I bought three young coconuts from Whole Foods on 14th Street, two of which turned out to be bad. How do you know that a young coconut is bad? There are a few obvious signs:

• The meat is purple or lavender, and runny and goopy. It should be pearly white, and firm.
• The water is cloudy. It should be clear.
• It smells alcoholic. It should smell delicious.

Just to give a visual aid, here are some photographs of a young coconut you definitely do not want to eat:

Note the spider-like veins of decomposition and infection.

The water is cloudy.

This one isn’t as bad, but it’s well on its way to oblivion.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 20th, 2010 at 10:02 pm and is tagged with coconuts, whole foods, decomposition, coconut, oblivion, lavender, veins, photographs, signs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback.

4 Responses to “Bad Young Coconut – Purple or Lavender, Smelly”

1. Hannah says:

   2/24/2013 at 8:03 am

   Purple does not necessarily mean off — it goes through a purple stage when it is ripening, during this stage the flesh will be slimy but quite delicious! You should be able to tell from the smell and how clear the water it – if the water is a slightly purple colour but clear its fine. If cloudy – not fine.

   Reply
2. Alice says:

   3/11/2011 at 12:21 am

   I’ve read depending on the taste/smell of the coconut water, it could be an un-ripen coconut.

   Reply
3. Leah says:

   1/25/2011 at 7:25 pm

   Thanks for the tips! You saved my daughter and me from eating a rotton coconut tonight.

   Reply
4. James says:

   3/1/2010 at 5:07 am

   I like this coconut

   Reply