Coco López looks like nothing so much as a can of waxy congealed bacon drippings, kinda yellowish and fatty. All of those emulsifiers are doing their job, because at room temperature, it spoons out in a thick gloopy blob that stands up nice and high, like a melon ball of fat. Ewww.

Incredibly sweet, too. Tasted very much like sweetened shredded coconut, but moreso, and with a nasty nasty mouthfeel. Like I said, the bevvy turned out fine, and none of the above mentioned traits of the Coco López were evident, but its an unsettling ingredient to say the least. I wonder if I just had an off can, or if it’s all so very foul looking.

polysorbate 60, sorbitan monostearate, propylene glycol alginate, mono and diglycerides… all seemingly necessary to keep the coconut oil and water in a happy molecular marriage. guar gum and locust bean gum emulsify as well as thicken. so basically, Coco López is virtually guaranteed never to separate, and to be thicker and creamier than any naturally occurring food product has a right to be. I may be able to live with that.

It’s worth noting, too, that Coco López, where I’ve seen it sold, is $3+/can, generally twice the cost of your bog-standard can of un-emulsified, un-thickened coconut milk. Will it prove worth it?