Review – TT Coconut Cream Concentrate

What Is It?

Coconut cream concentrate is basically ground up coconuts, oil and all. Think of peanut butter, but instead of peanuts, it’s coconuts. In the name of all that is holy, this is amazing stuff.

It’s mostly fat (1 tablespoon contains almost 100 calories of fat) which means a spoonful can be an excellent quick pick-me-up for those primal/paleo/real-food-minded folks.

Some people use it as a spread (like you would with peanut butter) on toast or whatnot, and according to the Tropical Traditions site, it can also be used as a non-dairy creamer in coffee.

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You can stir it into water to make coconut milk or coconut cream (depending on how much you use) to use as a beverage or in cooking, too.

It’s 100% organic coconut – no weird ingredients.

My Thoughts:

First of all, it took me a while to try this out, because there’s one inconvenient step you have to complete before you can use the coconut cream concentrate.

You have to actually “prepare” it … the oil separates out of the coconut cream, just like the oil in natural peanut butter separates out. But coconut oil is often solid at room temperature, so it can be pretty hard to mix back into the coconut meat. I did the hot water thing but still got really frustrated in the mixing process… the jar doesn’t have much extra room, so I was really worried I’d splash the oil out accidentally.

My husband actually ended up doing the “prep” part – he’s a pro at mixing peanut butter to start a new jar, and he did this easily too. Maybe I’m just clumsy.

Once it was mixed together, I was a little disappointed that it seemed so runny. Of course, I wasn’t thinking about the oil still being melted at that point. I went ahead and tried it in a recipe:

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Coconut cream “health fudge.” I was again a bit disappointed because the fudge wasn’t very fudgy, and it also mostly tasted like peanut butter. I wanted more coconut cream concentrate flavor!

Well, imagine my delight when today I went to inspect the coconut cream concentrate and taste it again, and it had thickened into this delightful texture:

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Because the oil had hardened again, but this time was mixed throughout, the concentrate was more like the texture I had initially expected – more like peanut butter. Exciting!

I ate a spoon full. It was awesome. Like the delicious exciting flavor of coconut oil, but without making your lips and throat feel all greasy (yes, I’ve eaten a spoon of coconut oil on its own before).

I’m really looking forward to using it to make my homemade peppermint patty recipe, without having to grind up the dried coconut… this will be much simpler and probably a smoother texture! I’m also thinking of homemade almond joys, and maybe trying it in a cookie recipe in place of butter. In the meantime though, I think I’ll have another spoon full as a snack.

It’s delicious! And now that I know just how delicious it is, I won’t wait as long to “prep” my next jar.

Buy It:

Go to Tropical Traditions and check out all their products – they don’t just have coconut stuff (their pumpkin seeds are also great, I promise). And if you make a purchase and use my referral ID: 6533374, you’ll get a free cookbook with 85 recipes in it. I’ll also get free coconut oil if you use me as your referral.

Win It: (CLOSED)

One lucky Joyful Abode reader will win a jar of Tropical Traditions Coconut Cream Concentrate.

To enter the giveaway, you must comment on a Joyful Abode recipe you’d like to try, then come back to this page and comment with a link to that recipe and tell me what # comment you left.

Be sure to use a valid email address when commenting, otherwise I won’t be able to contact you if you win!

I will select the winner using Random.org on Wednesday, November 3 when I get up. I’m not giving you a specific time because, hey, I have a new baby. But it will be in the morning, Pacific time.

UPDATE: Edmund W, comment 49 is the winner selected by Random.org!

Tropical Traditions provided me with a free sample of this product to review, but I promise these are my real thoughts and opinions of the product.