While browsing teas, we stumbled across something unusual: coffee fruit tea — a tea made from the dried fruit of the coffee plant that supposedly tastes just like coffee. Naturally, we had to put that claim to the test with a proper side-by-side comparison against a traditional cup of brewed coffee.
What Is Coffee Fruit Tea?
Coffee fruit tea is made from the dried whole fruit of the coffee cherry — the part that is usually discarded after the coffee bean is extracted. The packaging is clear, so you can see the tea inside. The pieces look a bit like coffee beans and smell like dried dates.
There are two ways to brew it:
- Cold brew: Two tablespoons per 8 ounces of cold water, steeped for 24 hours
- Hot brew: Two tablespoons per 8 ounces of hot water, steeped for 5 to 10 minutes
We went the hot brew route, steeping for 7 minutes in a disposable tea bag.
The Taste Test
Coffee Fruit Tea: The first sip was genuinely good. The dominant flavor was a strong date-like sweetness — not fruity-sweet in an overpowering way, but a pleasant, natural sweetness. The brew was very smooth with no bitterness, no weakness, and no harshness. The body was darker than most teas, giving it the visual appearance of coffee.
Regular Brewed Coffee: Side by side, the regular coffee was unmistakably coffee — no surprise there. On its own, without cream or sugar, it was a standard, somewhat unremarkable cup.
Does It Actually Taste Like Coffee?
Honestly? Not quite. You would know it was not coffee. But here is the thing — you probably would not be disappointed, either. It tastes more like a smooth, dark tea with coffee-adjacent flavors than an actual cup of coffee.
The Surprising Verdict
Here is what caught us off guard. Given the choice between a plain black coffee and this coffee fruit tea, we would actually pick the tea. The reasoning is simple: the coffee fruit tea is enjoyable on its own, without any need for cream or sugar. The regular coffee, by contrast, felt like it needed doctoring to be satisfying. When you have to alter the flavor of a drink to make it work, that tells you something.
The coffee fruit tea would also make an excellent cold brew — the smooth, date-like sweetness would likely shine even more when brewed cold overnight.
Who Should Try This
If you love coffee but are looking for something different — maybe less caffeine, maybe fewer additives, maybe just a change of pace — coffee fruit tea is worth exploring. It is reasonably priced, easy to brew, and delivers a satisfying cup without any of the bitterness that sends people reaching for the cream and sugar.