Our Story

Listening to Mentors

Having listened to the storytelling about the history of the coconut industry as told by the old man of my wife who was a coconut planter and who was one of the leaders who established the Philippine coconut industry, Reynaldo Pacheco was intrigued by the potential of coconut oil after learning first hand that  Harvard Medical School in a private study funded by Filipino coconut stakeholders in the early ‘90s proved that coconut oil is  a heart- healthy oil. It was also proven in a preliminary trial in San Lazaro Hospital in Manila that coconut oil can reduce substantially the HIV count of patients infected with the disease.

From another angle, an uncle entrepreneur proposed an idea, "why not produce a clean and fresh coconut oil that can be called virgin coconut oil ?" (at that time in the 80s and 90s there were accusations that cooking oil from copra had aflatoxin, which is not an issue at present) 

He asks ,”Why is that with all these potential to curb disease epidemics the coconut remains as lowly as can be? The farmers remain poor, there are no efforts by the leaders to see to it that the population benefit from these promising cures?

In 2001, Reynaldo found a book authored by Dr Bruce Fife entitled “The Healing Miracles of Coconut Oil”. He read the book in a few days. Was astounded and could not believe the sheer number of health studies about coconut oil.

Beauty and Health: Outside and Inside

It was not only about health, he discovered that coconut oil, coconut milk and coconut sap vinegar  have also uses for hair care, skin care that promote skin conditioning, toning, and even anti-ageing. And even in oral care, for mouth cleansing.

He asks, “Why is it that it takes a foreigner and not Filipinos to write a best selling book about the Coconut?

Connecting the Dots

Reynaldo wondered “ if even half of the claims of the book were true, then the entrepreneur who can spread the coconut-based remedies to the greater many, not only will be wealthy but be a beloved one”

As a trained physicist-scientist whose passion is scientific discovery and innovation, he co-founded a virgin coconut venture with his wife Patricia who is a seasoned and experienced banker with roots in the coconut growing region in the seaside coconut farms in central Mindanao, Philippines.

A lot of  relatives and friends were quite skeptical,” why are you investing in a backward area which is torn by a Muslim separatist insurgency, and the location is far from good logistics in terms of moving products and accessing packaging materials?”

With the help of Patricia’s brother Felipe and   the indigenous people of central Mindanao as stakeholders, they built a virgin coconut processing factory. Trained the people who only had elementary education and who did not even have birth certificates in world class standards such as Good Manufacturing practices. New skills were learned by the workers, co-products like charcoal, coconut residue, shells from the factory created livelihoods for the families there.

Doing good to the least is good business

Yes indeed, doing good to people is good business. More importantly, it was very good for peace in Mindanao and gives a lot of hope at least to the stakeholders of VCO living in the area.

They setup a coconut processing facility very near the farms located in the coastal towns of the Moro Gulf of central Mindanao. Proximity to the farms ensure the coconuts will be fresh and the final products will retain the fresh aroma and pleasant taste. 

To make this happen they chose a virgin coconut oil (VCO) process, the cold pressed centrifuge extraction method, which did not use any heat as heating negatively affected the VCOs palatability and sensory attributes.

The COCOLICIOUS VCO came from the oil separated from the fresh coconut cream which was extracted from the coconut kernel or meat by cold pressing.

The VCO in this method contains ALL the natural fatty acids that the coconut has to OFFER and all the polyphenolic anti oxidant compounds from the whole oil. No nutrient is removed. You can never find this set of complete nutrients in any other type of coconut oil product especially the engineered oils like MCT oils or fractionated coconut oils etc.

 

Fostering a community of "enlightened" VCO consumers

Because of their VCOs pleasant natural taste and fresh aroma, Reynaldo’s daughter Nika immediately called it “ COCOLICIOUS”, thus, the COCOLICIOUS brand was born.

With the strong interest in VCO because of its well-touted cures, a lot of VCOs started to spring up in the market. But many people who were excited to try it were not at all encouraged by the taste of the VCO that they can get. In a way it was like medicine – you know its good for you but the VCO they tasted was the awful!

Through persevering efforts of product sampling to friends, relatives, and anyone genuinely interested in VCO,  they made known that VCO is not only healthy but produced properly is very pleasant to consume and very nice to smell.

Through word of mouth COCOLICIOUS, is now well known as the best natural tasting VCO.

Sense of Purpose

With a clear sense of purpose, the founders are all out in making  their products accessible and affordable to the greater many : they envision and coined the word COCOBODY to represent coconut products that can beautify and “youthify” and help develop an overall state of wellness by using coconut products from head to toe.

By consuming the coconut especially virgin coconut oil, COCOLICIOUS VCO can help alleviate the fear of millions who dread the Alzheimers epidemic. Strong anecdotal word of mouth from people who have sworn to the alleviation of symptoms of Alzheimers by taking coconut oil. The sense of urgency is heightened by the failures of supposed-blockbuster Alzheimers drugs that have failed in clinical trials. When one is desperate, coconut oil is a risk free natural option.

Now a skeptic, will say or ask “is not coconut oil bad for the heart and increase cholesterol because it contains saturated fats?”

Yes, it contains saturated fats with up to 65% lauric acid and other important medium chain fatty acids, this is why its healthy.

Nothing to Fear , Everything to Gain

Our assurance to all , to the modern skeptics, to so-called experts “ Coconuts and coconut oil have been staple diets of populations in coconut growing  and coconut-eating tropical regions from Africa, the Caribbean, South India, Sri Lanka , Southeast Asia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand , Pacific islands for HUNDREDS of years.

People who have lived in these places have been generally healthy eating their coconut rich cuisine. “

The people there ask “ if coconut oil was bad it would caused an epidemic and perhaps wiped out populations. This has not happened. Maybe it has to do with modern diets and lifestyle that  led to metabolic diseases  causing epidemics. “

Gratitude

Thank you coconut, Thank you coconut oil, You are God’s gift to mankind.