You won’t find coconut products in my fridge. A Pina Colada may be okay at the beach, but you won’t find Coco Loco in my pantry. Sure, I have some canned coconut milk because my wife loves curries with coconut milk, but that’s really about it. No one in my house really likes coconut.

Neil and Beidi Coconut Water may just change that.

The only ingredient in this stuff is coconut water. You know, the liquid you throw away or that spills all over when you finally manage to get that coconut open (can you tell I have no experience with coconuts?) Who would have thought that water is so tasty? Certainly not me. I don’t know if Neli and Beidi boil it down to its essence or what they do to it, but it’s that good. Sweet and somewhat creamy but not too sweet or overly creamy. It’s just right.

But this is a cocktail blog, and I got this stuff to make cocktails with. Why not, right? Mix it with some rum, and you have a perfect Pina Colada!

Not quite.

The unflavored version, the original Neli and Beidi’s Premium Quality Coconut Water tastes amazing on its own, but it doesn’t really play that well with anything else.

It’s sweet, but it’s not sweet enough. It’s creamy, but it’s not creamy enough.  You can’t just put some rum in it or it tastes like watered down rum with a hint of coconut. I tried adding some Coco Loco (bought just for this occasion, mind you!) to it, but that was too much. Adding lime and syrup to it didn’t work. Herbal or spiced syrups muddle the coconut flavor. I even tried some Islay Scotch with it. Nope. I tried liqueurs with it. They’re okay, but to get enough sweetness, you end up losing the coconut flavor.

But don’t lose hope.

To make an amazing non-alcoholic “cocktail,” I mixed a bit of sugar on a plate with some smoked paprika and cayenne. Then rub a lime around the rim of a glass and dunk the rim of the cocktail glass in the sugar mixture. Shake the Neli and Beidi Natural Coconut Water with ice, and strain into the prepared glass, and you have an amazing drink.

You don’t even need alcohol! I’m serious! The smokiness and the cayenne heat come through to accent the Neli and Beidi, and you end up with an amazing drink that even the kids like. You can adjust the heat as much as you like by decreasing or adding cayenne. I liked just enough to feel it.

So the Natural Coconut Water didn’t make for a great cocktail, but it was a great mocktail!

But wait! There’s more! In my next installment, I try the Neli and Beidi’s Banana Coconut Water, and this stuff is cocktail heaven!