Tropical Coconut over Ice is a coffee capsule for the Nespresso Vertuo Line and Original Line (review pending). It is limited available during the summer in the Northern Hemisphere. It is a mug size coffee (230 ml. 7.7 oz.).
We first discuss looks and origin but if you like you can jump to the taste review.
Looks and Origin
The coffee is a split-roast of Arabica’s from Brazil and Ethiopia. The Brazilian beans are lightly roasted to maintain a natural sweetness. The beans from Ethiopia are intended to bring delicate aromas and a velvety structure.
The coffee comes in a creme white top-open box, with silver logo and font highlighting a limited edition. The sleeves are decorated with grey palm leaves hinting at the tropical taste. The leaves against the sand-white background also bring up associations with beaches and shades from the trees.
The capsules match the sleeves with a similar colour and pattern. The difference in material of the sleeves and capsules give a different feel to the colour. Where the color on cardboard gives a more linnen impression to the sleeves, the aluminium of the capsules has a more shiny appearance.
Taste and Smell
We keep below in mind when tasting the coffee.
… exotic and refreshing
Nespresso site and packaging
… roasted, caramel and vanilla notes
… caramelly notes
… sweet vanilla notes
… sweetness of the refreshing coconut flavour that adds its exotic twist
… taste of the tropical islands
The suggested serving size is brewed over a cup of ice cubes (230 g).
The coffee has no intensity rating as is more common with (limited edition) barista creations.
When brewing the coffee has a strong coconut aroma. When brewed as suggested serving (directly over ice) we feel this coffee is too watery.
We like this coffee best undiluted, i.e. without additional cold water or milk and ice cubes only to cool. For this we let the coffee cool down for half an hour and then put it in the fridge for a few hours more. Only when the coffee self is cooled we add ice cubes. The coffee has a nice coconut flavour, that stands out but is not overly present, and some minor bitterness.
When brewed directly over ice we feel the coffee tastes too watery as the ice melts too quickly. With milk the cold further stands out and makes it a nice cold drink, the caramel notes surfaces and some nutty notes can be found. The coconut moves to the background and is almost lost. The bitterness is less when brewed this way. It remains overly watery, almost just like water with a flavour. Aside from a watery taste, there is also a “thin” mouthfeel (low viscosity) that doesn’t feel well. The whole coco (and coffee) element seem lost in the drink when brewed over (too much) ice directly.
Another thing to try is with caramel syrup (and milk), this makes the drink thicker and sweeter, giving it almost a candybar type of feel. We tried brewing this over chocolate but this resulted in a lot of particles floating around, even when using chocolate sauce it did not mix will with cooled coffee.
Overall, I was expecting a lot of this and I feel it falls short of those high expectations. It is a nice ready-to-brew addition to the product line, but coco lovers might be better off with some syrup to have their fix available at any time of the year. Another upside of using syrup would be to make the coconut flavour as intense as you’d like, however it might be more costly.
Read more on the Nespresso site. Read review from other iced coffees here.