When you say coconut milk..... page

[alydar]

do you mean the canned stuff for cooking with or do you mean the coconut milk in the 1/2 gal carton in the cooler with all the other kinds of milk?

[mayness]

99% of us mean the canned stuff for cooking... but I've seen people talk about the other stuff on here, too, and occasionally it gets confusing.

[alydar]

Thank you! I was in the store yesterday and thought I might buy some but then wasn't sure which kind so I didn't. I'll know now!

[NutMeg]

I use hte canned stuff since it is less processed.

[Chaohinon]

I assume you're talking about the So Crapalicious brand - STAY AWAY

[mayness]

If you wanted something to drink like milk, I've heard you can re-create that stuff in the carton by watering down the canned milk and adding a little vanilla and your sweetener of choice if you want it.

[yodiewan]

@Chaohinon: haha. I thought So Delicious was OK from an ingredients standpoint, but yeah, the taste isn't all that great. It's basically really watered down coconut milk. You can much more cheaply make something similar by just mixing canned coconut milk with water. Or even better don't mix it and just drink/use it straight, heh.

Looks like you beat me to it mayness!

[mizski]

I assume you're talking about the So Crapalicious brand - STAY AWAY

Would you share your review on this product please? I've seen it mentioned a lot and the unsweetened version looked like it might be a suitable alternative to a big glass of cold cow's milk to drink.

ETA: Oops...already answered. Thanks guys...that's what I figured.

[Jib]

Would you share your review on this product please? I've seen it mentioned a lot and the unsweetened version looked like it might be a suitable alternative to a big glass of cold cow's milk to drink.

ETA: Oops...already answered. Thanks guys...that's what I figured.

Not to butt in...! But I was looking to buy some coconut milk recently, and found that So Delicious brand on sale. I looked at the ingredients, and (if I remember correctly) it had 5 grams of fat in one cup. They sell it in half gallon containers, so figure 40 grams of fat for the whole thing. Seems like they cut it with quite a bit of water.

I then went over to the international foods aisle and found Thai Kitchen Organic coconut milk on sale for $1.33 each. The serving size is 1/3 cup, with 14 grams of fat in one serving. The container is 13.66 fluid ounces total, and contains 5 servings.

The So Delicious coconut milk was about 3 dollars for 40 grams of fat. The canned coconut milk was $1.33 for a total of 70 grams of fat (5 servings x 14g fat per serving). The ingredients were the same, except the So Delicious brand was fortified with zinc oxide, maybe calcium carbonate and some other vitamins/minerals like B-12, so on and so on.

I'm not saying that the So Delicious brand is a bad product, but as other people here have mentioned, you can save a lot of money by buying canned coconut milk and simply mixing it with water.

I personally like using a 1-quart plastic milk container for storing "homemade" coconut milk. As I mentioned, there's 5 servings in a can of coconut milk (generally speaking), so making a 4-cup container out of it will get you a richer drink.

Doing it this way, you'll be at around $3 per half-gallon -- the same price as the So Delicious brand -- but you'll also have about *3 times* more fat per 1-cup serving. You obviously can also control how thinned out you want your canned coconut milk, but either way you're going to end up with more nutrition, calories and actual product if you opt for the canned stuff. Coconut milk in cartons seems to be mostly water.

*I'd also recommend checking out unsweetened shredded coconut in the bulk bins at a Whole Foods near you, if you have any near you, that is. You can make coconut butter and coconut milk yourself, and though I haven't crunched the numbers yet, you could probably save even more using that method (though for convenience's sake, the canned stuff is probably best), not to mention you're getting good dietary fiber and some minerals from the whole flesh of the coconut that you're not getting in the other products.

P.S. Coconut milk, cocoa powder and banana in a blender makes a great smoothie. Mixing a little 100% fruit juice into the quart container of diluted coconut milk also helps, and 1 cup of fruit juice, though high in carbs, isn't so bad diluted with the fat of the coconut milk and 4 cups of water.

P.P.S. There's a 365 brand of coconut milk that's under $2, if I remember correctly. The Thai Kitchen Organic coconut milk is usually quite a bit more than $1.33 each, so just as a heads up, if that isn't on sale, the 365 brand of coconut milk at Whole Foods seems to be a great choice.

[chronyx]

For the UK guys, check out Waitrose coconut milk and cream in tins. Oh my good god. It's like crack...