♪Coconut Water, Coconut! ♪

My husband has been walking around singing a few lines of a Harry Belafonte song lately: "Coconut Water, Coconut!!" (Apparently his mother was a big Harry Belafonte fan!) This is because our family has been trying out some - you guessed it - Coconut Water from Grace Foods.

First off, some quick facts about coconut water.

• Coconut water is tapped from young coconuts before the flesh matures.
• Second only to water, coconut water is the purest liquid
• Coconut water has 15-times the electrolytes found in most sports drinks. And it's a natural food, not a manmade product like a sports drink. Most sports drinks have a lot of added sugars like high fructose corn syrup, preservatives and artificial coloring. But plain coconut water contains naturally occurring sugar and minimal ingredients. It's also much lower in calories.

Nutritional Benefits of Coconut water:

• Excellent source of potassium;
• Low in sodium;
• Free of gluten;
• Fat free;
• Five essential electrolytes (potassium, magnesium, sodium, calcium and phosphorus); and
• Supports rapid hydration.

Grace coconut water is sold in cans of 330ml, 500ml and 1L tetra paks. It is available lightly sweetened, or without added sugar, with or without pulp (tiny pieces of coconut). 

My samples of coconut water arrived semi-frozen (like a slush drink) - so I was slightly amused to read "best served chilled" on the containers! It is indeed very yummy and refreshing chilled. We received some with pul and some without, and I must say, I like it better without bits of coconut in it (I also prefer orange juice without pulp too, so I think it's just a texture thing for me). A few of my friends drink Grace coconut water as well, and like it with pulp - it's very much a matter of personal preference. And of warning people who try it, that there are pieces to chew! 

I really like that it's a natural source of electrolytes. We've tried sports drinks or electrolyte drinks, on doctor's recommendation when we were ill, and could not stand the taste at all. I'm glad to have found an alternative now, that I know even the children will drink (as long as I strain it, or buy the version without pulp!). I'm really glad that Grace coconut water doesn't have any added colours - we can certainly do without those!

Something we tried just last night was mixing the coconut water with some pineapple/banana/orange juice. YUM! It gave us a sort of tropical mocktail... we could have used the sugar-free version, as juice is plenty sweet enough.

**Disclosure: The product mentioned above has been given free of charge from Enterprise Canada for Grace Foods Ontario in exchange for being featured on Glimpse. The opinions expressed in this post are those of Glimpse and have not been influenced in any other way. Please see the full Terms of use.