Vita Coco Coconut Water: Pure Coconut Water with Lemon Tea

Following in the footsteps of the brand's Lemonade flavor, Vita Coco’s Pure Coconut Water with Lemon Tea blends not from concentrate coconut water with a lemonade and iced tea blend (think Arnold Palmer or Half & Half). It’s mainstream, which is a good thing considering it is being launched at Kroger, and very drinkable, with a sweet taste profile that feels as though it was designed with the iced tea drinker rather than the coconut water drinker in mind. The product is 55 percent juice, so even with the added lemon puree there’s definitely a pretty heavy dose of coconut water in this product. However, it’s not something that’s obvious on the first sip. And we’re also not sure if the company was trying to create something that was lemon-flavored tea or a half-and-half. Regardless, this is a very timely and well-executed formulation that definitely does not disappoint when it comes to flavor. Nutritionally, the product has 75 calories and 18g of sugars per 8 oz. serving as well as naturally occurring electrolytes. On the outside, the packaging and positioning of the product look and feel very much like a Vita Coco product. The company has chosen a shade of brown that definitely looks the part of a tea product, but we’re not overly fond of the umbrella design that’s on the top of the carton. It’s visually distracting and makes the product feel too busy. Furthermore, the Lemon Tea callout feels as though it could pop a bit more than it currently does (perhaps putting Lemon and Tea on the same line -- or calling it Half & Half). Otherwise, it’s intuitive and obvious that this is a flavored coconut water-based product. Ultimately, the question for this product is whether or not consumers want coconut water in their lemon iced tea. While we don’t know how this will pan out, we definitely feel as though Vita Coco has put its best foot forward with this product.