Oh, patents! Coco López

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

Here’s a little bit of warmth from the Caribbean for you!

Coconut cream is one of the most important ingredients in Piña Colada, Puerto Rico’s national drink.  Ramón López Irizarry is the Puerto Rican inventor who, in 1947, was awarded a patent for a process enabling to preserve the freshness, full flavor and delicate taste of coconut flesh, which otherwise deteriorates rapidly after being exposed to light and air. Thus, Coco López is the coconut cream with the full flavor of coconuts preserved according to Señor Ramón López Irizarry’s invention, disclosed in US2426834 titled Food Product.

Sr. López’ patent recites two processes.The first process is designed to treat the whole coconut in view of indefinitely preserving the freshness, full flavor, and taste of the coconut and producing a sweetened and thick coconut cream. The second process is designed to use the coconut meal and milk by-products of the first process to produce another sweetened essentially dehydrated food product with all the preserved characteristics and flavor of the coconut.

The first process of the invention invokes the steps of steaming and boiling the whole coconuts, and then immediately immersing them in cold water, removing and storing the milk for the second process; removing the flesh and then separating it from the shell and the skin attached to it. The flesh is then crushed, heated and pressed. The pressed juice is collected for mixture with sucrose in view of obtaining a product with a certain density and then flash pasteurized. The resulting pasteurized product in stored in sealed and vacuumed containers so that it remains protected from both air and light. 

Using both the juice collected from the whole coconuts and the coconut meal cake left in the juice press, the second process also admixes a certain amount of sugar to the by-products of the first process and then heats the mixture to obtain an essentially dehydrated product. 

The first Coco López food product recited in this patent may be used, for example, as a substitute for coconut in bakery products, for alcoholic beverages or cocktails and to flavor pancakes and waffles, whereas the second product may be used, for example, as toppings on ice cream, puddings, and cakes, or it might even be consumed alone as a snack. 

¡Rico! 👠 ¡Rico! 👠 ¡Rico! 👠