Review: Chocolate Coconut Water

The latest flavor variety in Zola's coconut water line is this one, Chocolate. Chocolate-flavored coconut water has become somewhat of a staple coconut water offering since it was first introduced by Zico a few years back. Zola is clearly looking to add something that’s immediately marketable (rather than bleeding edge innovation) to its line. And that’s exactly what the company has done. The formulation is a 65 percent juice blend of coconut water, water, sugar, cocoa powder, milk, carrageenan and citric acid. Like many of the brands that this product competes with, the first flavor that hits your palate is the chocolate. It’s sweet and, thanks to the use of milk, somewhat creamy in body. It pairs nicely with the base of coconut water, which has a natural sweet and salty but light-bodied flavor profile. While we can't say that this product tastes overly different than what's already out there, it's definitely an enjoyable product to consume. Nutritionally, each 8 oz.serving of the product has 50 calories, 11 grams of sugar, 1 gram of protein, electrolytes, and calcium. Packaging is a 17.5 oz. steel can, which is the same format that Zola uses for its other products. Rather than making the design completely scream chocolate, the company has taken a more subtle approach. To denote the product’s chocolate flavor, Zola has given the can a tan backdrop, a small image of a chocolate bar, and a callout in the middle of the can. In terms of the overall design, it’s much more focused on the coconut water than the chocolate. This seems accurate in terms of how the flavor shapes up, although we wonder if Zola shouldn’t have a callout for the fact that the product contains dairy. Overall, this is a logical addition to the Zola line and it definitely doesn’t disappoint.