As the world’s 9th-largest exporter of coconuts, it’s no surprise that they’re available pretty much everywhere in Thailand. But recently I’ve noticed something interesting – it seems that the resourceful Thai coconut industry has melded the humble drupe (I looked it up, it’s a drupe, not a nut) with some pretty crazy technology to produce some very weird and unique consumption possibilities.

We often think that a coconut is a challenge to get into, but it turns out that’s not something we have to worry about anymore. We’ve conquered the coconut once and for all. The long nightmare is over. The first time I realized this was a few weeks back when I posted a picture of a coconut with a pull-tab. You think I’m joking? Check this out, non-believer:

A photo posted by Greg (@bkkgreg) on

So now that a coconut is as easy to get into as a can of Pepsi, I thought we’d reached peak coconut drinking ease. But I was wrong. I was browsing in Villa market the other night and noticed this on the shelf:

Coconutty 1

The label says “Thai aromatic young coconut out of the shell.” Surely that can’t mean that it’s just the white meat lining of the coconut with the water inside?! Turns out, that’s exactly what it was:

Coconutty 2

It looked like a snowball and felt like a wet rubber ball. They managed to de-shell a coconut without even breaking the inner seal! How is that even possible? Thankfully, it came with a handy straw.

Coconutty 6

It literally could not be easier to drink the juice. It was really good. Once I finished that, I opened it up.

Coconutty 7

There’s something very primal about cutting something open and having the life-giving juice leak out. Brought me right back to Mr. Nicolson’s high school science class. Learning how to dissect a pig fetus is a skill that I can finally, finally use!

Coconutty 3

Once I ate the meat – which was nice, if a bit tough – the only evidence that I ate a coconut was the straw I used to pierce it. And the plastic wrapper. And the huge machine somewhere that’s responsible for this technological marvel. And the monkey that probably picked the coconut. But still…it was pretty neat to see. I wonder what they’ll come up with next?

By the way, I mentioned above that Thailand is the world’s 9th largest coconut exporter, with 1,010,000 tons. This compares to 18,000,000 tons for 1st place Indonesia. I really wonder what kind of crazy coconut tech they have?