Cocoman VCO

Frequently Asked Questions.

2009-11-18T20:02:00.000-08:00

1. What is virgin coconut oil?

Virgin coconut oil is defined as "oil obtained from the fresh mature kernel of the coconut, by mechanical or natural means, with or without the use of heat, without undergoing chemical refining, bleaching or deodorizing, and which does not lead to the alteration of the oil". It is called "virgin" due to its pure, raw, pristine and unadulterated state.

2. What will virgin coconut oil do for me?

This is actually quite a hard question to answer on the website, simply because we are not allowed to make claims about the benefits of VCO, regardless of whether they are true or not.
The UK Food Labelling Regulation 40(1), Schedule 6, Part I (1) & (2) states; " A claim that a food has the property of preventing, treating or curing a human disease, or any reference to such a property, is prohibited". This claim is unacceptable........WHETHER IT IS TRUE OR NOT.
So what can we do? We can really only ask you to do a little research yourselves, apparently we are not even allowed to use quotes from books.
Let us just state a few facts that should not be breaking any laws.

Virgin coconut oil does not contain any trans fatty acids and does not break down at high temperatures.

Virgin coconut oil is known as a lauric oil, due to its high quantities of lauric acid. When synthesized in the body, lauric becomes monolaurin, which is found in abundance in mother's milk.

Millions of people around the world use coconut oil as a conditioner for their hair, invariably in countries where people have the most beautiful, strong and silky hair.

Virgin coconut oil does not contain any cholesterol.

I am really sorry for the lack of information in this section, but laws are laws, and we have to abide by them.

3. How do I know if your virgin coconut oil is organic?

The simple answer is, you don't. The same as you don't know about any other product either. Companies that are certified organic can change their GMP the day after they get the certification, or change the supplier of their ingredients. I am afraid you have to take our word for it.
Let me explain that over 80% of the coconuts grown in The Philippines are grown organically. The farmers can't afford fertilizers and pesticides, even if they were needed, which they are not. The reason small companies in poor countries are not certified organic, is purely down to money.....Isn't that always the case......Big companies can afford to buy organic certification, small companies in poor countries can't. For us to get certification from US, European, or Australian organic certifiers, would cost well in excess of $5000. We would have to pay for them to send a representative to the Philippines. (Other countries do not accept organic certification by organic certifiers based in The Philippines, so there is absolutely no point in taking the cheap option.) The big factory producers can afford to pay for any certification they want. Our oil is far superior to theirs, purer, more natural, produced using better coconuts, but they buy the organic certification which we can't afford........Even though, we, like the vast majority of VCO producers in the Philippines, use organic coconuts.

4. Is your oil 100% pure?

It is honestly the most natural oil you can find. It is cold-processed, ( ANH Absolutely No Heat ), filtered by hand up to 8 times, using 8 and 5 microns filter paper. We are happy to show analysis reports, to prove how good this oil is. (It is definitely NOT refined, bleached and deodorized oil, passed off as VCO).

5. What does ANH stand for?

Having read the previous question, you now know the answer to this one, however, it deserves explanation.
Most people recognize that cold-processed VCO is the best, most natural and most potent VCO. As producers who use the cold-process method of production, we are extremely proud of the final product. We are delighted to inform customers that it is cold-processed oil, hoping they will know that it is by far the finest VCO available. Unfortunately, other companies are quite happy to confuse the public, by labelling their oil "cold-pressed".....and believe me it works.......Cold-processed, cold-pressed, you go to any of the forums on coconut oil and people genuinely do not know the difference. Let me just tell you that cold-pressed oil is invariably heated after the pressing, of course the companies will not tell you that.
So the producers who do not heat their oil had to come up with something to counter the confusion, and ANH is the outcome. Absolutely No Heat is used during production of our oil, so that is what we put on the label, and that is how the finest virgin coconut oil will become known...........ANH.

