Review: Cocotein

Cocotein is a coconut water-based beverage that touts 20g of whey protein isolate as its key functional ingredient. Like many of today’s new coconut water products, this one uses coconut water concentrate. There’s added sucralose to help with the drink’s sweetness, while the protein imparts a somewhat bitter flavor to the mix. Fortunately, the coconut water comes to the rescue, with its naturally nutty and salty flavor helping to cut the aftertaste. All in all, the flavor is definitely good as far as protein drinks go, but it obviously can’t compete with pure unadulterated coconut water. Functionally, the drink was formulated as a post-workout beverage. It has 100 calories, 5g of sugar, 20g of protein and electrolytes in each bottle. Visually, the product is straightforward and simple, with design and branding that draws a lot of attention to the fact that the product contains coconut water. The company also does a nice job of calling out the protein content, but we’re not overly fond of the way that Cocotein uses the word “aspartame” on the front of the bottle (despite the fact that the beverage is not formulated with the sweetener, a casual looker might think that the product HAS aspartame). Lastly, we think that Cocotein would be better suited in a plastic bottle or in a Tetra Pak -- two packages that consumers are more familiar with when drinking coconut water. Overall, this is certainly a niche product, but it’s one that’s well-executed.

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