Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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45 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Closest Thing to Fresh Young Coconut Juice But In A Box!, May 22, 2008
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
My family has been adopting a raw foods diet for the last year, and one of the things we have been able to enjoy is eating young green coconuts.
A young green coconut looks like a woody white cylinder with a point on the top of it. In order to open it, you take a heavy cleaver type knife and you strike it in four sides around the point of the coconut.
You then take off the top and inside you get anywhere from 1/4 to a full cup of coconut water- a clear sweet nectar with subtle coconut flavor.
Drinking this type of juice is a delightful experience, however, it does take some work to get at and is not always convenient- until now.
When I first saw the 11 oz aseptic container of O.N.E coconut water, I was not sure what to expect. I know that I expected it to be flat tasting and probably nothing like I was used to from having fresh green coconut water.
I was wrong.
This coconut water might not be fresh and raw, but it is the closest thing to it that I have come across so far.
The foil wrapped box has about a 5/8" opening (slanted square) that is covered with foil. You peel that off and it forms a slight spout for easy pouring.
It is best served cold, so I kept in the refrigerator.
The water/juice inside is a slightly cloudy clear liquid which has the delightful taste of young green coconuts. There is a refreshing coconut flavor that is not at all overwhelming, but just right.
It has no added flavors or sugars to it, which is delightful. It has only 60 calories which is also a nice feature.
I have compared it to fresh coconut water, and although I do prefer raw fresh water, I am very happy with this as a substitute.
I can say this, my family all fought to taste this stuff- so it made a big hit here.
If you are into raw foods and need to have a beverage which is close to what you are used to and is not cooked to death and sweetened in a package to take on a picnic, trip, or even to work, this is definitely a great item to have handy.
You might like it even if you are not into raw foods, but like the fragile coconut flavor in coconut water- you should give this a try.
I do want to mention that this is NOT the kind of water that comes out of very dark brown dried coconuts- that tastes very different than young green coconuts.
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182 of 214 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
not bad stuff, but I have serious questions, June 1, 2008
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
Coconut water is the liquid inside an unopened coconut. It is not "coconut milk," although there is often confusion about that. Coconut milk is made from the meat of the coconut after it is opened and the water poured out. Inside the coconut, the water is sterile and very benign to the human body - it has been safely used in emergencies as IV fluid! (Straight out of the coconut, that is, NOT from a Tetrapak.)
Coconuts in general are very healthy items. In the South Pacific the coconut palm is called "the tree of Life," because it provides so many things for a healthy life: food, water, shelter, medicine, etc. Coconut oil is one of the healthiest oils on the planet, but has been the victim of intense propaganda campaigns by corporate vegetable oil cartels and other evil critters.
Coconut water tastes (to me) a bit like very watery, unsweetened tapioca, with just a hint of sourness. It is quite bland by itself, but mixes easily with fruit juices, etc. It has great health properties and is rapidly becoming popular with athletes as a superb isotonic drink, because it has great electrolyte and mineral properties, and is a natural food with no harmful side effects or hideous chemical garbage masquerading as food.
Good organic coconut water is very hard to find, but there are many brands of non-organic like this one on the market. I checked out the package info and vendor's web site, but could find only general information on coconut water and its benefits, nothing specific about this exact product - where and how it is grown and harvested, the quality of the land and processing, etc. That is not a good sign.
For an item that is very health oriented, the only reasons I can see for hiding that information are pure marketing ignorance, or knowing that the truth would not paint a good picture. Rain forests are reportedly being cut down for coconut palm plantations, especially those dedicated to unhealthy corporate factory farming practices. It would be vital for a company to distance themselves from that kind of activity by using only properly grown plants on healthy, environmentally sound plantations, and making that a very prominent part of their marketing.
It would also be vital to play up everything possible that points to a healthy product by specifically mentioning those things about this specific product, not just general properties. This company doesn't do any of that, so I can only assume that this product is not produced in a way they want me to know about. That is the kiss of death for a product in my eyes. Granted, I am fussier than most in this regard.
Don't be misled by the "100% Natural" marketing hype. That means virtually nothing. It is not a strict, legally defined standard, as is "USDA Organic," for example. Virtually anything found in "nature," i.e. toxic heavy metals, MSG (yes, it occurs in nature), animal manure, etc., can be considered "natural" and can legally be included in a product labeled "100% Natural." Granted, USDA organic standards are very weak as organic standards go (compared to say, Oregon Tilth), but they are still better than nothing.
While I love coconut and want to give this product 4 or 5 stars, the complete lack of honest information about its origins and processing make me VERY, VERY suspicious. Without more information about how safe/healthy the product actually is, I can only give it 3 stars and a serious "caveat emptor." It is probably much better than any ordinary "sports drinks," but there are too many unanswered questions to be sure. One's health is not something to be treated lightly.
UPDATE July 2009:
After continued searching, I still have not been able to locate a consistent source of organic or Fair Trade coconut water. While the manufacturer of this coconut water still does not give out any real information about the growing, harvesting, or other relevant details of production, neither do any of their competitors.
So far, this is still the best coconut water I have been able to find, and I continue to drink it, even with the questions I have.
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28 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best coconut package out there, May 27, 2008
I have tried just about every coconut water company out there (Zico, Harvest Bay, Vita Coco, etc.) and this by far is the best and the closest to the coconut water out of fresh young coconut. Nothing will be beat drinking it right out of fresh coconut but O.N.E comes the closes.
The coconut water is supposed to taste like fresh refreshing, slight sweet water with just a hint of coconut flavor. If you taste strong flavor of coconut, it is probably over ripe or aged. This container also doesn't have any package smell as some of the other coconut water packages have.
Just remember to buy them fresh and chill them before you drink. The flavor is much better when chilled. Highly recommend buying this over the other brands.
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