How to Buy and Store Coconut...Everything

The last time my mom visited her native Philippines, she came back with water bottles full of coconut oil.

Was it organic? Unrefined? Who knows. Who cares! One whiff and it was obvious this was fresh coconut oil. (I have since confirmed that my mom’s cousin made the oil for her the day before her return flight. So yeah, definitely fresh.)

My stash is now depleted, so until my parents plan another vacation to the homeland, I’m back to standing in the grocery store aisle, a jar of cold-pressed oil in one hand and expeller-pressed in the other, wondering which one to get.

The coconut tree is one generous plant. It also yields milk, water, even flour (and all of it totally on trend, if you haven’t noticed). I called Camilla Saulsbury, author of The Complete Coconut Cookbook, for a rundown of the various coconut products on store shelves.

There are two main types of coconut oil: virgin oil, which starts with fresh coconut meat, and refined oil, made from the dried meat of mature coconuts.

Virgin oil is extracted without chemicals or high heat. The common method involves quickly drying and then mechanically pressing the coconut meat. If you see “expeller-pressed” on the label, that’s how that virgin oil was made, Saulsbury says.

In wet-milling, the fresh meat is mechanically pressed without being dried. Oil made this way is labeled “cold-pressed.”

There’s debate as to which oil is better and you’d be hard-pressed to tell them apart by taste, but both are generally considered higher quality than refined oil, which is usually extracted with chemicals and high heat.

Saulsbury notes that there is such a thing as good-quality refined oil that's extracted with a steam-processing method, but the cheaper and more common refined oil is labeled “RBD coconut oil,” which stands for refined, bleached, and deodorized.

RBD oil has a longer shelf life and higher smoke point than virgin oil (which you can take to 350 degrees) and is often sold in tubs, similar to shortening. The processing method also removes that tropical coconut-y scent and flavor as well as the good-for-you fatty acids of virgin oil, Saulsbury says.

Coconut milk in the can is the liquid extracted from fresh coconut meat. It’s snowy white and thick because it contains the fruit’s natural oils.

But check the labels. Many commercial brands also add preservatives and stabilizers that prevent the milk from separating.

With “light” coconut milk, some of the fat has been removed and water added. You can simply do the same at home with a can of full-fat coconut milk, Saulsbury points out.

Coconut milk in cartons usually has the word “beverage” attached. Although this drink contains coconut milk, usually some of the fat has been removed and water added, along with sugar, stabilizers, and other ingredients.

When you open a can of full-fat coconut milk and see that thick solid layer on top, that’s coconut cream. It is an entirely different thing than cream of coconut, which is also sold in cans.

“Most brands [of cream of coconut] are made from regular coconut milk, not even coconut cream, and tons of sugar, sometimes other flavorings, and usually a little salt,” says Saulsbury.

This is the potassium-rich liquid in the center of an unripe green coconut. (Saulsbury refers to it as “natural Gatorade.”)

At the supermarket, you’ll find it in aseptic cartons, often with a bit of salt, sugar, and/or other flavorings. You can find a more pure version at Asian markets, where it’s usually sold in cans and called buko juice (“buko” is young coconut in the Philippines).

This is the dried meat of a mature coconut with all the natural oils. You’ll find it flaked or shredded to varying degrees, unsweetened or sweetened.

Once the milk and oil are pressed out of a coconut, what’s left of the meat is dried and ground up into coconut flour. It’s low in fat, gluten-free, and still has a faint coconut scent and flavor.

This brown sugar is the dried nectar from the blossoms of the coconut tree. It’s minimally refined, and sold in liquid form as well.

There’s no need to refrigerate coconut oil. It'll last a long time—up to two years—in your pantry. Just keep the lid on tight.

Depending on how warm it gets where you live, your oil might go from solid to liquid in the jar. That’s normal. No need to do anything about it, says Saulsbury.

Canned coconut milk also lasts a while unopened; keep an eye on the date on the can. Once you open it, refrigerate any leftover milk in a different container and use within five days.

Or do as Saulsbury does and freeze any extra milk in ice cube trays until solid, then pop them out and into a freezer bag. They’ll keep frozen between six months to a year.

Store coconut cream the same way you do canned coconut milk.

Keep coconut milk in the carton chilled. Once opened, drink it within a week or two. “A lot of them have preservatives so you can keep them for up to two weeks after opening,” Saulsury says.

Unopened coconut water is fine for at least a year in storage. Refrigerate it once you open it, and drink it within a few days, as the flavor will start to go off.

Coconut flour isn’t like other gluten-free flours that’ll go rancid if not refrigerated, explains Saulsbury. You can store it for up to a year in your pantry. Same goes for coconut sugar and shredded coconut. Dry, cool, and airtight—that’s the key.