Coconut

The coconut (yezi, 椰子) is the taste of China's deep south: the palm-lined island of Hainan lives on coconut groves, and an old southern chronicle calls the fruit the “head of the King of Yue” — a legend as dramatic as the nut is peaceful.

Taste and aroma in tea

In tea blends coconut plays the role milk plays in a latte: dried coconut flakes give the infusion a soft, creamy sweetness and a rounder body. It flatters oolong — coconut oolong is a modern southern classic — and in caffeine-free floral blends it does quiet, essential work, binding bright flower and fruit notes into one smooth, dessert-like cup.

In the Chinese tradition

Coconut is Hainan's emblem: coconut water, coconut rice steamed in the shell, coconut sweets are the island's everyday pleasures. In traditional thinking the flesh is nourishing and gently warming while the water cools and quenches — the fruit carries its own remedy for the tropical heat it grows in.

How to brew

Coconut is unhurried: brew blends containing it with water at 85–95 °C and give them a full 3–4 minutes — the flakes release their creamy sweetness gradually and keep giving over several infusions. Blends with coconut are also excellent iced.