Coconut water is low calorie and full of minerals.

Coconut water has become Britain’s fastest-growing soft drink. It’s made by extracting the milky fluid inside unripe green coconuts (this turns to milk when the coconut is ripe) and can be drunk as is or flavoured with sugar and fruit juice.
The drink, which tastes like slightly sweet, slightly salty water, is low in calories and said to be high in minerals such as potassium and magnesium, which are vital for muscle movement, nerve transmission and brain operation.
These minerals are depleted after exercise, so coconut water is often sold as a post-workout drink.



Coconut water has become Britain's fastest-growing soft drink with 12.5 million bottles sold in the last year
Sales are up 114 per cent since last year, according to internet shopping experts mySupermarket, and there are 36 brands available in Britain.  The market leader, Vita Coco, has grown 120 per cent over the past 12 months, with growth doubling every year since it launched four years ago.

Last year, 12.5 million Vita Coco drinks were sold in Britain.
The company was launched by two childhood friends from New York. They had met two Brazilian women in a bar, who told them they really missed drinking coconut water, which is hugely popular in Rio de Janeiro.
Soon afterwards, the pair launched Vita Coco, which is now available in 75,000 stores in 13 countries around the world.

While its popularity continues to grow, critics say that the benefits are hugely hyped, as the drink is 95 per cent water. They also say it is only slightly more effective than water as a drink after exercise, with many sports drinks higher in minerals. However, with only a small amount of sugar, it is lower in calories than most sports drinks. So which should you try? There are a range of different coconut water's now available on the market
Coke and Pepsi each own coconut water brands — Zico and O.N.E, respectively — after jumping on the bandwagon on the back of Vita Coco’s huge success.
In the past year, sales of coconut water rocketed by 71 per cent at Ocado and 55 per cent at Tesco.

Matt Clark, Tesco’s world foods buying manager, says: ‘We started selling coconut water in 2008 when it was still very much a niche drink.
‘But in the past year sales have soared. Demand tends to rise whenever a celebrity such as Rihanna is photographed holding a coconut drink.’ M&S has launched its own range this year, at £2.99 a litre, and their most popular variety, the unflavoured M&S coconut water, has been selling 17,000 litres a week during the summer.
They use coconut water from Indonesia and spent a year perfecting their recipes.
Alex Beckett, of retail analysts Mintel, says: ‘Coconut water has been a runaway success story in the UK since 2010. Heightened awareness of the nutritional benefits of coconut water has driven interest in this drink.’

Introducing sneeze and stain-free lilies  Lilies are the nation's favourite flowers, with nearly 19 million bunches sold every year
We all know that being given lilies can be a mixed blessing. Yes, they look beautiful, but they make many of us sneeze. And those yellow pollen stains!
Despite this, they are one of the nation’s favourite flowers, with nearly 19 million bunches sold every year.

But their high pollen content makes them one of the worst culprits for hay fever.
Now Marks & Spencer has a solution: a lily bouquet which is stain free and sneeze free. In a High Street first, the retailer has launched the Autograph Lily Bouquet, comprising of special Vendrome lilies, which have pollen that doesn’t fall from the flower.


More than 12 million people in Britain suffer from the allergy, and the recent warm and wet weather has seen symptoms worsen as pollen levels soar to the worst seen for a decade.
M&S flower expert Simon Richards said: ‘Lilies are one of the most sneeze-inducing flowers, and hay fever sufferers tend to steer clear of them.


‘The benefits of our new bouquet are two-fold. The blooms won’t trigger hay fever, and customers can enjoy the lilies without pollen shedding and staining.’
Vendrome lilies have been grown over eight years after the bulbs were found by chance. They are now available exclusively at M&S.

This autumn, the retailer also plans to launch Autograph Double Lilies: hybrid blooms which have a double blossom and don’t contain stamens, so are completely pollen free.  The Autograph Lily Bouquet is priced at £35 and available exclusively online until the end of August.