coconut water shelf life?
 

Like to ask you all about coconut water.

I know its a natural electrolyte drink great for long rides.

however does coconut go bad, as compared to using gatorade etc.

like if i had it in my water bottle for a 4 hours while riding on a hot day. would it go bad, with bacteria?
do u have to drink it right away?

or does it have good shelf life?

I love that stuff (it's a miracle drink) and used to drink a whole lot of it, until it became so popular that now it's sold out quite often at Whole Foods and the only other stores that carry it sell the kind with chunks of coconut in it, which I can't stand. But to answer your question, I've never had any go bad on me, and it sure has worked in a pinch to revive me. Refrigerate after opening is standard for everything around here. I usually finish off drinks completely and not let them sit around opened.

^^ I think the OP was talking about coconut water spoiling during a long ride. I do agree that you can get a week or two easy storing opened-but-sealed coconut juice in the fridge...

But regarding on-the-road spoiling, I think it would take more like 12-24 hours at hot temps (90-100) before coconut juice would start noticeably turning. It's pretty pasteurized. And even when it did turn the bacteria (or very possibly air-born yeast) wouldn't do much damage to you. Unless you had a very compromised immune system or if you had anthrax floating in the air.

Yeh, your probably right about the on-the road spoiling of coconut JUICE, but I thought we were talking about coconut WATER which may last 3-5 days.

Whoops, first paragraph I said water, second I said juice. Definitely different animals.

There's ~ 50 calories in a cup of coconut WATER, with ~10 grams of sugars. This is certainly enough to allow a fairly rapid spoiling (though - again- not life threatening). I've also only tried cold coconut water, not sure what it would taste like at 90+ degrees. Hmm.