Cocavo - Original product reviews

The first time I saw or heard about Cocavo was earlier this year at the Hamilton Food Show. My sister and I were both keen to buy some to try but we never managed to make it back to the Cocavo stand. So when I saw it come up for review on the KIWIreviews page I knew I had to grab some to review. I was lucky enough to get sent both the original and the Chilli and Lime flavour to review.

I chose the original as I thought it was more multipurpose and could be used when cooking both sweet and savory. I mostly use coconut oil when cooking dinner as a healthy alternative to standard oil. My first thought was it smells quite nice, the coconut isn't too overpowering so doesn't take away the flavour of the meal and replace it with a coconut taste. It has a nice subtle flavour.

There are 5 different variants in the Cocavo range - Chilli & Lime, Original, Light, Turmeric and Lemon, and lastly Cilantro, Lime and Ginger. All the products have a different packaging colour so it's really easy to tell them apart when you have 2 or 3 of them stored in your cupboard. I love the fun packaging and title of the product using the coconut as the 'O' and the avocado as the 'A'.

I have tried quite a few different brands of coconut oil in the past and this would be my favourite brand. I love the texture of it and the way the food cooks in the coconut and avocado oil. The oil retails for $12.99 which is a fairly reasonable price for coconut oil. I haven't seen it in my local supermarkets so I'm not sure where to buy it from other than food shows and on the Cocavo website.

In the last couple of years I have been making vegan treats whenever one of my uncles, and occasionally his son, come to Auckland for a family get together because I do enjoy cooking and baking things and it gives a chance to try things that can't yet be bought, pre made, from a grocery store or anywhere local to me really. Because of this I've used a few different coconut oils, but never an avocado oil, so I was interested to see what the difference might be. The price for this is pretty much on par with competing brands, especially when you factor in the avocado (something I only like in small amounts). The packaging itself is nice and colourful, so it will stand out from the brands currently at my local store and you know it will have both coconut and avocado without having to read anything.

There are only two ingredients in this pot which is nice and I like not having a cluttered ingredients list, you don't have to store this in your fridge but I would heavily suggest that it goes somewhere dark and cool, especially in summer as other brands have taught me. There's also a good little bit of information about why this particular oil is a good, healthier choice and let's you know this is suitable for everyone, weather you eat meat, are vegetarian or vegan.

It is worth pointing out that if this is your first foray into coconut based oils, this comes as a solid, not a liquid so you're going to need a teaspoon handy. Also, if you're wanting an exact amount, melt first then measure, otherwise start small and increase if needed once melted. I used this on a few traditional meals and found that it added a nice subtle hint to the dish but then decided that the real test would be in a cheesecake, one vegan and one not. This went into the base instead of the standard butter and once cooled held it all together besutifully. The kids all chowed down on their slice and agreed that it was yum, with my eldest eating all the base crumbs because 'it tastes so goooood'.

A good product, very versatile and one that I'm happy to reccomend to my family.

I have used coconut oil in the past but never avocado oil so this was quite an exciting product to get to try. I have heard that coconut oil is better for you than other oils with less fat and avocado oil has extra health benefits to so this oil seemed like a great option to use for my cooking at home. When I tried coconut oil for the first time I wasn't really fond of the initial smell when the oil was heating and was worried it would taint my food which it didn't but I did learn that coconut oil does leave a subtle taste in your cooking.

On opening this I loved the green colour I could initially smell the coconut but it was definitely a nicer smell than the coconut oil I had previously tried I could pick out avocado and actual like the smell of just the oil in my pan as it was heating before I had added any actual ingredients. This was a great oil to use for my stirfried vegetables as it did leave a taste through the food and gave it a nice savoury touch before adding any extra seasonings. It is a pleasant taste I am a huge fan of avocado and coconut so for me the oil would be a nice choice for cooking.

