Disclaimer: This is an honest review and not a sponsored post by So Delicious brand for any blog website or service.
I never ate a lot of whipped topping growing up, or even in recent years as an adult. I’ve used it a handful of times for desserts where convenience has been key and the extra stabilizers (or, as some people just put it, “chemicals”) help whatever I’m making hold up to being stored in the fridge for a day or two, usually when I’m making a dessert in advance for a party. My family always gravitated towards the stuff in an aerosol can or opted to make “real” whipped cream, though, especially when it came to enjoying it with Thanksgiving pies and other special occasion desserts. When we did buy whipped topping, it was a treat that sometimes ended with me just eating the stuff right from the plastic tub, sometimes half-frozen (come on… you know you’ve done this at least once.)
Dave and I both like trying new things and have also been trying to balance how much dairy and sweets we eat for health reasons. We burnt ourselves out on Greek yogurt for a while (shocking, I know) and went back to both regular yogurt as well as some non-dairy options, just for some variety. When we went to the store a few months ago, we both had a craving for pudding and decided that, as a treat, we needed a little whipped cream to go with it. We saw and picked up a tub of So Delicious brand CocoWhip!™ Whipped Topping to give it a try.
CocoWhip!™ keeps for a very long time in the freezer—a tub of it we recently bought had an expiration date of 2019—but it was never destined to last that long in our fridge, it was that good. I liked the taste better compared to other whipped toppings. It’s not too sweet and it definitely tastes coconutty, but it’s also not too strong. You could certainly mask the coconut flavor with a stronger flavor like chocolate, if you were using it in a recipe. We ate topped on the pudding that we bought that day as well with some diced, fresh peaches and blueberries for a healthy, delicious fruit dessert. The 10-year-old me that’s still somewhere in there liked eating it semi-frozen, too.
If I had a criticism about CocoWhip!™, it would be that it starts off wonderfully fluffy and delicious but can develop a weird texture over time. As it’s mixed up, it can kind of “deflate” and sometimes separate if it gets too warm. Storage in the fridge is another critical point. Our fridge is smaller and usually cramped for space, and I made the mistake of storing a tub of this vertically one day, thinking it would save some space. When I came back to it days later, it started to separate and some coconut oil was leaking from the rim so I just tossed it. We didn’t have issues previously, though, with leaking when it was just stored normally on a shelf, so this was our fault.
As far as health is concerned, CocoWhip!™ is made of mostly organic ingredients in addition to being certified vegan, Kosher, and non-GMO. CocoWhip!™ comes in two varieties, original and light, but I was only able to find and try the original in any of my local grocery stores—larger stores like Giant, Weis, and Wegmans as well as Fresh Market and a plethora of smaller natural foods stores all included. For the CocoWhip!™ original variety, it’s 40 calories and 4 carbs per 2 tablespoons serving and since it is a coconut-based product it does have saturated fat. I’m not a dietitian, but I wouldn’t think it’s “better than” or “worse than” a dairy whipped cream, health-wise. It’s undoubtedly still a treat to be enjoyed in moderation.
If you’re having guests over for Thanksgiving who are lactose intolerant, vegan, or otherwise trying to cut out dairy from their diets, I would absolutely tell you to get some of this to have on-hand as an alternative to regular whipped cream for your pies and other desserts. And since I’m on the subject of frozen things, I’d also highly recommend the Minis Coconut Sandwiches, which Dave and I found next to the CocoWhip!™ in a follow-up trip to the store. They taste a lot like the chocolate cookie with vanilla novelty ice cream sandwiches I’m sure we’ve all eaten at some point in the past, but they’re smaller and more snackable with only 90 calories. Try them, too.
