What Exactly Is Coconut Aminos Made From?
Coconut aminos comes from the sap that drips out when a coconut palm's flower bud is tapped, not from the coconut fruit itself, which surprises a lot of people the first time they hear it. The sap is stored and aged, and during that time it ferments naturally due to the sugars already present in it, with salt added afterward. The end product looks and pours almost exactly like light soy sauce, dark brown and slightly viscous, but the flavor leans sweeter and a bit less sharp on the tongue.
How Does Coconut Aminos Compare to Regular Soy Sauce?
The sodium gap is the number most people care about. One tablespoon of regular soy sauce carries about 879 milligrams of sodium, close to 38 percent of the recommended daily allowance, while the same amount of coconut aminos from a leading brand comes in at around 270 milligrams. Soy sauce also brings soy and, depending on the brand, wheat into the mix, while coconut aminos skips both. That's the whole appeal in one sentence, honestly: similar taste, a fraction of the salt, none of the two most common allergens.
AOL
- Sodium content roughly a third of traditional soy sauce.
- Free of soy, wheat, and gluten.
- Slightly sweeter, milder flavor than soy sauce.
- Comparable dark color and pourable texture.
- Works as a near 1:1 substitute in most recipes.
Brands reformulating for allergen labels or lower-sodium claims tend to land on coconut aminos precisely because the swap doesn't ask cooks to change much else.
