About a month ago a friend put me onto organic coconut oil and I’m completely obsessed. I’ve been bathing in the stuff morning and night and it has done wonders for my skin. I’m on a total coconut kick at the moment, and it might be mainly motivated by the impatience for summer to start (smelling like coconuts is a divine way to take a mini break), but at present every man and his dog are touting their health benefits too.  So I’m finding all sorts of ways to introduce coconuts into my daily diet.

 Cocobella is the latest thing to hit the supermarkets around here, and hearing of my current obsession, they sent me their range to try as part of the Nuffnang Product Talk experience. After a hard afternoon photographing up vintage for my upcoming Garage Sale, my glamorous assistant and I decided the break them open and go about the scientific process of giving them a verdict.

I was a bit suspicious about the offering of four varieties. There is coconut straight up, then also blends with mango, pineapple and pink guava.  Given that I was already fast becoming addicted to coconut water, (it makes you feel like you’re on a tropical holiday without going anywhere), I was prepared to risk adding more choices to my selection. However, I needn’t have worried.

Blending coconut juice like this is a bad idea. There is something about the sweetness of the fruit juice and the natural salts in the coconut juice that when combined, kind of tastes like fruity sweat. Sorry for that mental image.  The saving grace for these fruit juice blends comes out of this conversation.

“So when would you mix coconut juice with fruit juices?”

“When you’re making a cocktail I rekon.”

“So how about we top this about with a good measure of Cointreau then?”

“I think you’re onto something there!”

Now that is a do-able flavour!

Interestingly, all the images of celebrities drinking Cocobella, (that did nothing to encourage me, in fact quiet the opposite as I hate being on a trend wagon) when I paid close attention, each of them were drinking the coconut ‘straight up’ version and not the juice blends. Now I know why they approved.  The Cocobella ‘straight up’ was the only one that passed muster for me.  It tastes like it actually might come out of a coconut for a start, and the more you mess around with something, the more likely you are to get it wrong.

I was expecting it to have a really recognisable flavour, something that took me right back to the beach front, but it doesn’t. It is a milder, somewhat sweet sort of taste, that if it didn’t have a picture of a coconut on it, you’d be wracking your brain trying to figure out what you were drinking.

Pros -

• Long life tetra pack with easy open top
• Attractive packaging.
• Good single serving size
• Great health benefits and low calories.
• Perfect pre-mixed juice to make single cocktails with.

Cons - 

• Taste isn’t pleasant (not awful, but not something I’d go out of my way for).
• Tetra pack opening too large to drink from a straw so must be poured into a glass or inelegantly consumed.
• Significantly more expensive than comparable coconut waters available.

So in a nutshell (ha ha!), I’m afraid to say I wont be going out of my way to buy any Cocobella.  If I’m going to spend money on coconut water, I want it to taste heavenly and this was far from it. But it could be that old problem of things that are good for you don’t always taste that way.  Since I’ve been drinking coconut water everyday my skin is even more smooth, illuminated and soft. I’ve even lost a few kilos – but that may just be that it makes me feel summery so I eat better.  My tests are far from scientific.

If you want to try coconut water for yourself, I’d suggest doing your own taste test, because of course we all enjoy different things.  There are several varieties available from Asian supermarkets, and not all waters are created equal. My suggestion with this is not to buy into all the hype. Do you research, conduct your own taste tests and make your own decisions, and for those of you coming into Autumn, turn up the heat, pop on a lei and find a coconut water you love – it’s a great mood enhancer!

*This review was conduct for Nuffnang’s Product Talk *