What are coconut aminos?

Coconut aminos are amino acids harvested from the sap of a coconut tree. These acids may be mixed with sea salt to form a soy-free substitute for soy sauce in marinade and salad dressing recipes.

To harvest coconut sap, the tree is tapped after the flowers bloom but before the tree bears fruit. Once a coconut tree is tapped, it produces up to 5,000 liters of sap over approximately 20 years. The amino acids are extracted from sap through either evaporation or fermentation. For raw cooking, coconut aminos are extracted from sap that has been sun-dried, then mixed with unrefined sea salt. The resulting seasoning has 14 times more amino acids than soy sauce.