Whole Story

We love our producers, suppliers and vendors and we think most of them have some pretty interesting stories behind their products too. We’re sharing some of our favorites here in an ongoing series.

Three to six minutes. That’s the astoundingly short amount of time that passes between cutting open a fresh, organic coconut and bottling Harmless Harvest 100% Raw Coconut Water.

"We work with small-scale community farmers in Thailand to source our freshly ‘squeezed,' raw, organic coconut water. It is never heated or cooked,” says Justin Guilbert, who co-founded Harmless Harvest with Douglas Riboud.

The entrepreneurs share a desire to show the world that it’s possible to build a successful business with large-scale production that also supports small, rural communities and preserves natural wilderness areas.

"We are proving that you can source and distribute food from small, traditional, rural communities while respecting their land,” Justin says.

Justin and Douglas collaborated with farmers, academics and scientists to come up with a way to preserve raw coconut water without the use of heat while also giving the product a long enough shelf life to deliver it safely to refrigerators on the other side of the world. What they came up with is a pioneering high-pressure process that had already been used for deli meats, but never for beverages.

Not only has Harmless Harvest succeeded in capturing the coconuts’ true, pure, tropical flavor, they’re also making an impact on communities living at the source. Rather than farming the coconuts with modern, industrial agriculture methods, these communities harvest coconuts that grow in the wild or traditionally managed areas. Each coconut is carefully clipped from the tree by hand.

“We provide a livelihood for thousands of individuals,” Douglas explains. “And when a consumer buys our product, they are actually safekeeping about 75 different agroforestry areas — a mix of groves, wilderness areas, permaculture areas and other rural land.”

Have you tried Harmless Harvest 100% Raw Coconut Water yet? Share what you love about it!