By Joanne Howdle
Cocos nucifera known as the “coconut tree” belongs to the Arecaceae (Palmae) family and is a single-stemmed evergreen palm, forming a tree which grows up to 25 metres in the tropics.
Coconut trees require high humidity and warm conditions for proper growth and are intolerant of the cold. Under proper environmental conditions, coconut trees produce coconuts in six to 10 years.
For thousands of years diverse cultures have depended on the coconut tree, as it provides sustenance, succour and shelter. For these reasons the coconut tree is known as “the tree that offers all the essentials of life” in India and the “tree of heaven” in the Philippines.
Botanically, the coconut fruit is a drupe, not a true nut. The botanical has three layers: exocarp, mesocarp, and endocarp. The exocarp and mesocarp make up the “husk” of the coconut.
The mesocarp is made of a fibre, called coir, which has conventional and commercial applications and is used to make products such as floor mats; doormats; brushes; mattresses and upholstery padding; sacking; string, rope, and fishing nets. It has the advantage of not sinking, so can be used in long lengths in deep water without the added weight dragging down boats and buoys.
The exocarp is the glossy outer skin, usually yellow-green-brown in colour.
The innermost layer is called the endocarp in which endosperm is initially suspended within coconut water. But on maturation, the cellular layer of endosperm deposits along the wall. This layer of the endocarp is edible as coconut flesh.
In one neat package this botanical provides a high-calorie food, potable water, fibre that can be turned into other products, and a hard shell that can be turned into charcoal. Until it is needed for another purpose – food and drink, medicine, beauty products, coir, furnishing and decoration the coconut also serves as a handy flotation device.
While the coconut tree now grows on every subtropical coastline around the world, genetic testing underwritten by the National Geographic Society in 2011 showed the botanical originated in India and South-East Asia.
From its original home, the coconut – which can float – made its way independently, to the Indian and South Pacific Oceans. Historians also agree that seafaring traders carried coconuts from India to the Middle East and North Africa circa 2000 years ago. Even the name they conferred on the botanical, zhawzhat al-hind – literally “walnut of India” – survives in Arabic today.
In the early 16th century the coconut came to Europe through the Maritime Silk Road following explorers like Vasco da Gama (circa 1460s – December 24, 1524) who pursued a direct trade route between Portugal and India, guided by maps and navigational information charted by the famed Arab navigator and cartographer Aḥmad ibn Mājid (circa 1432 – circa 1500) half a century before.
From da Gama and other Portuguese traders came the coconut’s contemporary and most recognised international name – they called it coco-nut – because it resembled a cocuruto, or skull, with three dots on its end like two eyes and a mouth and coconut fibres that resembled hair. However, it was the darker side of the European sea trade that took coconuts to what are now the Americas. Coconuts came with colonialism and the slave trade.
In gin production organic, unrefined virgin coconut oil and toasted coconut flakes are infused with the spirit, before freezing the gin, and skimming off the solid coconut oil. This process is called fat washing and imparts a lovely silky mouthfeel and beautiful coconut aromas to the gin.
Joanne Howdle is interpretation and engagement manager at the multi-award winning Dunnet Bay Distillers Ltd.
Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click here to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print.