There’s been some discussion on the Mastery Nook about how to easily do in a young coconut so the water isn’t lost and neither are fingers. I have found the easiest way for me. If you have a meat cleaver lying around that you have no earthly use for, grab it and a hammer and follow the pictures below.

Find a hard surface to do your violence. This is the coconut as it comes from the market. It still has the plastic wrap covering it.

Unwrap the coconut to ready it for execution.

Place the cleaver to one side of the point on the top of the coconut and whack it firmly with the hammer.

Turn the coconut 90 degrees clockwise or counter-clockwise, depending on whether you are right- or left-handed and make the second cut.

Repeat the 90 degree maneuver. See the marks on the coconut? It doesn’t hurt to miss once in awhile.

This will be the last cut which will make it possible to access the transfusion material.

Pull out the plug and rake the meat off with your teeth. Heavenly!

Put a straw through the opening and slurp the refreshing coconut water.

Place the cleaver across the opening diagonally. Be careful to keep it straight and whack it firmly with the hammer.

Keep whacking the cleaver with the hammer, being careful to keep it straight.

The reward is near! The cut is complete!

Rinse the coconut under running water to get rid of the bits of the skeleton.

I use one of my five-for-a-dollar spoons from Wally World to scoop out the meat because it has a thinner edge than better flatware.
Can’t you just about taste it? Oh, it’s lovely!

(Singing) “When you come to the end of a coconut–to the end, to the end of a coconut! When you come to the end of a coconut–plop! goes your heart!” Well, that dates me.
Be sure to buy your coconut either where there is enough turnover that you know they will be fresh or special order them. If I buy a case of nine coconut, I get a discount. Plus, by ordering, I know they haven’t been sitting in the cooler for weeks.
I hope this has been beneficial to everyone, especially Buttercup and Azee. You know who you are!