Hi Ellie,

<<  I found a fairly big sized puncture in the bottom of one of the coconuts
encased in the fibrous containers that look like little huts...the ones I
bought in China town. The milk tasted almost too good. >>

You seem to be knowledgeable about coconuts, and are also eating them lately,
so I have some questions I'm hoping maybe you can help me answer. ;-))

We get ours from our local supermarket, two for a dollar. First question: Do
you think that coconuts from Chinatown (we have a Chinatown here, as well as
many great Asian supermarkets) can be expected to be of better quality, or a
different type, than those that we buy? I haven't been able to understand the
differences in types from the recent descriptions on the list.

Second question (a dumb one) - there are two, or sometimes three, dark spots
(holes?) on the top, which I thought were some natural part of the coconut,
that happen to be very convenient places to puncture in order to drain and
drinkj the juice.  Do you think these might be the holes through which sugar
is being injected inside? They are a darker color than the rest of the "husk,"
and smoother, without the fibers. Sometimes they look like a face.

Third question: Frequently the juice tastes fermented - bubbly, rancid. And
the white meat sometimes seems mushy, jellyish on its surface, and tastes
pretty bad.  Do these things mean the coconut has simply gone bad (rancid?).
What, in fact, happens to a coconut over time if it is just left alone? I
wouldn't have expected them to go rancid, since they grow in climates where
this would happen too much if it could, and also because of their thick shell.
So why do you think mine are rotten - or are they?

And last - often our cocnuts are not only tasteless, but so dry that after
chewing the meat for a long while in order to get any taste or juice at all,
we finally have to spit out the mealy, dry, waxy, yukky, indigestible-tasting
stuff left behind. Is this because we're getting the 2-for-a-dollar variety?

Thanks Ellie!

Lots of Love,
Liza