Review: Cauliflower Coconut

Of the four flavors of Splendid Spoon that we sampled, this one tastes the most like a traditional soup. It’s made with water, cauliflower, navy beans, onions, celery, coconut oil, garlic, madras curry, sea salt, dry rosemary and black pepper. Like the other flavors, this is a heated product, which, at least to people in the industry, will probably be surprising given that it’s in the same bottle as countless high pressure processed (HPP) juice brands. Plus, we imagine that it will share the same shelf space in some of those products in retail outlets. Either way, drinking it cold takes a second or two to get used to, but the cauliflower flavor definitely works regardless of the temperature that you consume it at. From there, the onions, garlic, and beans seem to provide the majority of the flavor. The added coconut oil helps the product have its velvety texture (although it doesn’t actually add a coconut flavor to it), while salt and pepper hit your tongue at the finish. The added rosemary and madras curry work more in the background as we couldn’t really taste either of these ingredients. Nutritionally, this product has 300 calories and 6 grams of fat per bottle as well as 14 grams of protein. This makes it certainly a worthy meal replacement, and we found it both satisfying and flavorful enough that we’d come back to it again. As for the packaging and positioning, we like the simple and clean branding that the company has created. It definitely speaks to its small batch and handcrafted approach. But to our earlier point of the product looking like a juice, we do wonder if consumers will understand this product or confuse it with “raw” juices. We’re not advocating that this product go the HPP way rather than cooking the ingredients (that probably wouldn’t taste so good), but it’s something that the brand will likely need to more directly address in the future. Until then, this product is a very enjoyable and well-executed product that’s definitely some of the best packaged soup that we’ve ever had, be it from a cup or a bottle.

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