Let’s get into the food!

First up is Gugen brand Coconut Milk drink. Banana flavored. With “Nata de Coco”. Distributed by Wang Globalnet. First ingredients are: water, coconut juice, coconut milk, sugar … other stuff … artificial flavor (banana).

If you’re not aware, artificial banana flavor is what bananas used to taste like. Thanks to genetic engineering, bananas taste how they do today. This artificial flavoring is a remnant of a strain gone by.

It’s also shocking that I can’t find more reviews, or information, or even ordering for this beverage.

I’ve always loved banana flavored things. The local ice cream shop when I was growing up had a banana milkshake that was incredible. I used more banana Quik mix than chocolate or strawberry combined during the short time it was available. This was obviously going to be one of the first things I grabbed. Even though I have barely tasted coconut milk or juice in my life.

Nothing against it, just one of those things I don’t get the opportunity to have very often and I don’t think to buy it for myself when I’m out. That unfamiliarity made this beverage a bit surprising. The banana flavor is there, and let’s be honest, the sugar flavor as well. But what surprised me were the chunks. There are little bits of coconut, I assume from either the milk or the juice, mixed in. They’re small pieces. If you swallow them whole there’s no choking hazard. But it is surprising. Most of our western drinks don’t have chunks inside. Even protein smoothies are blended and have the little shaky balls inside to keep it liquid and reduce clumping.

Now the funny thing is, this made me stop and thus made the drink last longer. AT 9.8 oz I could easily drink it all in one shot. But I spend about $2 on this and it’s new so I wanted to savor it. Every good couple of coconut bits was enough for me to stop, chew, and take a moment. But this pause allowed me to really enjoy the flavor. It’s predominately coconut with the splash of banana over – but it was enjoyable. It didn’t feel fake, or like empty calories, or over quickly. Honestly, to sound like a fat kid, I think the only thing that could make it better would be a bit of chocolate too.

I would love a case of this to start my day. Drink one first thing in the morning with breakfast. Start the day off with something that feels clean and healthy. I’m not asking if it is or isn’t. It feels so, and thus my brain felt good and perked up too.

Don’t let new flavors and new products scare you. This was delicious and I would rather have another bottle of this than any soda right now.