Coconut Jelly Dessert (Best Melo Melo Copycat)
This Asian coconut jelly dessert is super easy to make at home. It tastes just like the coconut desserts at cafes like Melo Melo, Tong Sui, or Yezi, but at a fraction of the cost. Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links.
What is Coconut Jelly?
It’s healthy, it’s refreshing, it’s coconut jelly! As far as I can tell from my research, this specific jelly dessert was invented by Bella Wang, the founder of Melo Melo. It’s similar to almond tofu/almond jello or douhua, but made with coconut and dairy milks.
While you can order coconut jelly and a variety of other jelly like desserts at dim sum, the ones from Melo Melo seem softer in texture and with a stronger dairy flavor (or maybe that’s just compared to the dim sum I am familiar with). Yes, sorry, that means this dessert is not vegan. The cafe Melo Melo opened in San Gabriel, CA in 2018 and now has locations throughout southern California. In 2020, a similar cafe called Tong Sui opened in northern California to sell their version of coconut jellies. Seattle finally got their own coconut jelly cafe with Yezi, which opened in 2023.
Coconut Jelly Flavor and Texture
While the cafe branding of this dessert may be relatively new, the flavor is very familiar for those who like Chinese desserts. To me, it tastes just like the coconut palm drink – you know, the one in the juice box that has the weird model on the front? I used to drink so many of those as a kid, and I still love it. It also tastes sort of similar to coconut sago drinks and soups from Hong Kong cafes.
The texture is truly a jelly. If you’ve ever made almond jello (also called almond tofu, annin doufu, or almond float, depending on your language and dialect), it’s almost exactly the same. In other words, it’s a coconut jello or panna cotta. What makes this dessert more Asian is that it uses a very small amount of sugar, so it’s not too sweet, has a combination of coconut and dairy milks for a more unique flavor, and uses a variety of toppings common to Asian desserts.
Ingredients, Equipment, and Substitutions
This style of jello dessert uses coconut water, full fat coconut milk, sugar, dairy milk, heavy cream, and gelatin powder. As you can see, it’s unfortunately not vegan.
While you could make nondairy substitutions for the dairy milk and heavy cream and use agar agar instead of gelatin powder to make it vegan or at least dairy-free, it would significantly change both the flavor and texture. At that point, I wouldn’t really call it a Melo Melo copycat recipe, although I’m sure it would still be very good. If you’re looking for a vegetarian or vegan alternative, I recommend searching for a different vegan coconut jelly recipe, as I will not offer those modifications with this recipe.
For coconut water, I know everybody loves the Harmless Harvest brand, which is great and can be found at Costco. I have also found that the Trader Joe’s brand coconut water works really well too!
Oh, and don’t forget to have some glass bottles or jars on hand. If you’ve bought this food from a Melo Melo or similar store, you can reuse their jars! But I also like to use Oui yogurt jars for smaller servings – just remember you need to leave room for toppings, so don’t fill it all the way with the liquid. It’s also convenient that you can buy lids that fit them perfectly. While we’re speaking of things to remember, also don’t forget to start this recipe the day before you want to eat it, since it needs to set in the refrigerator overnight.
Popular Jelly Toppings
This is the fun part! Melo Melo and the other cafes offer a wide variety of toppings. Because there’s very little sugar in this recipe, most of the sweetness comes from the toppings, so I don’t recommend eating this without some additions. Here are some recommendations:
- Fresh fruit, such as mango, dragonfruit, or fresh berries.
- Nutella
- Oreo crumbs
- Ube halaya
- Pistachio pudding
- Black sesame paste
If you’re willing to go a little further, some of my recipes make great toppings as well. For example, one very popular topping is “mochi,” which I find to be very different from Japanese mochi. My microwave milk mochi recipe using tapioca starch works perfectly for this. I also recommend my yuzu curd and purple sweet potato jam.
If you like this recipe, be sure leave a comment and browse my other Asian dessert recipes!
Coconut Jelly Dessert (Melo Melo Copycat)
Ingredients
- 400 ml coconut water
- 35 g granulated sugar
- 7 g gelatin powder, one packet
- 100 ml coconut milk
- 200 ml whole milk
- 50 ml heavy cream
Equipment
- 5 1 cup glass jars
Instructions
- In a small bowl, mix gelatin powder and 100mL of coconut water to let the gelatin bloom and set aside.
- In a small saucepan, pour the remaining coconut water and all the granulated sugar. Heat until sugar dissolves and water is about to boil.
- Stir gelatin mixture into your pot until completely dissolved.
- Add coconut milk, whole milk, and heavy cream. Whisk to combine.
- Pour coconut mixture into prepared jars or containers. If pouring 2/3 cup servings (remembering that you will be adding toppings later), you can get 5 jars. Adjust serving size and number of containers to your preferences.
- Cover and let jelly set in the fridge overnight.
- The next day, add toppings of your choice and enjoy!
Notes
- See my blog post above for recommended toppings and links to my microwave mochi, yuzu curd, and purple sweet potato jam recipes that go well with this jelly.
You mentioned topping with black sesame paste. Can you please provide a recipe for the paste or is it something that can be easily purchased at an Asian market? Thanks! Can’t wait to make this.
Hi Karen, you can find it at most Chinese markets in a jar like peanut butter! Some brands (like Rooted Fare) are presweetened while others are not, so just check the label and buy according to your preference 🙂
I love purple rice at the bottom and Fresh mango topping, so to use that I need to cook the purple rice with something or just plain water and let it sit at the bottom and chill?
Hi Sweta, unfortunately I’m not an expert at purple rice, so I’m not sure! Let me know if you figure it out.
This was delicious! I liked it better than Yezi! (And it was so much cheaper!) I panicked it wasn’t going to set and added extra gelatin, but after it sat overnight I think the suggested gelatin was spot on for the almost soft tofu-like texture. I will definitely make this again.
Thanks so much for taking the time to review, Ande! I appreciate it!
Can I use agar-agar in place of gelatin for my vegetarian guests?
Hi, yes you can! It will be a different end texture. I haven’t tested out the measurements with agar agar to know the best texture, but a good start is to replace the gelatin with about a third as much agar agar.
I made it and it was delicious.. I just had a question . after mixing the coconut water with sugar and dissolving it to the point of boil… when I add the coconut milk, milk, and bloomed coconut water do I need to keep the heat on? or do I mix it all without heat? ty
Hi Bonnie! Yay, glad you liked it! As long as the gelatin and sugar get dissolved, you can keep the heat off. It doesn’t need to be boiling after that. Hope that helps!