6. Why don't you produce "Extra virgin"?

Simply because there is no such thing. It is just a marketing strategy, (used to great effect by companies in the Philippines and the US), to try and convince the buyer that their oil offers something other oils don't."Extra virgin" is a term borrowed from the olive oil industry, where there are distinct differences between virgin olive oil and extra virgin olive oil; this is definitely not the situation with VCO.
Maybe we should call our oil, Cocoman Extra Virgin Coconut Oil.......would it be honest and ethical?

7. How do I take the oil?

In the Philippines it is commonly taken by the spoonful, researchers recommend 2 to 3 tablespoons a day. Use it for cooking, simply replace your other cooking oil with VCO.....Your food will taste so much better.
Since VCO solidifies when the temperature drops below 76f, it can be used to replace butter or margarine. Try it on crackers or crispbread.
Our CEO pours it on his breakfast cereal, rice and pancakes. In fact he pours it on just about everything......but he doesn't have to pay for his.
Obviously, in cooler climates, it will need to be heated. A bowl of hot water is the preferred method. (PLEASE DO NOT MICROWAVE).
Of course you could also use it on your skin and hair; we also manufacture massage oils and hair oil, using our own ANH virgin coconut oil as the base oil.

8. Why is your oil the best?

Okay, so we don't really get asked this much, but I have a great answer, so I asked myself.
Patience, passion and pride........We genuinely care about the quality of our oil. That should come through in the text on this site. If it doesn't, I have failed miserably. We make our oil in the most natural way. We don't cheat, we don't take shortcuts, we don't accept second best......and we only use the finest coconuts, which just happen to be found in the Philippines.

9 Why don't you sell flavoured VCO?

Flavoured VCO is very popular in the Philippines, but nowhere else in the world. There are a couple of really good reasons we don't sell it.
1) Once the oil is flavoured, it is no longer virgin coconut oil, it is flavoured coconut oil. In fact, in many cases, it never was virgin coconut oil to start off with.
2) We happen to think VCO should taste like coconut, not sweetcorn or banana. We have no doubt that most of the flavoured oils in The Philippines, were altered because they tasted awful.

10) Why don't you sell VCO in capsule form?

Are there people that actually buy these?........Obviously there are!!!

Let's do the maths.
1 tablespoon = 14 grams
1 capsule = half a gram

Therefore 1 tablespoon = 28 capsules.
Daily usage of two tablespoons = 56 capsules.
Enough said I think.

Is coconut oil bad for you?

2009-09-21T22:57:00.001-07:00

For years coconut oil has been receiving a bad press. Mainly because of it's high level of saturated fat. We are being continually asked about the link between saturated fat and raised cholesterol. We give the same answer every time, because it is what we genuinely believe. Yes, coconut oil does contain high levels of saturated fat, there is no disputing that, coconut oil is 92% saturated. HOWEVER, and that's a big however, 50% of the fatty acids in coconut oil are lauric acid. Lauric acid is a medium-chain fatty acid, which has the additional beneficial function of being transformed into a substance called "monolaurin" in the human body. Monolaurin is an antibacterial, antiviral and antiprotozoal substance used by the human body to destroy lipid-coated viruses such as HIV, herpes and influenza. The medium-chain fatty acids found in coconut oil have been shown to have formidable healing power and because coconut oil is a saturated fat, it does not form dangerous trans fatty acids when used in cooking.

We could easily carry on extolling the virtues of Virgin Coconut Oil. Explaining that the medium-chain fatty acids are "good fats". Mentioning another source of lauric acid is mother's milk. Pointing out that The Campaign Against Trans Fats In Food calls coconut oil " the healthiest oil in existence". Revealing that Sri Lanka , where coconut oil is used for cooking and people typically eat 120 coconuts a year, HAS THE WORLD'S LOWEST RATE OF HEART DISEASE. Would you believe us though? After all, we are offering to sell you coconut oil.

........................................................

When you add to the above text that Cocoman VCO is one of the very few, totally raw, totally natural, virgin coconut oils produced anywhere in the world. Then you have something really special.

