Friends and fellow coffee fanatics Hannah and Alexa review Nashville’s new and lesser-known coffee shops in their column “Hannah, Alexa and Joe.” Alexa writes, and Hannah is behind the camera. Check back each Tuesday to find your new favorite cup of joe!
Twenty minutes outside Nashville, Coffee and Coconuts is a tropical-themed coffee shop– heavy on the tropical, light on the coffee.
Our trip to Coffee and Coconuts took us down I-65 past Franklin. We turned off the highway into a surprising new cluster of shops and restaurants just off the road. While the exterior of Coffee and Coconuts was unassuming enough, blending into the brick businesses around it, stepping inside was like stepping into another world.
In our joint coffee shop-visiting history, we agree that walking into one with rap music playing was a first. Even more shocking was the turquoise blue floor and bright white tables and decorations. The tropical theme was obvious and overwhelming upon our first step inside.
Menus hung from small hooks near the register. Upon looking one over, I was surprised that there was no list of specialty lattes. For a coffee shop with such a distinct theme, one would expect a list of creatively-named, appropriately-flavored espresso drinks.
Hannah’s order: Oat milk latte and strawberry banana smoothie
An oat milk latte is pretty standard for me, but when I got my drink it tasted earthy and almost burnt. I only got a small and honestly I’m glad because I would not have wanted to finish a drink that was any larger. I also got a strawberry banana smoothie, because I felt like I wanted to feel the island vibes of this place. What I got was a disappointing, overly-sweet drink that was nothing special. Unless they were going for a “My drink is half-melted from sitting in the sun next to the beach” texture, it ended up being more like juice than an actual smoothie (they did have paper straws with turtles on them though, so at least I wasn’t harming the turtles in the process).
Score: 2 out of 5 cups
Alexa’s order: Bavarian chocolate pour over
I would’ve ordered a regular drip coffee, but they didn’t have any available when we went, which was surprising for a Saturday morning. I ended up paying over five dollars for a small and entirely underwhelming cup of pour over served in a cup covered in palm leaves. This encapsulates my Coffee and Coconuts experience- coffee that left something to be desired in an aggressively tropical environment.
Score: 3 out of 5 cups
The interior of Coffee and Coconuts looked like Ty Pennington from Extreme Makeover: Home Edition had designed the space with just the word “beach” for inspiration. Every detail was beachy: from the pictures of beaches on the walls, to the menus on white-painted wood, to palm leaves on the to-go cups. While the space was bright and clean, Coffee and Coconuts felt more like an amusement park than a tropical retreat.
This coffee shop was less than ideal for getting work done. Beyond the loud music, the space was very cold and lacked adequate seating. There was a kids corner with games and two cocoon seats hanging from the ceiling, but only a handful of actual tables for customers. We stayed for less than half an hour because of both the excessive cold and loud music.
We won’t be going back to Coffee and Coconuts– the long drive combined with mediocre coffee and an uncomfortable environment made this coffee shop one of our least favorites that we have visited.
