Coconut oil

Virgin coconut oil is perfect as lip balm. The exotic oil gives the lips a pleasant scent and shine and acts as natural protective coat for the sensitive skin of the lips. You can also try out our coconut oil lip scrub for smooth lips at home:

½ tsp. coconut oil
½ tsp. coconut flower sugar or coffee powder
½ tsp. honey

Mix the ingredients well, apply to the lips and gently massage for one to two minutes. Rinse with warm water and pat dry with a soft towel. Dead cells are gently removed and the skin is revitalized and nurtured.

Oil pulling is an integral part of Ayurveda, the traditional Indian medicine. It is supposed to clean the oral cavity, the tongue and teeth. Oil pulling, also known as "oil swishing", is the act of swishing a small amount of oil in the mouth for around 10 minutes. It is intended to improve oral hygiene and to filter bacteria and other pathogens from the oral cavity and thus from the entire organism.

It is best to practice oil pulling in the morning. Before you oil pull, debris on the tongue must be removed with a tongue scraper. This reduces the amount of bacteria that will be absorbed by the oil. Instead of a tongue scraper, you can also use a spoon which you carefully slide over the tongue two or three times, from back to front. Rinse your mouth with water afterwards. There is no need to brush your teeth at this stage, this should be done after the oil pulling.

For the actual oil pulling, put around one teaspoon of coconut oil in your mouth, let it melt and move the oil in your mouth as if you were using a mouthwash. Suck and pull the oil between your teeth several times and cover the entire oral cavity with the oil. The oil pulling process will stimulate the saliva flow so that the amount of fluids in your mouth will increase. At the same time, the oil will absorb food residues, bacteria and other microorganisms from the teeth, tongue and mucosa.

Important: Please do not swallow the oil when you are done but spit it into handkerchief which you throw away. Brush your teeth afterwards. After practicing oil pulling a few times already, you will notice that your mucosa and teeth feel smoother.

Virgin coconut oil is a very popular natural hair care. The rich, exotic oil pampers hair and scalp and has a moisturising effect. Therefore, a coconut oil mask is recommended especially for dry and damaged hair. Organic virgin coconut oil is a natural product and does not irritate the scalp and hair with additives. Apart from vitamins, it contains numerous minerals which have moisturising and revitalising effects on the hair and protect it from environmental factors.

Using coconut oil for hair care is very simple: Depending on the hair length, put one to two teaspoons of coconut oil in your hands. Apply and massage into slightly damp hair, from the scalp to the ends. For longer hair, you can use a large tooth comb to evenly distribute the oil in the hair. To ensure that the oil stays liquid, the hair should be covered by a towel to keep it warm. Let the oil soak in for 30 to 60 minutes or even overnight. Afterwards, rinse with warm water and wash your hair using a mild, silicone-free shampoo.

The production of high-quality coconut oil naturally starts with controlling the quality of the nuts. Only nuts of impeccable analytical and sensory quality from organic cultivation may be used for our precious coconut oil.

After harvesting, trained and experienced workers manually open the hard outer shell of the coconuts. Once opened, the coconut water from the inside of the nut is collected and the next steps of processing need to be initiated as quickly as possible. At first, the pulp is removed from the shell by hand. For this white coconut oil, the thin, brown skin around the pulp is peeled off. 

In the next step, the fresh coconut meat is shredded into coconut flakes with the help of stainless-steel cutters. However, before the oil can be pressed, one essential process must take place in order to gurantee the durability of the product. The clean coconut flesh needs to be dried with hot air at temperatures of at least 80 °C. Coconut meat contains natural enzymes, so-called lipases, which break down fats (triglycerides). These enzymes need to be deactivated with the heat, otherwise the oil would develop a soapy taste because of its high content of lauric acid. Furthermore, the water content of the coconut meat is reduced to less than three percent. The dried coconut meat is called "copra". As soon as the copra is entirely dry, it can be pressed to valuabe virgin coconut oil.

