Zico (Natural Coconut Water)

Hubby and I first saw this Zico natural coconut water on TV on either the Food Network Channel or the Travel or Discovery Channel. It was a TV program about the next new food product or something like that. What caught our attention was the way the guy on TV (at the trade show) trying to cut open a coconut and let the show attendees taste the difference between a fresh coconut and Zico’s Coconut Water. We were laughing our heads off at the way the guy sort of struggled to open the coconut..Hehe!

Apparently, Zico is all pure coconut water. No preservatives. And it seems Coca Cola has invested some money into the company/product who actually gets their supply of fresh coconut from Amacoco and now owned by Pepsico. Go figure! =) Read article HERE.

Anyways, back to Zico. Hubby and I saw the product at an Indian Grocery Store a week later and decided to give it a dry. We paid about $1.40 or so for it. It came in a tetrapack and reading the back of the package, the only ingredient is only coconut water.

We tried it. It’s not bad. Very mild tasting. I thought I tasted a funny aftertaste. Somehow, it tasted like old coconut water and not those fresh young ones which are way more refreshing. It might be the type of coconut used that give the coconut water a little different taste than what I’m accustomed to. I assume they used Brazilian coconuts since they are after all manufactured in Brazil. I found an entry in Wikipedia which confirms my suspicion: “Coconuts from various parts of the world also differ in taste. For example, Indian coconuts tend to be sweet while Brazilian coconuts have a mild taste and Bangladeshi coconuts (due to the soil composition) have extremely sweet water and flesh with a very slight salty aftertaste similar to the Indian.”

It is indeed nice that there isn’t other preservatives or additives in the drink unlike many of the packaged coconut drink out there. In the mean time, I will still stick to fresh coconut water…at least those packaged in its original shell or husk. The best coconut water are those from the Pandan Coconut which are more commonly available in Malaysia. The water is fragrant, naturally sweet, the flesh is soft and almost gelatinous. It’s just the perfect thirst quencher in a hot weather! Yums!!

Well, get a packet of Zico and let me know what you think of it. =)