Costa Rica Helsar Cascara Coffee Fruit Tea

Coffee, tea, or both? When you wet-process coffee, the skin is difficult to save, and usually becomes part of the compost mix for the farm. But in Arabia and Africa, the skin of the cherry is used to make a very potent tea called qishr (also spelled 'kisher'). In fact, making a tea from the dried coffee husks predate roasting the coffee seed, crushing and steeping it, or coffee preparation as we know it. Even today, the price of qishr is higher than the price of coffee in the Arabic market. Cascara is the name used in Central America for these fruit skins. It's the perfect name for the tea made from them as well. If you like fruit-blend herbal teas, especially those with fruited flavors like hibiscus, rose-hips, tamarind, orange peel, mango, apple—you'd enjoy cascara tea just fine. It's amazing iced, as well, and you might consider trying it with sweetener too (though it's not entirely needed, in my opinion).

What's interesting about this cascara is that it was dehydrated to food grade standards as part of a joint effort by the folks at Helsar micro mill in Costa Rica and the research team at the University of Costa Rica. They found that cascara has 50% more antioxidants than cranberries, and are using dehydration to dry the cherry to near 0 moisture, making for a crisp and edible product. Yes, edible! In addition to tea, try using it in place of dried fruit on cereal, yogurt, or even on its own. Expect to see the occasional coffee seed and stem too; they are easily spotted and removed. And while the final produce is not certified organic, they are only using coffee cherry from Helsar's three organic farms.

One way to make cascara tea is in a French Press, or you can use any method you would use for preparing as you would herbal tea (I also found our V60 glass carafe with lid works well if you don't mind a little sediment). Brewing like filtered coffee does not work well as it benefits from a longer steep time. I suggest starting with 8-10 grams cascara steeped in 350 ml hot water for 5–8 minutes at least. Give it a stir to help with extraction if you like. You can steep it to make it stronger, then add water or pour it over ice to taste. Traditionally, qishr has additions of cardamom pods and sugar while brewing—another interesting way to prepare cascara to consider!

Does it have caffeine? Yes, since all parts of the coffee plant do... but we don't know how much, and it will certainly depend on steep time and the amount used to make each cup.

Read more about the history of cascara production here