Coconut water hits sport drink market

Berkeley, Calif. - Here's something that could make Gilligan and the Skipper smile. Coconut water is making a splash in the beverage market, touted by manufacturers and fans as the healthy way to hydrate.
"It's an exciting category right now," says Arthur Gallego, spokesman for Vita Coco, which recently got an endorsement from none other than Madonna.
Coconut water - the liquid found in green, i.e. young, coconuts - has been popular in tropical countries ever since someone figured out how to crack that nut. And it's been available in packaged form in ethnic markets and natural food stores for some time in the United States. But now it's showing up in mainstream supermarkets, packaged in juice box-style packages and coming in an array of flavors, such as peach-mango and tangerine.
Already, coconut water has created some big-name buzz.
Besides Madonna, Matthew McConaughey and Demi Moore recently invested in Vita Coco, which was founded in 2004 and saw sales jump from about $4 million in 2007 to $20 million in 2009, according to Gallego.

Its a monkey business

The English name coconut, first mentioned in English print in 1555, comes from Spanish and Portugese word coco, which means "monkey face." Spanish and Portugese explorers found a resemblance to a monkeys face in the three round indented markings or "eyes" found at the base of the coconut.

On the Nicobar Islands of the Indian Ocean, whole coconuts were used as Coconuts are the fruit of the coconut palm, botanically known as cocos nucifera, with nucifera meaning "nut-bearing." The fruit-bearing palms are native to Malaysia, Polynesia and southern Asia, and are now also prolific in South America, India , the Pacific Islands , Hawaii and Florida. The light, fibrous husk allowed it to easily drift on the oceans to other areas to propagate. In Sanskrit, the coconut palm is known as kalpa vriksha, meaning "tree which gives all that is necessary for living," since nearly all parts of the tree can be used in some m anner or another. The coconut itself has many food uses, including milk, meat, sugar and oil as well as functioning as its own dish and cup. The husk was also burned for fuel by natives, but today a seed fibre called coir is taken from the husk and used to make brushes, mats, fishnets, and rope. A very potent fermented toddy or drink is also made from the coconut palms sap. Coconut oil, a saturated fat made from dried coconut meat, is used for commercial frying and in candies and margarines, as well as in non-edible products such as soaps and cosmeticsc.

Although it takes up to a year for coconuts to mature, the trees bloom up to thirteen times a year, so fruit is constantly forming yielding a continuous harvest year-round. An average harvest from one tree runs about 60 coconuts, with some trees yielding three times that amount. The coconuts name is a bit of a misnomer, since it is botanically classified as a drupe and not a nut. It is the largest seed known.