Hot and Cold for Coconut Tea

Actually, my feelings about Coconut Tea from Adagio Teas are lukewarm, which coincidentally is the temperature that I preferred this tea. It took experimenting with my entire 8 oz. sample bag of Coconut Tea in one day to figure that out though. It’s not that I dislike the tea, I just felt that Adagio has better flavored teas than this. Or, in other words, on a scale of Valentine’s Day Tea (which I didn’t like) and Lemon Soleil Tea or Caramel Tea (which I’m over the moon about), it falls somewhere in the middle.

Coconut Tea is a blend of black tea, natural coconut flavoring, and dried coconut

Upon opening the bag of Coconut Tea from Adagio, I was greeted with an aroma that reminded me of Mingo Park in Delaware, Ohio. It is sticky summer nights, sitting on bleachers, eating snowcones or lick-em-sticks, while watching my father play softball. It is hot summer days, slathering on coconut-scented sunscreen before jumping into the massive pool to doggie-paddle around and enviously watch my friends, who were stronger swimmers, as they plummeted off the high dive. Because of that, I wanted to love this tea.

What I appreciate most about this tea is the subtly of the coconut flavoring. I really thought I was about to tuck in to a dessert tea reminiscent of a saccharine Mounds bar, but really the coconut flavoring was slightly nutty and creamy, and generally pretty nice. It was so subtle though that I felt Adagio had to make a compromise on the strength of the black tea, and that’s where it loses me. Even after adding more leaves than recommended and increasing the steep time by nearly a minute, I would still describe the tea as a little too thin for my preference. I described Adagio’s Caramel tea similarly, but the caramel flavoring was stronger, so it made up for what I described as “thin” tea.

This is not a tea that I could enjoy hot because it literally tasted like a mug of hot water. It’s much preferable once it has cooled down significantly, or even iced– that’s when you can enjoy the subtle hints of coconut. I had to be careful with additions like milk or sweeteners too. I added a splash of whole milk, hoping it would add to the creaminess, but it ended up tasting like watery milk, so I dumped it down the drain after one sip. I added wildflower honey, which was okay. I mean, it was good because it tasted like warm honey with a hint of cream, and that’s delicious, but it masked the aroma of the tea, which I did not intend. I wished I had German Rock Sugar because in my experience it adds sweetness without really altering the flavor of the tea; it’s kind of amazing.

Truthfully, Adagio’s Coconut tea has a hard time standing on its own. But, maybe that’s a good thing here. Adagio has this wonderful option for tea fans to create their own tea blends, and I think that’s when this tea becomes a star player. The tea is light enough that it probably wouldn’t compete with other teas, and what’s added to the blend is that subtle note of coconut that I am so fond of. I’ll be honest though, I don’t have the courage to experiment with blending tea, so for now, I’ll leave that to Alison’s Wonderland Recipes, who has a collection of signature blends inspired by her favorite books and films. She even has one featuring Adagio’s Coconut Tea and Cream Tea called Monty Python’s Coconut Camelot Tea.

Sample of Coconut Tea was provided by Adagio Teas in exchange for an honest review.