Howdy,
I made my chocolate milk last the other night. It’s my best batch yet, freaking delish. I’ve got it down now and I wanted to share. I’m now rechristening my chocolate milk to, Kick Ass Chocolate Milk. Note: After watching the video, make sure you read the cool story towards the bottom of this post.
2 organic young coconuts. Natural Grocers just started stocking the organic brand. Use the Coco-Jack to open and scoop the meat out. Put the water and meat in the Vitamix and blend for 1 minute.
Now you need to strain the milk using a cheese cloth or a nut bag. I use a nut bug (because I’m a nut job). So tie your nut bag around the jar, then pour the milk into the jar. Now you have strained milk.
6 tablespoons cacao powder
1/2 cup hemp seeds
2, 17oz cans coconut water
Put the strained milk, everything else into the Vitamix for about 1 minute. Put it in the fridge and let it chill.
Cool story segue.
We vote with our pocketbooks
I think Costco is a good store. They treat their employees well, their customer service is great. We buy from them. But whenever possible, we shop at Natural Grocers.
The last time I was at Natural Grocers shopping for coconut water, I saw the brand I used for the Kick Ass Chocolate Milk. I liked this brand, because the cans are recyclable. But I was hesitant, because the water wasn’t certified organic. But Natural Grocers fully vets all their products – they just don’t/won’t sell a product that isn’t organic.
Some companies actually do have organic products, but they can’t afford the certification. Knowing this I bought the coconut water. When I got home I’d send the company an email and ask them for myself. If I wasn’t satisfied with their response, I’d return the coconut water. That’s just how we roll.
I sent this email to them:
Howdy,
I just bought 2 cases of the coconut water, 17.5 oz size.
Your label makes me nervous.
Yes, you have the non-GMO label. But then you also have “fat free” “natural”, both mean nothing.
I bought the product at Natural Grocers. Natural Grocers doesn’t carry products they haven’t vetted, so we feel good about that. But I have to say. If I saw your product in any other store I wouldn’t buy it — because of how you label the can. Fat free and natural mean nothing. They’re words marketers use to trick consumers into thinking their product is healthy when in fact it’s not.
Despite being skeptical, I bought the product because it was for sale in Natural Grocers, a store we trust. We also like that cans, because they’re recyclable.
What can you do to convince me we made a good choice as compared to the Kirkland coconut water we buy at Costco, which is certified organic?
Why isn’t your product certified organic?
Thanks,
I got this reply later the same day, from Lauren Boncato in customer service:
Hi Paul,
Thanks so much for reaching out to us with your concern.
To answer your question, our label strives to allow our consumers to be environmentally aware of our product.
A lot of customers inquire about whether we are Gluten Free, Fat Free, Natural, BPA Free, etc. Thus, we would like to provide these labels on our cans not only for the safety of our customer’s well-being, but also to ensure their minds are at ease.
I do agree with you that “some” marketers have manipulated these labels, but we genuinely do not. We stay true to being all natural! An hour after cracking open our coconuts our waters are canned. Our coconut waters are organic, however at this time the cost to become “certified” is very expensive for us. We plan to have our cans labeled certified organic sometime in the near future!
Please let me know if you have any further questions.
Best and have a great day,
###
Because of Lauren’s email, we won’t buy coconut water from anyone else now.
We vote with our pocketbooks. I don’t care who a company is, I let them know what’s important to me. I don’t buy from companies that aren’t in alignment with our values. We go out of our way to buy from companies that are.
Their phone number is 877.295.0873.
Consider giving them a call and thanking them for being a great little company.
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