TheraVita Organic Coconut Oil [Review]

When I realized how much I use and love coconut oil, I started stocking up on it. From cooking, to baking, to body moisturizer, coconut oil is a necessary staple in my house. Just doing a quick search on the benefits of coconut oil brings back a large number of results. My most recent favorite use of coconut oil is for baking. While most oils are too heavy for most baked goods, coconut oil adds a lightness and sweetness. TheraVita Paradise Organic Coconut Oil is pure, cold-pressed and extra virgin.

Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil       ($19.95, 16 oz)
Rating: total green check marks out of 5.

The Good	The Not So Good
Texture	Has a smoky taste and smell
Cold-pressed	Comes in a plastic jar (recyclable)

TheraVita Paradise Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil is 100% pure. The ingredients label states no ingredients other than the coconut oil itself. The coconut oil is cold-pressed. Coconut are hand-picked by local farmers in Fiji. The coconut oil is unrefined, non-bleached, non-deodorized with hexane or solvents and is chemical-free. The coconut oil has an off-white color to it.

The product arrived packaged in plastic wrap. Once I removed the plastic and opened the lid, I noticed that the inner seal was broken and the coconut oil was liquid. Since the seal was broken, some coconut oil got on the outside of the plastic jar. It was a slightly warm day outside, so maybe it had reached the melting point on the delivery truck. Once it cooled below 76 F degrees, it solidified, as expected for coconut oil.

Since the coconut oil is not deodorized, I expected a fresh coconut smell as I have experienced with other high quality, pure, organic coconut oil brands. TheraVita's Paradise Organic Coconut Oil has a slightly smoky smell to it. I did some research online and read that coconuts could be roasted or smoked prior to the coconut oil being extracted, even through cold-pressing. I contacted the company representative to get more information about their manufacturing process. I will update this post once I received more information.

I received a second jar of the same coconut oil to see if it also had the smoky smell. The second jar did. I am not sure if both jars are from the same batch or not.

From what I read, it sounds like the smokiness is a byproduct of the manufacturing process. Some Amazon reviewers mentioned a rancid smell. I did not find the smell to be rancid. Some Amazon reviews stated that the taste/smell of the coconut was strong. My jar did not smell like coconut at all, just smoky.

I have been using the coconut oil for cooking, baking, and facial moisturizing. When the oil is heating up in a pan, it does give off the smoky smell a bit. If I cooked an egg in the coconut oil, the egg smelled smoky. If I cooked a lot of food in a big pan, then the smokiness did not come through.

When I used the coconut oil to moisturize my face, I could smell the smoky smell for a little while and then it either went away or I became used to it. Since I am pretty sensitive to scents, the smoky smell was a bit off-putting for me. Since I do not believe that my jars of coconut oil are rancid, I will probably continue using TheraVita Organic Coconut Oil mostly for baking and some for stove top cooking where I cannot taste the smokiness in the final meal.

The texture of TheraVita Paradise Organic Coconut Oil is as expected for coconut oil, though the smoky smell and taste are unexpected. After using several other brands of high quality oil for 3 years and after using TheraVita's Coconut Oil for one month, I cannot recommend TheraVita Paradise Organic Coconut Oil due to the smoky smell and taste that permeates food.

I appreciate the initial willingness of the company representative to send me another jar of the coconut oil and obtain more information about the manufacturing method to potentially explain the smoky smell.

Disclosure: I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. All opinions are my own.

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