I like the real stuff in the young coconuts...but occasionally when I'm parched and a can of the no added extras type is available it's good. It's companies making a profit on the new food thing. There are trends in food, and coconut is the new "little black dress". Use moderately, make sure there's nothing "added" and enjoy once in awhile.

Chiming in and agreeing - I can't stand canned/tetrapak coconut water, it tastes terrible to me. Coconut water should NOT tastes like that. Instead, my husband and I buy the shaved coconut at the asian markets (9 for $8, can't beat that) and open them at home.

Aside.. Coconut water is definitely the new hotness, recommended during labor as an 'energy drink.' I gave birth at home and drank only coconut water during my labor, haha! When my husband wasn't comforting me, he was in the kitchen hacking the coconuts.

Harmless Harvest 100% raw coconut water is the best on the market. Not sure how it would taste to a guy who grew up drinking fresh, but it beats the hell out of any other brand I've tried.

Dear god VitaCoco is just awful.

I agree that they all taste nasty, except for one. Taste Nirvana actually taste good to me. They come in glass jars, which probably helps.

sometimes the taste of coconut water reminds me of non-fat milk, more specifically skim "cereal milk" -- the sweetish milk leftover from a bowl of slightly sweetened breakfast cereal, like honey-nut cheerios or something. i haven't had cereal for years, but that's what i think of sometimes. i still like it though. i definitely think coconut water tastes much more like cow milk than coconut milk does.. or soy milk, for that matter. similar viscosity etc.

i buy fresh young coconuts often, and reckon any fresh juice is superior to cooked and bottled, but i do not think the processing affects the electrolyte benefits. i do prefer to buy any canned stuff i can find that's unsweetened over the tetra-paks - for taste as well as recyclability; plus i don't trust/avoid buying anything owned by Coke (Zico).

What we really need are street vendors selling fresh coconuts like they have in India. I'd be all over that every day. It's too hard to cut up a coconut at home. I only do it rarely when I want a really special treat. I get out the hammer and screwdriver and pliers. Bits of coconut fly through the kitchen. Can't figure out another way to get them open.

I agree that I haven't been too impressed so far. I've tried just about every brand there is, but haven't found one that really tastes great. I don't mind them though. They work for those days when I need something that tastes more rejuvenating than water but isn't coffee, but most days I'd rather go for a nice unsweetened iced tea.

I think this fad has hit its stride since energy drinks became so super popular but now people are realizing just how much sugar they have in them, so they're looking for other beverages to fulfill their craving. These will go out of fashion soon enough, just like the agave nectar boom seems to be sizzling out.

I've had young coconut once, for some reason the local supermarket had it one time and not again. Wish it was more available here, but we're far away from tropical areas, so it is what it is.

VitaCoco tastes ok to me and I do have it almost daily, and is fairly clean, unlike the canned stuff that has cubed chunks of coconut flesh in with the water and also has added sugar and preservatives.

I don't believe that coconut water is acidic, so it wouldn't be reacting with the lining of the tetrapack/can.

I've had Zico once, and don't remember if it had preservatives, but I don't think it had added sugar. I did have concerns that it was bottled in plastic, so I tend to avoid those. I'm not sure if the tetrapack is going as harmful or more than plastic, but so far no issues. (I'm less worried about recyleability since we do recycle plastics here, as the negative effects on health.)

In a pinch, if I had nothing available but tapwater, and sweetened coconut water, I'd find a deli and buy a liter of S. Pellegrino because of the glass bottle.

I'm relatively new to Paleo, and after seeing how popular Coconut water is in the community I decided to give it a whirl, so I picked up two boxes of Naked's Coconut Water from Whole Foods. Literally almost vomited, it tasted like tangy piss. Mind you there are a ton of different brands of coconut water out there and this is the only one I've tried, so maybe others are better, but that experience has been enough to make me shy away from it ever since. I mainly stick to water and coffee, with a Steaz Organic Tea or Kombucha thrown in a couple times a week as a treat.

I like Exotic Superfoods coconut water (frozen section at Whole Foods) It's pricey so I don't get it too often, but in my opinion it's pretty yum.

Coconut water is acidic, so reacts with the can and the taste can be a spoiler. Plastic though an environmental concern, preserves it better. I'm from India, so I don't worry about the packaging stuff since it comes inside the nut for me. He! He!