The coconut is harvested at different stages and used for different purpose - Tender coconut - Havested at very early stage and mainly used for the water. They have cream inside that is yet not solid and more water. Good for drinking only. - Slighly ripe. These are the coconut used for cooking. They have solid inside and less water. Grated coconut and coconut milk are made from this. Virgin coconut oil is also made from these. - Old ones - Mostly the coconut that falls naturally. Outside is fully brown in color. They have no water inside. And the solid cake is dried and pressed to extract oil.

Mature coconuts fall off naturally, but they taste yucky. All the water dries up & becomes milky. If you don't harvest young coconuts during the prescribed interval, the water becomes undrinkable. But we use mature coconuts for oil. You crush it & set it out to dry in the hot sun, make coconut flakes etc. Also, its dangerous to let coconuts stay up like that. In every village there's always 1-2 stories of kid who died when playing in the orchard because dried coconut dropped on him.

Coconuts fall off when they dry. If you want coconut water and the rather tasty wet flesh, you need to go up there and bring them down.

I had a fresh coconut once on vacation it was amazing. nothing like any of the other coconut I've ever had before.

Ripeness I presume. Different coconut products require different age of the coconut.