The production of our coconut oil is sustainable, too: It does not produce any waste because all by-products can be used. The press cake that is obtained through the pressing of the oil is finely ground to our coconut flour. It is suitable for baking and as supplement for shakes and muesli. After the bottling of the freshly pressed coconut oil, there is a sediment in the barrels: valuable coconut butter which is also bottled and can be used as a delicious spread.

When travelling to tropical countries like Thailand, the Philippines or Sri Lanka, the coconut oil is often clear and liquid, so that it almost looks like water. Back home in Germany or Europe, the coconut oil is suddenly no longer liquid but solid. Why is that?

Whether you call a product coconut oil or coconut fat depends on the physical state and consequently, on the storage temperature. The oil is made from dried flesh of coconuts and at temperatures above 24 °C is usually liquid. At temperatures below 24 °C, it becomes solid and is called coconut fat. In the countries of origin and all over the world, the name coconut oil is much more common, which is why we decided to keep it as well.

It is often falsely assumed that coconut fat is always solid and coconut oil is always liquid and that these names refer to two different products. Nonetheless, there is only a difference in the physical state depending on the storage temperature. Untreated virgin coconut oil has a high content of medium chain triglycerides like caproic, caprylic, capric as well as lauric acid. The former have a smoke point of less than 24 °C which changes their aggregate state at lower temperatures.

A natural, organic virgin coconut oil is liquid from around 24 °C and has a transparent, watery appearance. At temperatures below 24 °C, the oil becomes solid. It is still spreadable and has a creamy white colour. At very low temperatures, for instance in the fridge, the oil is extremely solid and is rather crumbly than spreadable. Therefore, we recommend to keep coconut oil outside the fridge.

By the way: If coconut oil is liquid below 24 °C, it might be that the oil was fractioned, i.e. chemically treated, and does no longer contain lauric acid. The medium chained, liquid fatty acids remain in the oil but it lacks the valuable secondary nutrients and vitamins as well as the precious lauric acid.

For many years, Werner Baensch, food technologist by trade and founder and product developer of Ölmühle Solling, cooperated with the "Coconut Research Institute" in Lunuwila, Sri Lanka. This is where he developed a simple process technology for the production of high-quality organic virgin coconut oil. This technology was first presented at the international Coconut Conference in Colombo in 2003. Afterwards, it spread to all tropical and Southeast Asian countries. As one of the newer projects, Ölmühle Solling started cooperating with the company Serendipol with respect to technical conception and quality control in 2006.

The project was an investment by the well-known US producer of natural soaps Dr. Bronner's, as the company needed a source for fair trade coconut oils from organic cultivation. This cooperation made Ölmühle Solling a pioneer in the field of high-quality organic coconut oils.

Serendipol was founded in 2006 and since the very beginning has been cooperating with small farmers in the area of Kuliapitiya and has been supporting them regarding organic cultivation of their coconut plantations. Over the years, more than 1300 small farmers and farmers affiliated with the project and manage and maintain a total of more than 8000 hectares today.

On many of the organic plantations, other crops than coconut palms are cultivated as well which are needed for the daily life. This mixed cropping contributes to a way of organic farming that can be implemented in tropical climate conditions and is sustainable for the local people in many different ways. For them, it guarantees safe jobs in coconut processing and results in better living conditions and opportunities for the next generations. Now that the long civil war between Tamils and the Singhalese finally ended, the living conditions for the people in rural areas of Sri Lanka are improving and the sustainable, organic cultivation according to the strict "Naturland" standards is becoming more and more popular. The Naturland standards stipulate a holistic approach to agriculture, including eco-friendly animal farming and crop cultivation with a focus on a sound and moderate use of the given agricultural resources. Compared to the EU regulation on organic farming, the requirements of Naturland are more extensive.

With more than 1300 organic farms, Serendipol plays an important role in the development of this rural area and has an impact on the schooling and professional education, medical care and the municipal development. This is where our fair partnership comes in. We pay a voluntary additional fair trade bonus for the coconut oils that are produced at the oilmill Serendipol. That way, we and other Serendipol clients, support municipal projects like hospitals, small health care centres in the rural area, better schools, infrastructure and landscaping maintenance - in close cooperation with the farmers and municipalities.