I wasn't brave enough to try any sweet dishes using the oil but I loved it used in curries, stirfries, and other fried meats as it adds a subtle taste to the food. I would now love to try some of the other varities as looking what is also available in the range I feel there would be some nice flavours to add with the oils which would make stirfry cooking a lot easier and healthier as a bonus. Although it is a more expensive oil, coconut oil itself is not the cheapest and I really do enjoy the combination of the coconut with the avocado.

Cocavo is a product I have heard about and known about for quite some time now but so far hadn't been brave enough to try it. When I saw the opportunity to review this product I jumped at the chance and I can confidently say that I wish I'd been braver earlier and tried this product sooner. It is quite simply utterly amazing! Cocavo is now the only oil we will be using here in my kitchen and a product we will be continuing to buy over and over again; adding to this I am happy that I am able to support a local business as well.

In order to test this product fairly and thoroughly I have used it in our dinner preparations almost every night for the past 2weeks. From roast meat and vegetables through to stir fry's and keto friendly pies we have tried it all the cocavo way and we are totally converted. Being that we are currently eating keto style this was an easy adaption for us we have been using a lot of coconut oil in our cooking already. This product however tops coconut oil with ease. Cocavo has extra flavour and depth, it adds crispness and crunch and just somehow makes everything taste better. I will admit that I haven't yet tried any sweet recipes with this but I most definitely plan on trying to.

Although some might consider this product expensive, I've certainly seen worse on the market and a (perhaps expensive) price most definitely equals quality in this case. When considering the price of items I like to factor in things like muti purpose (massive tick here) and how long the product lasts (another massive tick) so all in all this is definitely a price I am happy to pay for this product.

I love the fact that this product is natural, full of good for me ingredients/additions and full of good fats. It really couldn't get much better than that! I am now keen to try the other variants I know that are available in this range and highly recommend this to everyone I know

I am a keen cooker being a ex chef and I love using flavours in my cooking and trying new products. I was excited to try this flavoured oil and decided to use it with a stir fry like it suggested. I have tried another flavour and was not to keen on it but I thought I would go in to this open minded. I put a spoon full in my pan and waited for it to melt which does not take long.

I like the flavour a wee bit but it was not my favourite of flavours. I could taste the avocado in the oil and it was nice but a little too much for me. I do not think I would use the pot in a hurry and it would end up going to waste as you need to use it up within 3 months of opening which I do not think I would use it in that time frame. For the price then however would be a waste after only using a spoonful or two within that time frame.

I am thinking I would gift this to a friend to use who may enjoy it more than me and would get more use out of it so then it did not go to waste. I do like the pot and the colours and the eye catching pot. The designs for the pots are great. This pot seems cheaper then other pots which is a bonus.

I'm a really big fan of nice oils to cook with, something well beyond the budget brand of spray oil, so I was pretty excited to try this product out. Reading the summary, it sounded fantastic; less saturated fat, health benefits of avocado oil, premium ingredients, delicate flavours, I couldn't wait to dive into this. It is a decent size tub and the price is on par with other nicer oils so that was also a positive. I have to be honest though and say that this is where my love affair began and ended with Cocavo.

The first thing is that it is not a traditional pourable oil, my partner described it as looking more like old fashioned lard, it is solid. This creates the first issue I had which was judging how much to use, normally I might pour say a teaspoon of oil in a pan and go for it but that doesn't work so much with this, a teaspoon first of all didn't seem enough then when I added a tiny bit more it was suddenly too much. While this oil has health benefits I still prefer to be careful how much I'm using so I wasn't very comfortable with this.

The other issue I had was that once the oil cools, it basically congeals over EVERYTHING. My pan had solid oil in the bottom, our steaks felt a bit too greasy and even the cooking utensils had a definite greasy layer to them. I really didn't like this and found it very off putting.

It does have a coconut taste to it, mild but it is detectable, I think you would have to pick and choose which foods you used this oil with as I didn't feel it was a flavour that complimented the foods we tried it with even though it was mild.

I really dislike giving bad reviews but this was not a product that I enjoyed using so not one that I would buy in the future. Sorry Covaco but I'm sticking with my pourable oil instead.