Sipped on this one over the weekend!
Of the blends from Almost Tea that I’ve tried so far, I think this one falls almost smack dab in the middle for me. There were elements I liked a lot and things that were different from my expectations – not in a necessarily bad way, but those deviations made the tea feel further from what the name/imagery on the sachets seemed to want to convey. The coconut note was present and I thought the style of coconut was really nice; it reminded me a lot of the sweet coconut filling in a Mounds chocolate bar. I also liked that there was a chocolate note but it didn’t dominate the cup. Since this entire box was inspired by a chocolate company, all the teas have chococolate or chocolate flavouring in them and I think I would have been very frustated if that meant just getting six super chocolate forward blends. The variation in level of that flavouring isn’t lost on me.
The thing that I guess was the deviation (in my mind) was just how much of an almond note the blend had. I thought it was actually stronger than the coconut. In hindsight, the “joy” part of the blend name is probably referencing an Almond Joy but I just really wanted more of a coconut flavour from the tea since that’s the ingredient they had chosen to focus on with the name. Plus, the almond note wasn’t very natural to me. It was really more of an almond extract type flavour than the blanched or roasted almond you’d associate with an almond joy.
Almond Joy was the trademarked name, the jingle started “sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don’t,” and the only difference between that and Mounds was one almond on top of each half :)
Oh I love Mounds bars! I always preferred those because they are coated in dark chocolate. I think Almond Joys might be coated in milk chocolate, but it’s been so long since I’ve had either one that I can’t remember for sure.
I’m pretty sure the emphasis on coconut in the name is just their way of skirting the trademark on “Almond Joy” – there’s definitely almond flavouring in the blend itself, which may be what you’re tasting as fruity (almond flavouring sometimes ready like sweet fruit/cherry to people because of the overlap in many flavour compounds).
I’ve for sure gotten that almond/cherry crossover in flavoring, but I don’t think I’ve ever noticed a coconut/cherry crossover!