Young Coconut

Yesterday, I had my first young coconut and all I can say is, "Where the heck has this been all my life???" My friend, who spoils me rotten, served me up a young coconut (after hacking away at it to open it up with a gigantic cleaver), stuck a straw in it and said, "drink up!" 

OH MY GOSH, I felt so pampered--this was like one of the the best things I've ever had! Now, I'm addicted for life!!! Not only do you get to drink the delicious, not too sweet coconut water inside, but you get to scoop out the edible, tender coconut flesh inside. It's a drink and dessert all in one--how efficient! The fresh coconut meat is like nothing I've ever eaten--it was soft and silky, almost like a firm, tender gelatin or tapioca. The coconut water was not overly sweet or too coconuty, if that's even conceivable--one would imagine coconut water to taste like coconut ice cream or like rich coconut flakes, but it's nothing like that! Young coconut is very mild and very thirst quenching. I felt like I was on a vacation sipping a young coconut on the beach or something, and it was just a regular Wednesday afternoon! How glorious! 

If you see one of these young coconuts in the store (not the ones with all the scratchy "hair" on them!), you should try one! It is SO worth it!!! If you don't know how to open a young coconut--they are extremely hard to open--then check out this video:

 

Though, my friend did something more similar to this with her ginormous cleaver, sort of like she was chopping wood on the porch: how to kill a young coconut. (It's a great stress reliever to hack away at a young coconut! Just make sure you have good aim and you do it outside, preferably).

I couldn't get this coconut out of my head yesterday, so I just had to look up some information on it and I was very pleased with my discoveries! Turns out, coconuts are very healthy and very good for you!! 

Coconut Water: On the average 1 cup contains about 46 calories and 2 grams of protein. The sodium content is surprisingly high with 252 mg. and so is the fiber at 3 grams. The total fat is exceptionally low at 0.5 grams with 0.4 grams saturated.

Coconut water contains a full range of B vitamins with the exception of vitamin B6 and B12. There are 6.00 mcg of folic acid and 5.8 mg of vitamin C. Rating the minerals that 1 cup contains 57.6 mg of calcium, 0.7 mg. of iron, 60 mg of magnesium, 600 mg of potassium, and 0.2 mg of zinc.

According to  Wiliweld.com, if you eat the whole young coconut and drink the water, this is the breakdown of the nutritional facts:

Selection & Storage: Choose Young coconuts that are heavy for their size and make sure to shake them.They should be so full of liquid that you can not hear it sloshing around inside.Once inside the water should be very clear and the meat very white. Also, look for a coconut that does not have any signs of mold on the outside--that is the first obvious sign that it's going bad!
Avoid: Avoid drinking the water or eating the meat from a young coconut that is even slightly pink on the inside. 

ENJOY!