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BERKELEY, Calif. — For celebrity watchers, this comes as no surprise: Coconut water is making a splash in the beverage market, touted as the healthy way to hydrate.
"It's an exciting category right now," says Arthur Gallego, spokesman for Vita Coco, which recently got an endorsement from Madonna.
Coconut water — the liquid found in green, i.e. young, coconuts — has been popular in tropical countries ever since someone figured out how to crack that nut. And it's been available in packaged form in ethnic markets and natural food stores for some time in the United States.
But now it's showing up in mainstream supermarkets.
"What is incredible to see is that the consumption of coconut water has trickled down from the natural food stores to the mainstream," says Rodrigo Veloso, founder and CEO of O.N.E., One Natural Experience, makers of O.N.E. Coconut Water.
Already, coconut water has created some big-name buzz.
Besides Madonna, Matthew McConaughey and Demi Moore recently invested in Vita Coco, which was founded in 2004 and saw sales jump from $4 million in 2007 to $20 million in 2009, according to Gallego. Meanwhile, Pepsi has invested in O.N.E. A third company in the market is Zico, founded in 2004.
Though coconut water sales are growing — in the $40 million to $60 million range annually — they're still a drop in the bucket compared with billion-dollar drink brands like Red Bull, says Jeffrey Klineman, editor of Bevnet.com, an online review publication on nonalcoholic beverages.
Fans of coconut water praise it for being relatively low in calories, natural and packed with nutrients. For instance, an 11.2-ounce serving of Vita Coco contains almost 700 milligrams of potassium, more than a banana.
That's a good thing, since Americans often don't get enough potassium, says Andrea Giancoli, registered dietitian and spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association. At about 60 calories for an 11-ounce serving of plain coconut water, and a little more for the flavored versions, the drink delivers good nutritional value. Still, not that many people exercise with the intensity that requires more than plain water for rehydration and some don't exercise at all, she points out. "It's perfectly fine to incorporate into part of your diet if you're balancing out the rest of your diet, but I wouldn't believe all the hype. We live in this world where we're always trying to find the answer to health and the answer to weight. It still takes good old-fashioned exercise and healthy eating."
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