It seems to be a function of individual trees. 3 of the trees in my yard produce what tastes like sugar water, 1 the sweetest of the 3. As the nuts get older, the water tastes like sweet alcohol. The others not as much, and neighbors' coconuts not at all. Over one street, another tree that tastes like sugar water, others that don't. So just depends. I'm not much for sugar, and I don't drink alcohol, so I'm not turned off by my trees but am not very excited by it either. I was really hoping for one that has a strong nutty flavor - I used to buy some very expensive coconut water in NYC that had a delicious flavor of very fresh nut, which was less like coconut and more like... I don't know, but I really liked it. Very light, refreshing taste. I thought when I had my own tree it would be like that - I thought the difference in flavor was just about freshness, and that the high cost was because of a fresher product or something. But as it turns out, all trees seem to make slightly different flavored water, depending on nutrients, and various other factors, even when they are the same variety of coconut.