Organic Ostara Stone Ground Coconut Butter

Ingredients: organic Fair Trade coconut.

Shelf Life: good for 1 year from production date, stamped on jar. Refrigeration not recommended (decreases flavor, thickens texture, and decreases shelf life because of moisture). Keeping the lid on and not double-dipping or introducing foreign matter into the jar will maximize shelf life. All expiration dates are best guesses; your nose and tongue are the best judge of product freshness!

Nutrition Facts: Serving size 2 tablespoons (28 g), Servings per 6 oz container 6, Amount per serving: Calories 220, Calories from fat 180, Total fat 21 g (32% DV), Saturated fat, 18 g (90% DV), Trans fat 0g, Sodium 10 mg (0% DV), Total carbohydrate 7g (2% DV), Dietary fiber 4g (16%DV), Sugars 2g, Protein 2g, Iron (4% DV). Not a significant source of cholesterol, vitamin A, vitamin C, and calcium. *Percent daily values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

Our coconut butter, stone ground in small batches, is smooth, creamy, soft, and moist, unlike commercially mass-produced coconut butters, which are chalky, hard, and dry. The flavor holds an incredible natural sweetness which is only able to develop in this low-speed, low-temperature form of processing. Nothing can beat the quality of small batch, traditionally processed foods!

*Separation is natural with coconut butter of all kinds and is unavoidable in the summer months. To melt, simply place in hot water, a hot room, a hot car, a hot pan, a toaster oven, etc and stir to uniform consistency.

This product is rated Best for the World in the comprehensive third-party HowGood rating system.

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What is coconut butter?

Coconut butter is a nut butter just like peanut butter and almond butter. It is not an oil like coconut oil, peanut oil, or almond oil. Coconut butter has been called by many names: coconut cream, coconut manna, etc, but it's always referring to the same thing: the meat is scraped out of the coconut, dried, and ground into a nut butter by metal or stone processing machines.

People often get confused and think we are selling coconut oil. The difference between coconut butter and coconut oil is that coconut butter contains fat, protein and fiber, whereas coconut oil is pure fat that has been pressed out of the whole coconut flesh. Our product still has coconut oil in it, but it’s not a replacement for cooking oil, as the fiber and protein brown in a pan.

The key difference from other nut butters is the fact that coconut butter is solid at room temperature. However, at temperatures of 76 degrees and above, it starts to melt. This makes the butter more pliable and spreadable.

Coconut butter is more of a whole food than coconut oil. The isolated oil is a refined product, whereas with the butter you have all the other co-factors necessary for optimal nutrition and absorption, i.e. fiber and protein, electrolytes, phytochemicals, macro and micro nutrients - the full spectrum of nutrition that nature produces in the coconut! You can taste the difference - your body will tell you that this is a real, whole food.

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How is our coconut butter different than all the others on the market?

The difference between our coconut butter and the vast majority of other commercially available coconut butters is that our product has been stone ground in small batches no larger than 100 pounds for 18-24 hours at a low speed and low temperature.

This creates a silky-smooth, well-moisturized texture without grit or dryness and a sweeter flavor impossible to replicate in high-speed, high-throughput metal processing machines. Industrialized machines process thousands of pounds per hour and can cause quicker oxidation and rancidity as well as industrial contaminants entering our food.

You have not truly experienced coconut butter until you've tried our stone ground products!

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Why is coconut butter good for me?

Coconut butter and coconut oil have gained popularity as a keystone of the ketogenic, Weston A Price, GAPS, and Paleo diets. It provides an instant spike of energy, as its medium-chain fatty acids are converted to energy as soon as they hit your liver! Like other coconut oil products, our stone ground coconut butter and Cocotella fuel the brain and don't meaningfully interrupt the fat-burning process (which a carb-based snack would).

Therefore, coconut butter can be extolled with all the super healthy benefits of coconut oil, which are readily available through a Google search. There are so many benefits, a Naturopath named Bruce Fife wrote a book about it called “The Coconut Oil Miracle”!

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How do I use coconut butter?

Ways to heat the coconut butter to make it spreadable: heat the jar in boiling water for 5-10 minutes, put chunks on toast and then in your toaster oven, heat it in a pan on the stove or in the oven, place it outside in the sun or in your car on a hot day, put it between your palms, however else people like to heat things.

Once you do this, the sky is the limit! Add to hot cereals, sandwiches, smoothies, sauces, dressings, baked goods, dip fruit and such in it, mochi, etc. Your creativity is the limit!

• Coconut butter is great with fruit, as it is best to coat your carbohydrates in fat to prevent blood sugar spikes. Try it with banana for a tropical delight!
• Coconut butter makes a great addition to your morning toast, smoothie, or coffee. Its healthy fats help you absorb the nutrients you are consuming in any meal.
• Coconut butter is a great base for sauces, salad dressings, curries. It is a great ingredient for baking (use it as a replacement for butter in baking - vegan brownies!) and can even be used as a frosting for deserts! 
• Take a spoon or two straight up for quick-hitting, long-burning energy anytime of the day.
• For 12 different incredible recipe ideas, read this article: http://paleomagazine.com/12-coconut-butter-recipes/