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Where does coconut milk come from?

Food/Drink / by

You’ve had coconut milk before, right?  It certainly is delicious and can be used for many different purposes and in different ways.  Do you know where coconut milk comes from, though?  When I moved here, I thought I knew where it came from, but later, I learned that I was wrong!  Let’s see if you know.

Something that is widely consumed here as a drink is the water or juice from a young coconut.  It is called Buko Juice.  I really enjoy buko juice, and although I haven’t studied about it, many people have told me that it is very healthy for you.  I have been told this by enough poeple, including some doctors, that I do believe this to be the case.  Not only is it good for you, though, it is delicious and refreshing.

Buko juice comes from coconuts that are not yet ripe, they are still green.  When the young coconut is opened up, the juice is inside, in the middle is a clear juice, it looks like water, but a little less clear than that.  This is young coconut juice, or buko juice.

I always thought that as the coconut aged and become ripe or mature, then this juice would turn into milk, and that is coconut milk.

I was wrong!

You see, actually, that juice just remains as coconut water.  When the coconut is mature, though, you can then get the meat of the coconut out from the shell, and when that meat is pressed or squeezed, it yields coconut  milk!  I was so very shocked when Feyma showed me this for the first time, becuase I honestly had no idea!  Did you know?

I did a little searching on YouTube and found a very entertaining video of how they get the coconut milk.  The video is not from the Philippines, though, it is from Polynesia.  No matter, the process is still the same, and I am quite sure that you will enjoy the video, as I did.  I wanted to embed the video here, but unfortunately, embedding is disabled for this video, so here is a link where you can view the video of the process.

So, what do you think?  Did you like the video?  Are you surprised where the coconut milk comes from?  I sure was!

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Announcement: Because it is Holy Week, my regularly scheduled Thursday morning coffee session will not take place this week.  I will be back next week though for those who wish to get together for coffee.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Hi Bob,
    Yes i did know where the milk came from.
    However i know it confuses many people.

    regards Chas.

  3. Yes I knew how they made coconut milk… before I moved to the Philippines. An interesting side note… buko juice is an exact electrolytic copy of blood plasma and during WWII in the Pacific campaign when medics ran out of plasma they would use buko juice. In the shell until it is opened it is sterile.

  5. Kamusta ka Bob,

    I knew a little about this Bob, but only because Rose explained it to me when we first met each other.
    I am not sure if there is a difference between the words Buko and Butong(young coconut), I know they call it Butong in Southern Leyte.
    If you don't mind Bob, I will post this that video a friend of Roses took back in 2006, of Rose and friends eating Butong. My Rose is the young lady wearing the black shirt :). This doesn't show much of the process, so i am not sure how they prepared it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqPDbh9imJk&fe…

    Salamat kaayo,
    Danny

  6. Kamusta ka,

    Yes, I have read about this before, I finished reading a book recently titled "American Guerilla in the Philippines", and the author mentioned this briefly.
    Funny thing about this book Bob, is that the area this man operated in, was in and around the Maasin City area of Southern Leyte…and that is where my Rose lives..I bought this book about 5 years ago in a used book store for maybe a $1.00. So I have actually learned much about the history of the "guerilla resistance" in the area I will be moving too.

    Salamat,
    Danny

  8. Hi Bob – Aw, you can't fool me. One gets coconut milk from the chenda (palengke)! 😆

  11. Hi Danny – butong is the Bisayan term, Buko is tagalog. I tend to use buko because it is widely used in Davao. I just watched the video of Rose eating butong. Nice! Now we can put a face with a name!

  17. The entie day at the center is very enjoyable and you get to see all the culture areas of all the pacific Islands in one day and enjoy a luouw that night. My second cousin in the pi fell out of a coconut tree and broke both of his arms while getting the nuts out of the tree–I wasnt there when it happened.

  18. Hi Bob, people who grew up w/o coconuts around them cannot begin to know ot its many practical uses. Vinegar, alcohol, gelatin are just one of many by products. Buco juice & its meat is also popular among young men. It's too naughty to share here. 🙂

  20. Coconut oil is very good for you it is primarily Medium-Chain Fatty Acids (MCFA) like is so beneficial in mothers milk. It is debatable if it raises cholesterol at all but it definitely raises the HDL cholesterol which is the good kind.

    This very special (Cant get MCFA in large amounts from any other source) oil is what causes most the known health benefits of coconut. Historically cultures that used a lot of coconut oil in their diet had very low rates of heart problems. Recent research has shown that it seems to benefit the heart where most oils don't.

