Cascara

Cascara is a dried fruit tea made from the coffee cherry that we love drinking over ice all summer long! In the washed coffee process, the first step is to remove the seed (which is the coffee “bean”) from the cherry with a de-pulper. Normally, this skin is considered waste, or a byproduct of coffee processing. It is usually composted for use as a natural fertilizer in the farm later in the season. To create this tea, the pulp is collected and washed and then laid out to dry. Cascara, which means skin or peel in Spanish, is a relatively new product in Central America, though it has been consumed for centuries in Ethiopia and Yemen. In Yemen, it is called Qisher, and is often steeped with spices or ginger. 

Typically, cascara is produced by washing the pulp and drying on raised beds in the sun, similar to specialty coffees we offer. After the coffee is de-pulped, the cherry skins are washed with clean water and then go through a vaporizing hot chamber that heats them quickly to kill any potential bacteria. After this cleaning process, the skins are put into a large dehydrator to remove all the moisture.