Tropical Traditions Rocks: From Skeptic to Big Fan

If you’ve been reading blogs at all in the last year, you’ve likely seen at least one or two posts about the company Tropical Traditions. I’ve read several posts, and was initially completely skeptical of a company that could offer such a vast range of products.

But I kept reading reviews from bloggers whose opinions I trust. And my skepticism shifted to genuine curiosity. The products this company makes seem to get high praise again and again. I really wanted to see for myself if I agreed.

So now it is my turn to talk about Tropical Traditions. And after trying out one of their products for about a month, I can tell you that this skeptic is now a big fan.

 

I have personally never used coconut oil in my own kitchen. We are big fans of extra virgin olive oil, and use that for as much of our cooking, as possible. So when the Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil arrived, my first question was what in the heck to do with it! Fortunately, Tropical Traditions anticipated this question and provided an answer. From their site, “There are many ways to use coconut oil and incorporate it into one’s diet. Since it is a stable cooking oil, one can simply replace unhealthy oils in their diet with coconut oil. Since it is a solid most of the time at room temperature or when refrigerated, it can be a butter or margarine substitute for spreads or for baking. Any recipe calling for butter, margarine, or any other oil can be substituted for coconut oil. It is popularly mixed in with “smoothies.” There are also hundreds of FREE recipes here that have been submitted by our customers over the years.”

We had a shrimp dish on our menu the week the product arrived, and I thought I’d try out the coconut oil with that dish. I thought perhaps it would give it a tropical flair like what I would taste at a place like Bahama Breeze (oh how I miss that restaurant since we moved!). OH. MY. WORD. You guys…it was DELICIOUS! The coconut flavor was present in the dish, but it really just complimented the food and didn’t overpower it at all.

The next day, I decided to use the spread as an alternative to butter on my toast. Also delicious! We then tried it with our popcorn that night (we hand crank our popcorn and use a mixture of butter and olive oil. The coconut oil replaced the butter. Tim wasn’t crazy about the overall taste, though he said he liked it just fine. I thought it was great, and took the popcorn in a slightly sweet direction. I think he prefers his popcorn to be more savory, whereas I’m always going to like something if it is sweet! So we were a house divided on that one.

Since I liked the coconut oil so much, I decided to do a bit of research on it. My mom had the impression that coconut oil would contribute to high cholesterol, so I did have a few concerns. The impression that I get is that it is that coconut oil is high in saturated fat, so I wouldn’t want to use it instead of something like extra virgin olive oil. However, if I’m using it to replace a different oil that is high in saturated fat (like butter), that’s the way to go. Tropical Traditions has a great link to some research if you want to read up on why replacing butter with coconut oil might make sense. After we did our homework, we have personally decided to replace butter with coconut oil in several of our dishes. And I’m now using it instead of butter on my toast and bagels.

Buy it! If you’ve never bought coconut oil before, the price tag might alarm you. It isn’t cheap. But the prices Tropical Traditions offers are competitive, and the quality of their oil is one of the very best; just ask all their loyal customers who rave about it! Plus, if you get on their email list, you’ll see that they regularly offer discounts on their oil (and other products). I’ve seen it for as much as half off! The Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil, which is the best of the best, retails for $37.50 for a quart. They offer a variety of sizes, though.

Edit: this giveaway is now closed. 

Win it!: Joy of joys, here’s your chance to get your own jar of Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil from Tropical Traditions! The contest will run until January 22nd at 11:59pm EST when a winner will be selected using Random.org. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to the winning notification before the prize is forfeited and a new winner is selected. Open to residents of the United States. Limit one entrant per household, please.

Mandatory entry: Tell me another product Tropical Traditions offers that you’ve either tried or want to try.

My answer: I want to try their carpet cleaner. Darah is into blueberries right now, and you can imagine how our rugs feel about that!

Additional entries:
1. Sponsor love: Sign up for the Tropical Traditions newsletter (emails once a week…always a great sale happening!)
2. Blogger love: Subscribe to Stuff Parents Need by RSS or email
3. Rare bonus entry opportunity: Follow both Tropical Traditions and Stuff Parents Need on Twitter for a third entry (leave your twitter id)

Be sure to enter my other current giveaways, found on the sidebar of my home page.

Disclosure: Tropical Traditions provided me with a free sample of this product to review, and I was under no obligation to review it if I so chose. Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review or sponsor a product giveaway in return for the free product.