    All the studies that showed any kind of negative health effects were from using hydrogenated oil. We know now that all hydrogenated oils are very bad for you. Most of this nonsense about coconut oil being bad for you was know to be a lie and was promoted by American vegetable oil producers.

    For the best benefit get virgin coconut oil from the Philippines as they are the only country with a standardized regulation on its manufacture.

    I have recently bought and read a handful of books on the benefits of coconut especially the oil their are lots to choose from I would highly recommend the book 'Coconut Cures' by Bruce Fife, I think its is the best.

  24. Until I went to the Philippines I thought coconut water and milk were the same thing. I had never even had coconut milk (only the water from mature nuts) so I have an excuse 😀

    Reading up on the 'tree of life' recently I have gained a lot of respect for the coconut and especially its oil and I highly recommend people looking into its health benefits themselves.

    I was so impressed that I bought a small oil press for our coconut farm and hope to start producing virgin coconut oil with my wife.

    Another interesting thing I learned about coconuts is you can actually irrigate them with pure sea water as long as you do it heavy enough to prevent salt build up.

  26. Hi Bob!

    I admit that I thought that coconut milk came from mature coconuts. I was also surprised to see how pineapples grow. I imagined a bush like tree instead of a yucca type plant. I am so ashamed of being a sheltered kano! 🙂

  27. Hi Christine !
    I like coconuts and coconut milk and everything associated with it. But would you please tell me what Maayong buntag Manong, & udto, Inday Kumusta Ka Karong adlaw means in english ?

    Thank You, Dale

  28. Goede morgen BoB ,[ dutch ]
    Yes , i knew about the coconut milk , but only becaus i saw
    my father in law do it in iligan.
    He made the equipment himself .
    Allso my wife wanted to make it in Heerlen [ our town ]
    but can not find that.
    And every time we goto iligan , we planned to buy or make one.
    But untill now we allways forget.
    I think i have to wait for my retirementbefore we will own one
    and make our own juice.
    Gr.Anton

  29. Hi Bob,

    I have tasted and enjoyed Buko Juice, but have never really considered where coconut milk comes from. Learn something new every day! Thanks for the info. And the video was priceless. I had to watch it twice.

  30. 4 inches of snow so far today….Wish I was drinking coconut milk now ..Jess's tribe makes coconut oil an milk so she gets it cheap and it is fresh ..I have had a coconut an drink it's juice eaten the soft meat inside .. it was good too ….can't wait to get a coconut oil rub again 🙂 .. Phil n Jess

  31. …so Roy.. u mean all those guys I see in the Rp carrying coconuts are actually on a date with them?????

  33. Hi John H – I really love that video… the guy is a natural, and I am sure that he is a very happy guy, just judging his attitude.

    No, I don't take your words as preaching, just helpful advice.

  36. Bob it looks like shaved coconut falling out of the sky and it is very cold ..hee hee …Phil n Jess

  37. We have a lot of coconut scholars around here…

    So, is coconut a fruit or a giant nut?

  38. Hello Atong – Wow, I had to look it up, but according to the information I found, the coconut is neither a fruit nor a nut. It is a seed.

  41. Hi Brian! 🙂 No. If you see young men purposely eat buco, juice & meat & laughing about it. It could be that they have grand plans to get lucky the following night or so.

  42. Hi bob,

    Here's a song lyric from the "Apo Hiking society". 😆

    A coconut nut is a giant nut, If you eat too much, you'll get very fat. Now, the coconut nut is a big, big nut, but its delicious nut is not a nut. It's the coco fruit (it's the coco fruit), of the coco tree (of the coco tree), from the coco palm family. There are so many uses of the coconut tree. You can build a big house for the family. All you need is to find a coconut man. If he catch the tree, he gets the fruit free. The coconut bark for the kitchen floor – if you save some of it, you can build the door. Now, the coconut trunk, do not throw this junk – if you save some of it, you'll have a second floor.

  44. Hi Bob,

    I think I was around 6 or 7 the first time I tasted coconut water but my Dad told me it was coconut milk. Well at that age I was expecting it to taste like milk, and promptly spit it out. Years ago I went with a lady that was a chef at a 5 star resort close to where I live and I know she prepared the best tasting things using canned coconut milk. When I was at Paradise Island the first time I was there Josey had me try buko in the coconut shell with straw but this time older and open mind and great. Oh Thanks for this one I did not know how they made coconut milk.

  46. thanks Mr.Bob..:]]
    very useful for my Geography Project..
    Thanks very much..!:)
    .x.x.

    p.s i used to live in the philippines as well..but moved to england.:))