Coconut Water Reviews

I'm going to give you my personal review on a few store bought coconut waters, and I'm pretty certain if I was given a taste test right now on all of these that I'd be able to tell them apart because they are all fairly different. Also keep in mind that while a product may state "concentrate" on the label that this does not mean it has bad additives/ingredients, as concentrate can mean that only the healthiest parts of the fruit were used to create the product. The ones I reviewed below are listed from my top fave to least (I typically found these at either Target or Martins), and I think coconut water tastes better cold but these are usually found unrefrigerated at stores.

#1 Harmless Harvest: I feel like this one tastes the way a lot of other coconut waters strive to be in terms of taste as this one does seem to offer the most in terms of flavor. This one did not come in the typical paper carton as most do as it came in a plastic bottle in the fridge section of the grocery store and generally most are on the shelves. I did find this to taste like one of the sweetest coconut waters on here which was a little overkill for me at first, and it was a little off putting that this was a clear pale pink shade of coconut water but apparently that's a good thing since the pink means it contains beneficial phenols.

Ingredients: 100% Natural Coconut Water

#2 Naked: This one doesn't have a lot in terms of flavor so if you aren't fond of the way most coconut waters taste than this is probably a good option for you. It appears to be unaltered (claims no added sugar, no preserves, gluten free, Fair Trade Certified, pasteurized, and vegan) but does not state it's organic, it's slightly milky in color and doesn't appear to have any big coconut particles floating in it.

Ingredients: Coconut Water (contains coconut).

40 Calories (240ml), 60mg Sodium, 450mg Potassium, 10g Carbs, 8g Sugar, 4% Magnesium.

#3 Purity Organic: This one taste great and I found it had no weird after taste, although I feel that not all cartons of this taste completely consistent in terms of flavor (which is a bummer because I personally crave a good carton of this stuff at times). This one does seem to have more floating coconut pieces in it compared to Harvest Bay's, and it's more clear in color.

Ingredients: Organic Coconut Water (water and organic coconut water concentrate).

45 Calories (250ml), 80mg Sodium, 550mg Potassium, 11g Carbs, 11g Sugar, 15% Magnesium, 6% Calcium, 6% Phosphorus, 2% Iron.

#4 O.N.E.: Color wise this looks closest to Naked's but has more fine particles although it has slightly more in terms of flavor than Naked's. This product claims it's not from concentrate, fat free and gluten free. I'm rating this higher than Zico because the additional flavors this comes in are much better tasting (such as the splash of pineapple coconut water). The packaging on this does state that you should drink this within 2 days of opening it which could be a downside for some people.

Ingredients: Coconut Water (Contains Coconut).

45 Calories (240ml), 45mg Sodium, 440mg Potassium, 10g Carbs, 8g Sugar, 4% Magnesium.

#5 Zico: The color of this one more closely resembles Harvest Bay's, and the flavor tastes a tiny bit sweeter than Purity Organic but has an almost caramel flavor to it. Zico also has some pretty interesting additional flavors available such as chocolate (which isn't the greatest tasting in my opinion). Although I do feel Zico is more consistent in flavor in comparison to Purity Organic.

Ingredients: All natural coconut water from concentrate, natural flavor.

70 Calories (414ml), 180mg Sodium, 610mg Potassium, 16g Carbs, 15g Sugar, 4% Calcium, 2% Phosphorus, 10% Magnesium.

#6 Harvest Bay: It's fair in taste but a bit salty and nutty. This also has a yellow hue to it much like Zico's. This one is the lowest in calories compared to most the others on this post.

Ingredients: Coconut Water

40 Calories (250ml), 130mg Sodium, 510mg Potassium, 10g Carbs, 4g Sugar, 4% Calcium.


#7 Vita Coco: I didn't care for the way this one tasted, it has a weird sweetness to it, and the other flavored varieties I found to taste fairly repulsive. Although this product claims it's not from concentrate it does have added vitamin C to it.

Ingredients: Coconut Water, Vitamin C.

60 Calories (330ml), 40mg Sodium, 680mg Potassium, 15g Carbs, 15g Sugar, 230% Vitamin C, 5% Calcium, 5% Phosphorus, 10% Magnesium.

