Last night I was busily making macaroons, as though my life depended on getting them done. Now I consider myself quite frugal: when it comes to baking products, I’m never ashamed to buy bulk as much as possible. So imagine my horror as I went to the local grocery store to buy coconut in bulk only to find they didn’t sell it. I would have to *gasp* buy brand name (as I crossed my fingers hoping for a sale). Now I have never bought coconut name brand in pretty packaging and to my memory, my mother never did either. So I trudged down to the baking aisle, where lo and behold the coconut was on sale - 14 oz for 1.62. Not bad I thought.

Well, as I said last night I whipped up those macaroons and when I opened the package of coconut, I looked with shock and dismay. Not at what was before me - sweet, succulent, juicy coconut that was perfectly white, and with such a beautiful aroma. No, the horror was at my sheer ignorance. All these years of calling myself a baker and never knowing just how Awful bulk coconut really is.

I’m all for frugality, don’t get me wrong. But at some point, there needs to be a line drawn in the sand where we decide to opt for quality over pinching pennies. My line is at coconut my friends - my line is at coconut.