It's not exactly new news, but it's popped back up again since many retailers finally relented and stopped carrying Chaokoh because of forced monkey labor.

Yep. Monkey slavery. Ain't capitalism grand.

Anyways, my grocery store doesn't have any cans of Thai coconut milk anymore, from any brand. Only tetrapacks of what's called coconut milk, but ain't the same thing. That's coconut milk as an alternative milk, like rice milk, soy milk, oat milk, etc. It's not good for cooking with.

So I'm probably going to have to go to the Asian market, where they still carry Chaokoh, as well as a couple other Thai brands, that may or may not be just as bad.

Any pointers on brands of good coconut milk, for cooking, to look for, that don't abuse monkeys?

Is there some sort of website I can check, to know which brands, aside from Chaokoh, are bad and which are better?

  • ComradeSankara [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    You said that you need the coconut milk for cooking. What particular types of things are you cooking?

    If you could use a substitute and don't mind paying a slight premium, Chobani has a line of Oat milks and their Extra Creamy brand is especially good.

    The company itself also seems to have a good "reputation", the workers are still exploited but there is no way around that in this system.

    • JayTwo [any]
      ·
      4 years ago

      Soups and curries.

      Southeast Asian food. Mostly Thai.

      Not sure oat milk would be a good sub.

      I'm looking for that coconut pulp/fat sort of creaminess.

      Edit: And the coconut taste as well.

      Pretty sure those creamy oat milks are creamy because of added plant gums, like guar or gellan.

      A drinking coconut milk that's apparently monkey cruelty free, thickened with starch like corn or arrowroot, with some oil blended in, roux like, is my current thinking for a sub.

      Or cracking one open and blending it. But again, I don't know how they got the coconuts.

      But I'm not looking for a sub. I'm wondering if there's a way to buy the same product and know they're not just as bad as chaokoh apparently is.

    • JayTwo [any]
      ·
      4 years ago

      I noticed it carried in Costco before the news about monkey slaves broke and got excited, because it's the best brand. Some are too watery. Some are too thick. Some are gritty. Chaokoh isn't.

      Buuuut monkey slaves. I never even thought about the possibility of monkey slaves.

      So I've gotta find a new brand, I guess.

      Then probably find out they also use monkey slaves a year or two down the line.