#8 C2O with Pulp: This one tasted the least like coconut water and had an odd taste and smell which I believe is caused by it being in a metal pop can. The "pulp" is actually coconut meat and the non-pulp variety had the same nutrition but was pulp free on the ingredients. I thought Vita Coco was fairly bad but this one takes the cake as my least fave thus far.

50 Calories (240ml), 75mg Sodium, 300mg Potassium, 13g Carbs, 12g Sugar, 2% Calcium, 2% Iron, <2% Phosphorus, 4% Magnesium, 2% Folic Acid, 42% Maganese, 2% Zinc, <2% Niacin. 

Ingredients: 100% Natural Coconut Water, Young Coconut Pulp.

----------A few others I'd like to try-----------

Trader Joe's Pure Coconut Water with Vitamin C
Taste Nirvana

Week 21 - Lowest Weight Again

This week I've been busy with remodeling around the house, and living out of hotels recently makes it hard to stay on a diet. However, I did manage to get down to my lowest weight but perhaps having been sick and still having a loss of appetite has helped bring it back down. So although I haven't been able to really diet I did manage to get my weight back down so... not too shabby.

Week 20 - Extremely Sick

Last Tuesday was the first week I didn't do a post because I got extremely sick with a horrible case of Strep C. I had a fever over 100F for 5 days straight (it was a total killer!) which got up to 103.1F the 3rd day when I finally went to the ER. By the 5th day I was still miserable and I finally got a prescription for Amoxicillin (used to treat things like Anthrax) from Urgent Care which honestly helped out significantly by the next day. I am now doing much better although my tonsils are still swollen and the glands in my cheeks have some blockage or something going on (which is really weird feeling). That aside I did drop 2lb during that time, I got to where I felt starving but then would hardly eat, plus it hurt so much to swallow anything (like a burning dagger to the throat).

Hoping that the worst is now behind me in terms of being sick, my blood pressure reading was 127 (fair) right before I got sick, but by the time I went to the Urgent Care about a week after it was down to 101 (good). I really want to start losing weight again since I have been maintaining my weight within 5lb of the lowest weight I have reached so far this year (202lb). I feel like since I have maintained my weight under 207lb that it may help reduce any big weight gain spikes. Another challenge for me has been my parents going off of their strict diets, and with my dad gradually gaining weight my mom is still wanting to lose more weight. So, hopefully I can find the strength to get my healthy lifestyle back on track once again as I do want to lose another 20lb by August.

Week 18 - Friendly Competition

First off I did skip 'Week 17' as I had mentioned trying to maintain my weight for a bit, although I wasn't eating very healthy and I honestly starting feeling a bit 'blah', bloated, and having acid re-flux issues (probably from eating out a bit more than I should have). However, I did actually meet someone this past week and as it turns out he is also on the weight-loss bandwagon... although we both have a few slight differences in terms of how we go about losing weight as he tends to workout more, while I tend to diet more. We are both very close in terms of weight as he is currently 211lb at 5'9 in height and I'm 206.8lb at 5'4 in height, and we are only like a year apart in age. So while he claims his weight hasn't really changed in 3 months and I haven't been very strict on my dieting recently I feel like we are almost closely matched. So I asked him to a little friendly competition to see who could try and lose the most weight over the course of a week (woot, motivation!!) and he accepted my challenge.

Here's a rough idea of what my daily diet looked like this week...

Breakfast
Overnight Oats (Natural Oatmeal, Maca Powder, Ashwagandha Powder, Crazy Richards Peanut Butter, Golden Raisins, Organic Saigon Cinnamon, All-Bran Cereal, Organic Honey, and 1% Milk)

Lunch
Sweet Potato (Sweet Potato, Olivio Butter, and Pink Salt)
Ezekiel Bread (2 Slices)

Dinner
Salad (Baby Spinach, Bacon Ranch Dressing, Mozzarella Cheese, Avocado, Pink Salt, Chicken, and White Pepper)

Snacks
Choco Love Dark Chocolate (A few pieces)
Lite Chocolate Soy Milk (1/2 to 1 Cup)

After a week I still didn't eat overly healthy and in the end I had only lost like 0.3lb although after the first day of dieting I had dropped 2lb, and my friend maybe dropped a pound but it really didn't seem like either of us tried that hard. Always next week... but my blood pressure did go up to 127/76 so I really do need to get back on the healthy train.