The Differences Between Coconut Water, Milk, and Cream, Explained

A bona fide symbol of the tropics, coconuts are a multifaceted fruit with countless uses. They have applications in the worlds of cosmetics and construction. They can be used to make fuel and charcoal. Anyone who’s seen “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” knows that they can make some great sound effects. But more often than not, coconut is consumed in the context of food and beverage.

The meat inside a coconut can be eaten raw — sweetened or unsweetened — and then there are three liquids that can be extracted from the fruit: coconut water, milk, and cream. There’s also “cream of coconut,” which is different from coconut cream, but more on that below. Although all four come from the same plant, their differences lie in what part of the coconut they’re from and how they’re processed.

What Is Coconut Water?

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Coconut water is the sweet, semi-opaque liquid sloshing around in the fruit’s core. A coconut’s outermost layer is the green, fibrous husk (scientific name: exocarp). This protects the inner fruit and allows the plant to float and travel between islands — hence why there are so many coconut trees in the tropics. Within the tough, buoyant exocarp is the brown coconut shell (scientific name: endocarp), which is technically the seed of the fruit. This seed is lined with the semi-soft white coconut meat, which houses coconut water. As the fruit ripens, the water solidifies to form more meat, which grows harder and harder with time. The water inside also loses its sweetness and nutrients as the plant matures, so people tend to harvest coconuts for their water six to seven months after flowering.

Coconut water is high in electrolytes like magnesium, potassium, and sodium, but low in sugar, fat, and calories. It’s hydrating and commonly enjoyed as a sports drink. Coconut water doesn’t have as many culinary and mixology applications as the other liquids derived from the fruit, but some bartenders have started using it instead of ice or regular H2O to dilute their cocktails as a way to add a subtle boost of sweetness to their drinks.

What Is Coconut Milk?

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Unlike coconut water, coconut milk is a byproduct of the fruit. To make it, producers harvest mature coconuts — which have way more meat than young ones — and shred the meat before simmering the shavings in water. The mixture is then pressed, the solids are strained out, and the resulting liquid is coconut milk. At this point, many brands will add sweeteners and put the milk through extra processes to make it shelf-stable, but once it’s strained, it qualifies as coconut milk.

The meat, a.k.a. the flesh of the fruit, is much higher in fat than coconut water, so coconut milk is far more caloric. Like the former, it’s also high in potassium and magnesium, but it contains over 100 times the fat content of coconut water. To put it in perspective, coconut water has about a half-gram of fat per cup, while the milk has roughly 57 grams of fat per cup, according to Healthline.

Coconut milk is a popular ingredient in many foods like soups, stews, and curries, but it also makes for a great dairy-free alternative to regular milk and a base for many desserts. It can also be used in cocktails, though most drink recipes call for cream of coconut instead for its more creamy texture and more concentrated flavor.

What Is Coconut Cream?

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Coconut cream is very similar to coconut milk, although its production requires some extra steps. After producers finish making the milk, they let it chill to allow the fat to rise to the top. Then, they separate the solidified cream from the rest of the liquid. This process can be repeated several times to yield a richer, denser product. According to coconut product supplier Red V Foods, some producers now use centrifuges to separate the milk and cream, expediting the whole process. Lastly, the coconut cream is pasteurized and packaged.

As one would expect, coconut cream is much thicker than coconut milk, though both have similar applications in cooking. Coconut cream is often used to make curries, sauces, and dressings, and it appears in a number of dessert recipes. It can also be used to make cocktails, but most bartenders opt for cream of coconut for its inherent sweetness, as coconut cream is often unsweetened.

What Is Cream of Coconut?

While we can’t explain the puzzling linguistic difference between coconut cream and cream of coconut, it’s important to note that the two are not the same. The latter is a sweetened version of the former. To make cream of coconut, producers add sugar to coconut cream, heat the mixture to dissolve the sugar, and then blend it all together. They’ll also commonly add thickening agents like xanthan gum to achieve a syrupy consistency similar to that of sweetened condensed milk.

Commercial cream of coconut didn’t begin until the late 1940s when Puerto Rican agricultural professor Ramón López-Irizarry developed the recipe for his now world-famous cream of coconut product: Coco López. Cream of coconut shines in many desserts and baked goods, but as mentioned above, cream of coconut is the most commonly used coconut product in the bartending world. It’s in Piña Coladas, Painkillers, Coquitos, and countless other tropical cocktails. Standard coconut cream will work as a substitute in a pinch, but it won’t make quite as decadent a Piña Colada as cream of coconut without some added sugar.

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