Cocktails with Coconut water
Coconut water is the clear liquid from inside a young coconut — light and lightly sweet.
Substitutes for Coconut water
It lengthens without adding body, which is rarer than it sounds, and it brings a faint salinity with it. Anything thick changes the drink category outright; plain water gives the same length and leaves behind both the salt and the coconut.
Often confused with
Coconut milk and cream
Pressed from the flesh, thick and fatty, and a different ingredient in every way except the name. Swapping them changes the drink from a long refresher to a dessert.
Cream of coconut
Sweetened coconut cream, the Piña Colada ingredient, with sugar already in it. It is the furthest thing on the shelf from coconut water despite the shared word.
Storage
Refrigerated once opened and used in a day or two. It sours quickly and without warning — cloudiness, a tangy smell and sometimes a faint fizz, in no fixed order. Fresh from the nut is more aromatic than any carton and lasts hours, not days, because the enzymes that brown it are still active.
