Tuesday, September 14, 2010

New Delicious Coconut Water

Newest awesome discovery:

 Coconut Water a la Goya.

 
Back of the can.
And I drank it down so fast, I didn't remember to get a full-glass shot.  
But here is a photo to show you the (surprise!) chunks of actual coconut in the beverage.



Anyway, this was fantastic and reminded me of my coconut drink experience at the Vietnamese restaurant in Philadelphia back in August (read about that at the bottom of this post).

And here is a lesson about why you should read labels at the store.
I loooved the above coconut water, so I went back to Wegmans and picked up 3 more.  Why not, at only .99/can!?  And I poured it into a glass:

 
 No coconut chunks!

It turns out there are 2 versions of Goya coconut water.  Note the little "un-sweetened" graphic on the lower left of the can.

 

It's 120 calories vs. 80 calories.
I'm gonna say it's worth the extra 40 calories though.  I like it enough to drink it not just after workouts.

Checking out the nutrition info:
The first has 80% young coconut water; the second has 98% young coconut water.  Water is the second ingredient for both.  The sweetened one then has sugar and young coconut pulp, followed by citric acid (which is also the next ingredient in the unsweetened version).  Both ingredient lists end with potassium as a preservative.

The Sweetened version has slightly more calcium and iron + 1g fiber, but also 2g more sugar and 1g more fat.  Sweetened version has only 130mg sodium; Unsweetened has 180mg (high compared to other brands).

Moral of the story: Look closely!

The un-sweetened version is comparable in taste to some of the other brands, but maybe not my top choice (I'd rank it below Vita Coco; on par with the Naked and O.N.E; above new-Zico).  Not bad, but it was a let down when I was expecting the sweeter version with coconut pulp.

I will be sure to pick up more of the sweetened variety!

2 comments:

  1. I love coconut water. I drink it after Bikram Yoga. I've been drinking O.N.E and am pretty happy with it. I wanted to try Vita Coco but I can't find the little cartons anywhere, they only have the big ones.

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  2. Not sure where you are located- but I've found the little cartons at Wegmans and Whole Foods. Trader Joes also had Zico coconut water in a small carton last time I was there - and it wasn't the new kind from concentrate, it was actually the 100% coconut water kind.

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