubes or store the coconuts in the fridge) coconut juice

Coconut juice mess

Empty coconuts

Coconut juice is very refreshing. We had it on a very hot day and it did the trick of cooling us down. The coconuts were $1.98 each, so really not that expensive. It may be time consuming to cut them open, but I think one can become good at this with some practice.