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.
