Calming Your Thirst With Coconut Water in Panama
(epiac1216.wordpress.com) In Panama you have three main options to calm your thirst when the sun get really hot. They are: water, raspao and coconut water. Yes, you read it correctly—coconut water.
Coconut water has long been a popular drink in the tropics, especially in Tropical Asia and Trinidad and Tobago, where it is available fresh or bottled. It is naturally fat-free and low in food energy (16.7 calories per 100 grams).
In Central America, particularly in Panama and Costa Rica, it is found and sold in strategic highway stops or on the beaches; there, the coconut water is called “agua de pipa”, and the coconut is cut in front of the customer to ensure its freshness.
Coconut water can also be found in regular cans or tetra paks (and often has coconut pulp or coconut jelly added) and is also marketed as a sports drink because of its high potassium and mineral content.
A couple of Sundays ago, I visited Parque Omar with my wife and her grandnephew Abdiel. We wanted to see some green for a change, fresh air and and ample space to stretch our legs. During our visit, I spotted a coconut water vendor with a pretty nice mobile coconut water factory.
The name of the company was Coco Club and his product was marketed under the name of Coco Express. As I came closer, I saw how the operator cut a fresh coconut and placed it upside down in his machine. The water was drained down by gravity into a plastic bottle. After the bottle was filled up, it was sealed with a plastic lid. Everything was done before the very eyes of the customer. The vendor told me that the price for a bottle of coconut water was $1.00.
Normally in Panama you drink coconut water directly from the coconut with a straw. This was the first time I saw it served inside a plastic bottle, exactly the same way you buy drinking water in a bottle.
Since I had my Birthday camera handy, I decided to take a picture of the process of bottling coconut water and this is what I saw. Here we go.
And now you know how to quench your thirst in the Tropics. If you come down to Panama and the sun is trying to wear you out, don’t forget; ask for a cool raspao or a delicious bottle of coconut water. Good Day.
