Cold-pressed or hot-pressed: which coconut oil do you actually want?

We sell coconut oil two ways, and the labels are not marketing gloss — the extraction method changes what the oil is good for.

Cold-pressed

Our cold-pressed oil is extracted through a natural fermentation process, with no added heat. Nothing is refined, bleached or deodorised afterwards, which is why it still smells and tastes distinctly of coconut.

That aroma is the point, and also the limitation. It carries into whatever you cook, and it has a lower smoke point than the hot-pressed bottle. Use it where you want to taste it: baking, low and slow cooking, stirring into coffee or porridge, and on skin and hair.

Hot-pressed

Hot-pressing uses heat to drive a higher yield from the same amount of coconut. The result is a fuller, nuttier oil with a higher smoke point.

This is the one for frying, roasting and everyday Nigerian cooking where you want a neutral, dependable fat that will not scorch.

The short answer

If it is going on your skin or into something delicate, reach for cold-pressed. If it is going in a hot pan, reach for hot-pressed. If you only want one bottle in the house, hot-pressed is the more versatile of the two.