Taste Test: Whole Foods' Whole Catch Coconut Shrimp

We've come to the conclusion that if you want to bring frozen coconut shrimp back from the deep freeze, you'll need to use a deep-fryer instead of an oven. We've sampled both Trader Joe's and now Whole Foods' offering, and while the flavor was there, the texture was unfortunately lacking.

These butterflied farm-raised shrimp are dredged in a batter of wheat, corn, and rice flour, coconut, tapioca starch, sugar, and skim milk, fried in palm oil shortening and soybean oil, and are flash-frozen. We followed their instructions of baking them on a perforated tray in a 425-degree oven for 10-12 minutes, but they still looked a bit wan to we turned the broiler on for a few more minutes.

The results were unfortunately not great .We could tell that the shrimp was of a high quality, but the coating was too greasy and had minimal crunch. We also could have used more coconut flavor. It worth noting that the flavors paired nicely with Whole Foods' Sweet & Sour Sauce, which we also picked up to dip them in.

If you're going to buy these, be prepared to deep-fry them, which we're certain will result in a crispier, less-soggy shrimp. The flavor is mostly there, so a trip through the oil will most likely kick it up a notch or 10.