When we think of the tropics, we always think of coconut palms. Beautiful sandy beaches. Blue sky and sea. Sun, with a cocktail in your hand – never without the green of the finely-feathered metre-long leaves of Cocos nucifera, which is the official botanical name of the coconut palm. And the reason for this? Coconut palms grow all around the world. But only on the equator, in a strip almost exactly 1,000 km wide to the north and south.

Coconut juice ripens using the energy from around 2,000 hours of tropical sun …