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Sep 14, 2026
From Sri Lanka to Prague: How Tharusha Brought Coconut Culture to the City
Prague Morning
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Tharusha De Silva, originally from Sri Lanka, has spent much of his life between different countries.
Today, he is bringing a taste closely associated with home to Prague through his beverage brand, The Coconut Culture which is also available at select cafés and restaurants across Prague.
We spoke to him about his journey to the Czech Republic, navigating life between cultures, and the story behind The Coconut Culture.
Journey to Prague
Prague was never part of a long-term plan for De Silva. He first came to the Czech Republic in 2016 to study mechanical engineering, after growing up in Sri Lanka and spending his teenage years in Dubai. By his own account, his decision to come here was almost entirely random.
“We had a counselling office that used to help us with university applications, and one day they changed the wallpaper to a map of Prague. I just went into the room, pointed at it and said, ‘Hey, what is that?’ They told me a little bit about Prague, and that’s how I got here.”
At first, Prague was simply where he planned to spend his university years. “I always thought that I would leave after university,” he says. But the longer he stayed, the less certain leaving became.
“It’s very difficult to give you a straight answer to what made me decide to stay. But I think the city has its way of keeping you.”
Freedom and opportunity were part of what made the city difficult to leave.
“You could really make something of yourself here if you really want to,” he says.
Eventually, staying stopped feeling like a temporary decision. “In a way, I found a part of home here. That was enough to make me stay.”
Tharusha De Silva
The Coconut Culture
King Coconut, a variety native to Sri Lanka, became the starting point for The Coconut Culture.
Unlike varieties grown primarily for their meat or oil, King Coconut has a more specific purpose. “The other coconuts have multiple uses. Some are used to get the desiccated coconut from the inside, to make milk out of it, to make coconut oil, even some kind of biofuel. But this variant, the King Coconut, has one use: it is to drink it.”
It is sweeter and lighter than regular coconut water, with a taste he compares to subtly sweet spring water.
For De Silva, however, the connection with King Coconut goes back to his childhood. He remembers his grandfather taking him and his sister out on his scooter. On the way back, they would stop beside a road running between paddy fields and have a King Coconut together.
Years later, that childhood ritual became part of the reason he wanted to introduce King Coconut to people who had never encountered it.
“I want to bring King Coconut out more, make more people be aware of it, and give it its place in the world.”
The name The Coconut Culture came later, during a conversation with a friend about Czech and Sri Lankan culture. De Silva remembers describing his background almost casually: “I come from the coconut culture.” The phrase stayed with him.
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Living Between Cultures
Having grown up in Sri Lanka, spent his teenage years in Dubai and lived in the Czech Republic since 2016, De Silva has spent much of his life between different cultures.
There are, of course, things he still misses about Sri Lanka.
“I come from an island, a very fairly simple life. I get to walk around without any shoes. We have the sea, we have the ocean. We have the sun, so many fruits, so many wild animals, forests, mountains.”
But perhaps the biggest difference is language and the sense of belonging that comes with it.
“The most important thing is I communicate in my own language back home. Here, I am the expat. I either communicate in English or with the little Czech I know.”
“Back home, it’s my language. I speak in my language, I’m more comfortable. I feel like I’m a fuller version of myself.”
Distance has also changed the way he sees the place he came from.
“The place that I will make home or call home in the future is just going to be a mix of the cultures that I’ve experienced. It’s going to be some of the things that I picked up from Dubai, some of the things I’ve picked up living in the Czech Republic or Europe, and then, of course, where I come from, my roots.”
Finding a Home in Prague
Prague, naturally, has become part of that mix. After years in the city, De Silva says one of the things he values most is the openness he finds here.
“I think here, Prague is one of the places where you could just walk out feeling or looking any way you want. And it’s very rare that anyone would tell you anything because people accept you as you are.”
Part of that openness, he says, also comes from the people who have made Prague their home from elsewhere.
“Prague has many, many expats and the city is filled with expats. Therefore, all of these expats bring different cultures into Prague.”
Beyond the bigger things that make Prague feel like home, it is also the everyday details that have become part of his life here.
“I would definitely miss the café culture. I love to sit in a café in the mornings, in the evenings, have coffee, read, do some work.”
A First Taste
The first real test came at the launch event, held before The Coconut Culture had even received its full stock. De Silva and his team brought in a small number of bottles specifically for the occasion and invited friends to try the drink.
“We had a launch event with some of our friends, and we got a lot of good feedback about the drink, especially about its taste, about the way it’s packed, about the branding that we’ve done.”
For the team, it was an early indication that the idea could work in Prague.
“This was maybe where we thought, okay, this is actually something that the people of the Czech Republic, all the expats and the locals, will enjoy.”
Beyond King Coconut
King Coconut is only the first of the discoveries De Silva hopes to bring to Europe. He describes The Coconut Culture as “an exploration company”, where “the fruit is the vehicle”.
The idea is to keep the range deliberately small, with the company eventually aiming for five to seven products.
“The Coconut Culture has a very simple vision: to find native fruits. We want to have between five to seven products, and be very specialized in them: find these native fruits that are specific to countries or communities. And we want to go there, we want to discover it, and we want to bring it to the European market and give it to the people here.”
For De Silva, however, the products are also a way of introducing the places they come from.
“We want to find these cultures, tell their story to the world here and, hopefully, respect, as we always try to, where it comes from and also respect the place that it’s being sold at.”
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