This holiday season, we’re introducing a new (to us) product for you that we believe you will truly enjoy. It’s called Cascara: Coffee Cherry Tea. Cascara, which means “husk“ or “peel” in Spanish, is the dried skin of coffee cherries. As you may or may not know, coffee is a small fruit which looks very much like a cherry. The seeds inside are what we call “beans” and these are roasted to produce the amazing beverage that we’ve built our business upon.
As the cherries are processed, the skins are “pulped” or removed from the seeds and these days typically cast aside or used as compost. But for cascara, these pulped skins are collected and then dried in the sun before they are packaged and shipped. Cascara can be brewed like a tea and is loaded with antioxidants (more than blueberries and pomegranates!) While it is caffeinated, the cascara drink contains about a quarter of the caffeine content of a cup of coffee.
Cascara, or coffee cherry tea, has actually been enjoyed worldwide for centuries, and has different names in different cultures. In Bolivia it is known as Sultana, in Ethiopia it is called Hashara, and in Yemen it is called Qishr (pronounced gesh-uhr). We’ve given you a delicious Qishr recipe below! Cascara can be simply brewed with hot water to create a sweet, delicious, tea-like beverage, or you can add mulling spices or ginger to add a little “kick”.
Our cascara comes from Finca San Jeronimo Miramar, one of the farms that we work directly with in Guatemala. The taste is very sweet with notes of white grape, cherry, and honey. We’re selling it on our shelves or online. It’s small size makes it a great stocking stuffer for that coffee or tea connoisseur in your life. Each bag makes 7, 8oz cups of tea.
Here is a recipe for Yemeni Qishr:
You’ll need:
French Press
hot water (roughly 200 degrees)
18g (1/2 cup) cascara
1 Tbsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. fresh grated ginger (or 1/4 tsp ground ginger)
Directions:
combine all ingredients in the French Press
add 300g (about 10 oz) of hot water
stir then steep for 4 minutes
stir a second time and steep for an additional 4 minutes
press to filter, then serve
For a delicious cold drink, pour directly over ice and serve!
