Coconut Milk Buying Guide 2025

When an Asian recipe calls for coconut milk, 99.9 percent of the time it's asking you to use unsweetened, full-fat coconut milk -- not the sweetened stuff used for cocktails like the piña colada. Shop for unsweetened full-fat coconut milk in the supermarket Asian food section or an Asian market’s canned vegetables and fruit aisle. (If you're shopping for coconut water or coconut oil, they are typically shelved with juices and other oils, respectively. Coconut milk sold for coffee or tea is shelved with alternative dairy products; they are not usually what you want to cook with.) 

Within the realm of coconut milk, you may see many options, depend on if you shop at a mainstream market, pan-Asian market, East Asian supermarket, or a Southeast Asian grocer. You may see cans, boxes, pouches, and even powdered coconut milk. There are many options so how to choose and which brands are reliably good? Here's a quick primer on what to shop for to find the best tasting coconut milk for your recipes.

How to buy coconut milk well

• Read the label to determine richness: Super rich coconut milk has about 14 grams of fat per ⅓-cup (80ml) serving. Look at the back of the package to determine how rich it is. I've mistakenly bought "lite" coconut milk and had to return it to the store. It is typically labeled in the same manner as regular, full-fat coconut milk. The low-cal stuff costs more and but why pay for less? Just use a little less full-fat coconut milk, if you want to cut down calories.
• What about coconut cream? Anything labeled as coconut cream will be richer than coconut milk. For some reason most coconut cream sold in cans tends to taste overly soapy. Coconut cream sold in pouches tastes better. That said, when a recipe calls for coconut cream or "thick" coconut milk, just scoop it from an unshaken can of coconut milk that’s been left undisturbed overnight (or longer). Use the remainder for another recipe and remember that you've now got "lite" coconut milk so your recipe won't be as rich.

• Is the fattiest coconut milk always the best? Not necessarily. It really depends on the where the coconuts were sourced and the processing method. In the main, coconut milk made from Thai coconuts tastes best. Indonesian coconut milk tends to be rich but it often has too much emulsifier that it seems unnatural. I've used coconut milk made in Sri Lanka that didn't have as much fat content as Thai coconut milk does, but the Sri Lankan product had very clean flavor because it contained no emulsifiers. Always taste to see what you like. Try different brands in recipes to experience outcome differences. You won't ruin a recipe with too rich or not rich enough coconut milk. Let your tastebuds be your guide.
• What's with emulsifiers in coconut milk? By nature, coconut milk separates into a thicker, creamier coconut milk and thinner watery coconut milk. To prevent that separation producers add an emulsifier to the processing. That's why you often see guar gum listed. A little guar gum is ok in a recipe but a lot is faking things too much. A container of coconut milk should have some separation between the creamy top (a plug) and the thinner coconut milk. If there is no separation and you've left the container out for days, there is too much guar gum. Whether or not you care about the emulsifier boils down to (1) whether or not you want the coconut milk to separate (like for certain Thai dishes) and (2) if you want to put stuff into your body that you may not need. A tiny bit of emulsifier is ok but I personally don't care for too much of it.

Coconut milk cans, boxes, pouches and powdered

When I've sampled coconut milk from the same company packaged in a can and a box, the box one tastes fresher and more nuanced. And, when I've tasted a company's canned and pouch coconut milk, the pouch one tastes leagues better. Powdered coconut milk tends to taste lighter than all the others but you can always mix more of the powder with water to created a creamier milk. My guess is that coconut milk is processed depending on how it is packaged -- in a can, in a ultra-high temperature (UHT) box, retort pouch, or in powdered form.

Coconut milk brands for your consideration:

• 365 Everyday Value (Whole Foods brand, from Thailand)
• Aroy-D (very good, from Thailand, box is better than can, also available in organic)
• Chaokoh (from Thailand, widely distributed, was controversial a few years ago but people still are loyal to it)
• Kara (lots of emulsifier but not as much as Thai Kitchen!)
• Native Forest (choose "Simple" canned milk for no emulsifier; their coconut powder is alright)
• O Organics (Albertsons brand)
• Prao Hom (from Thailand, boxed is very good; sold mostly at Amazon)
• Simple Truth (Kroger brand)
• Thai Coco (pouches are excellent and sold at Kroger's; cans sold at Amazon are so-so)
• Thai Kitchen (way too much emulsifier)
• Trader Joe’s (less fat but bright, fresh flavor, no emulsifier)

What to cook with coconut milk?

There's so much you can do with coconut milk! Start by mining Viet World Kitchen recipes that include coconut milk, such as Kerala shrimp in coconut milk , Thai pork satay with coconut milk and condensed milk , red bean and coconut ice cream, and purple rice and coconut cupcakes, and coconut peanut mochi balls. More recipes and coconutty tips are here.