Return of the Coconut Topic

I recently purchased some coconut stuffs meant for drinks and here are my highly accurate opinions...

Bar supply type cocconut creams: I've tried about four different brands of white liquid in bottles and have found all of them to be too sweet and too low in the coconut flavor, one of them being truly disgusting and one of them being really awful (see below). They often have a definite pineapple quality to the taste, as if the coconut batch was ran right after the pina colada batch. In general not a good choice.

Trader Vic's Ko Ko Kreme: Also a white liquid in a bottle but with the distinction of being really awful. It tastes the way baby puke smells. I am now stuck with the task of figuring out a recipe to use up a full bottle of this stuff.

Dried coconut milk powder: I couldn't locate Mele Koi Coconut Snow (as suggested by alnshely) but found a similar product. It really did mix up into a good coconut milk substitute. As it's a powder it's excellent for you space travelers. I can't see why I'd use this instead of a liquid coconut milk, but I found it useful for rimming a glass in a novel way. I cut the coconut milk powder 50-50 with sugar, dipped the rim of a glass in lime juice then in the coconut powder sugar mix. It left a thick, frost like edge on the glass that tasted really good and would probably thrill the guests. It might be something interesting to do for a non-creamy coconut flavored drink.

After all this experimentation I once again highly recommend Coco Lopez. The flavor is incredible, it's easy to use, and it's fairly easy to find (I've seen it in several major grocery stores but I buy it at a restaurant supply place where it's much cheaper).

I agree totally about CoCo lopez. Trader Vic's ready-made cocktail mixes in the bottles are truly chemically disgusting, with not a single drop of fruit juice or pineapple or coconut flavoring. Better to stick to fresh ingredients if possible for your Tiki Bar. One may want to invest in a mini frig under the bar to keep all manner of goodies fresh on hand for the big blendino! Hail CoCo Lopez!

Got the dorm fridge behind the bar...and Coco Lopez is the man, but hard to keep from separating.

When using Coco Lopez I empty the can into a bowl then (gently) use a wire whisk on it. It usually stays mixed for many days, but just in case any leftovers get left in the bowl for easy remixing. I also found I could make a pourable Lopez that doesn't compromise the flavor by mixing 3 parts Lopez to one part water. At room temperature it remains pourable, refigerated the fat will rise to the top and solidify. Major shaking will mix it again, but don't fill a narrow necked storage bottle full of it as the fat will block the neck.

[This message was written by: woofmutt on 2003-1-30 9 PM-ish while woofmutt was enjoying a much deserved post work gin and tonic. Any spelling errors or errs or whichever the hell it is should be ignored.]