When I'm on a health kick I do enjoy eating a lot of coconut butter. It's a healthy paleo fat that tastes sweet and is very filling to boot. I usually eat it right from the spoon, but sometimes I'll mix it with cocoa powder and make chocolatey snacks from it too.
I've never known of any flavoured varieties so I was super dooper excited when I spotted this Salted Caramel Coconut Bliss made by Biona, in my local vegan store recently. It costs £4.93 which is a standard price for coconut butter, and is described as "our Salted Caramel Coconut Bliss is made from high quality coconut flesh blended with coconut milk, coconut nectar and pink Himalayan salt".
A natural salted caramel coconut product, sounds like heaven!
Since it's now Winter it was of course rock solid in the jar, and some of the fat had separated from the coconut nectar leaving unpleasant looking lumpy bits. I took a spoonful whilst on the bus as I couldn't wait to try it and....it didn't taste good. I was so disappointed. I could only describe the flavour as somewhat meaty, sickly and unpleasant. I suspected the problem was the separation of the coconut nectar from the fat, so when I got home I melted it down in a pan into more of a liquid, fudgey paste.
And it tasted a lot better! In fact it tasted lovely, like a caramel coconut fudge of sorts, and was super easy to eat from the spoon. Yum! I will admit, I ate a bit too much, although compared to real fudge with tons of sugar and dairy, this was a lot more filling and satisfying. I was able to actually put it down and stop eating, haha!
Overall, I'm glad I put aside my initial reaction to this and saved the day by melting it down - in liquid form it's lovely and makes for a nice natural fudge substitute. I can see a lot of potential for using this to make various vegan and dairy free sweets, if you add nuts, dried fruit or seeds to it. Definitely worth a try if you're vegan, paleo or into healthier eating!
8 out of 10.