Patience, passion, pride.

2009-08-18T22:23:00.000-07:00

I wrote the text below almost 5 years ago. Both I, and the guys working with me then, have moved on. However, the sentiments still apply today as much as they did then. Now they apply to Cocoman VCO.

"Before reaching our site, you have probably viewed several other Virgin Coconut Oil sites, comparing claims on quality, packaging, production methods, price, lauric acid content, etc. etc. Virgin, Extra Virgin, Organic Extra Virgin and Premium Organic Extra Virgin. (If the company offers any of the final three, steer clear). If we could just take a few minutes of your time to explain our business philosophy, maybe we could convince you to try our Virgin Coconut Oil before trying any other.

Our aim is to make oil that is comparable with the best and vastly superior to most. Contrary to what you have read on some other sites, it is not easy. It takes a considerable amount of time to make premium quality Virgin Coconut Oil. It takes passion and it takes patience. If you were to meet Virgin Coconut Oil producers, people who produce top quality oil, you would understand what we mean when we say passion. You realise after a few minutes that they are not prepared to talk about anything else. Their oil is their life. The aim is always to make the next batch better than the one before. You will know when you visit a website where the producer cares that much about the quality of his oil. We are convinced you can feel the pride and passion in the text. Our oil has to be of the finest quality, because we won't accept anything less. We expect to build our business by recommendation. We expect anybody who tries our oil to make a future purchase and we hope they will tell their friends. We will never be a major producer because we are not prepared to sell oil over which we don't have total production control. Total control means we manage every stage of the production ourselves. We stand or fall by the quality of OUR oil, not somebody elses!."

Da Coconut Nut

2009-08-12T21:57:00.000-07:00

The Cocovida Band showing how talented Filipinos are. Hopefully the guys will carry on their musical careers with Cocoman Philippines.

The lyrics are by Steve Learmouth. The tune is by somebody else.

The Blessing and Grand Opening

2009-08-11T22:00:00.000-07:00

Some photographs from The Grand Opening of the plant of Cocoman Philippines.
You can see my great friend Zac Gubantes in the top photograph, along with the amazing Ronnie Quimbo. You can see a large number of people walking around the outside of the building, looking inside to try and learn how premium quality, raw VCO is produced. You can see the blessing taking place, and the group of happy children, posing for the photographer. It was a great day for the community. Let's hope and pray that the business succeeds. Nobody deserves success more.

Premium Quality, Raw, Virgin Coconut Oil from Cocoman

2009-08-04T20:28:00.000-07:00

Right, lets tell you a little about Cocoman Philippines; a new company, based in Calubian, Leyte.

Cocoman Philippines produces some of the finest virgin coconut oil you will find anywhere. I can guarantee that, because several of the workers used to work for me, when I was running Cocovida. Unceremoniously sacked after I left the company, the guys were desperate to find work. The majority of the producers of natural, raw VCO, have been forced to close because they simply can't compete on price with the factory manufacturers of very cheap, vastly inferior oil, so the job opportunities open to the guys were virtually non-existent.

Luckily there are some beautiful people out there,......or even out here. Ronnie and Dahlia Quimbo decided that they had to help out the people in the area surrounding their hometown. What better way than to set up a plant producing raw VCO and associated products. Then they could help the local community to help themselves. What made the idea even better was the fact that they had some of the finest exponents of raw VCO production living close by. It sounds like a good idea to me,.......but only if they can find a market for their products. Let's hope I can be of some small assistance. The employees at Cocovida were brilliant to me. You can still see them on the videos shown on numerous VCO sites. Whether, making videos showing the production process, or singing and dancing with The Cocovida band; these are special people.

You can see Ronnie wearing the pink t-shirt in one of the photographs above, standing with Zac and Edgar of YouTube fame. Ronnie has ploughed a lot of money into building a VCO plant. I doubt very much if he will ever recoup his outlay, but some people just do things to help others.

Take care,

Steve Learmouth