REVIEW! Vita Coco Natural Coconut Water

Well my regular readers know that I am a huge fan of coconut and there appears to be a trend for coconut water at the moment. I had never tried it before but expected to love it and I have also heard that there are quite a lot of health benefits that come from drinking it. I was assuming that it would be quite a niche product but a couple of my followers informed me that I would actually be able to find it in my local supermarket. Sure enough I found this carton of Vita Coco in Sainsbury's for £3.

For anyone not familiar with coconut water, it is not the same as coconut milk. Coconut water is the juice that comes from inside young coconuts, whereas the milk is made from the fleshy part. Apparently coconut milk has a high potassium and mineral content and it has hardly any fat, carbs or calories. Recently it seems to be thought of as some kind of energy drink because of it's apparent ability to enhance hydration.

I can't vouch for any of the health benefits but I figured that it would be a better option than the (albeit diet) fizzy drinks that I usually drink. What I was most excited about was the coconut factor as I assumed that coconut water would taste of like coconut. Well I was wrong!

The smell was quite strange to me, it was almost metallic and I am sorry to say this but I found the taste absolutely horrendous! It tasted to me like I was drinking dirty dish water; it was an almost soapy taste and certainly didn't taste of coconut. The worst thing for me however was the texture. You may remember me saying that I get freaked out about milk. Well the thing with milk is not so much the taste because I eat loads of milk based products, but it's that thick texture that sticks in the back of your throat...I feel sick just thinking about it. Anyway for me this coconut water was just the same. I was expecting something refreshing but it was think and syrupy in texture and I couldn't finish even the small glass in the picture.

Verdict
Sadly coconut water is not for me, it was not at all what I expected. I have never awarded anything 0 stars before and to be fair...erm I did like the packaging of Vita Coco so I will award 0.5 stars for that. No offence Vita Coco, I am sure lots of people love your coconut water as you seem to be very popular, but for me I have never tasted something so revolting!

Have you tried coconut water? What did you think?

REVIEW! Fran Collections Bon Macadamia Fromage Sticks

Today I am reviewing another Japanese product from Candysan which they kindly sent me to review. I wasn't sure what to make of these Bon Macadamia Fromage. Fromage is cheese in French so I was a little confused by the whole Macadamia plus cheese thing but I am always willing to give anything a go.

You get 3 individual packets of these sticks in the box and within those packets is 3 biscuits. Now I will be honest, I am not entirely sure whether these can be described as Pocky as I am not completely clear whether Pocky is the name of the brand or the product itself. Either way these are very similar to Pocky but a bit thicker than the Chocolate Almond Crunch Pocky that I reviewed the other day.

As the box was mostly in Japanese I wasn't really sure what flavour these were supposed to be but I did a bit of googling and apparently it's a chocolate biscuit stick which is coated with a later of cheese mousse (erm OK then!) and macadamia nuts and then coated with white chocolate.

Well they didn't smell "cheesy" and they didn't taste it either; these sticks were very tasty! I am guessing that the cheese is more like a cream cheese like in a cheesecake and really they should have described them as cheesecake sticks I think because that would have sounded way more appetising!

I love macadamia nuts so that was always going to be plus point for me and the biscuit part is very chocolatey. The white chocolate coating is very thick and there is only really a hint of a cream cheese taste but just enough to make them interesting.

Verdict

I really enjoyed these Fran Collections Bon Macadamia Fromage Sticks and they are probably my favourite Japanese product so far! They are available from Candysan for ¥165 (about £1.06).

REVIEW! Kit Kat Big Little - Green Tea

The other day I reviewed some Green Tea Oreos from Candysan and today it's another Green Tea product in the form of these Green Tea flavoured Kit Kat "Big Little", also from Candysan. They are basically Kit Kat bites that are covered in a green tea flavoured white chocolate. They came in a 37g bag which contains 196 calories,

The little, almost cube-shaped bites smell mostly of white chocolate with just a hint of the green tea. and the chocolate coating is quite thick. It is a lovely bright green with some darker green speckles.

The green tea flavour is quite subtle compared to the Oreos. I think that the white chocolate tones it down a bit and makes it much sweeter. It is a nice flavour though and I always enjoy the crunchy familiar texture of a Kit Kat.

Verdict

I know that there are a lot of crazy Kit Kat flavours out there and this is probably one of the tamer ones. I enjoyed these little green tea bites but I would have preferred the chocolate to have been milk or dark to really compliment the green tea flavour. I get why they went with white though, I am sure they wouldn't have got the nice green colour otherwise. You can purchase these Green Tea Kit Kat Big Little from Candysan for ¥170 which is about £1.09.