What is cascara
Cascara is the dried skin of the coffee cherry. For most of coffee's history it was discarded — a byproduct of wet-processing. Today it is brewed as a tea and is one of the most distinctive drinks in specialty coffee: sweet, fruity, and surprisingly low in caffeine.
The fruit, not the bean
A coffee cherry is a fruit. Inside it are two seeds — what we roast and call "coffee beans." The fleshy skin and pulp around those seeds is called the cascara, from the Spanish word for husk or skin.
In countries like Yemen and Bolivia, brewing the dried skin has been common for centuries — long before specialty coffee treated it as anything other than compost. The drink goes by several names: qishr in Yemen, sultana in Bolivia, coffee cherry tea in specialty cafes.
Botanically, cascara comes from the genus Coffea — the same plant as your espresso — but it shares nothing with the flavour of roasted coffee. It is closer in character to herbal tea or hibiscus agua fresca than to anything you would find in a standard brew bar menu.
Origin
Skin & pulp of the coffee cherry (Coffea arabica or robusta)
Etymology
Spanish: cáscara — husk, peel, or skin
Also known as
Qishr (Yemen) · Sultana (Bolivia) · Coffee cherry tea
Plant
Coffea — same genus as coffee beans, unrelated to tea (Camellia sinensis)
History
Brewed in Yemen for centuries; popularised in specialty coffee around 2010–2015
Tasting notes
Cascara sits in a space between fruit tea, rose hip cordial, and dried hibiscus. The flavour varies by origin — the terroir of the farm, the variety of the coffee plant, and how long the skins were dried all shift the cup significantly — but the broad family is consistent: stone fruit, dried berries, light floral notes, and a clean tartness.
Rose hip
floral · tart
Hibiscus
floral · tannic
Dried cherry
fruity · sweet
Tamarind
sour · caramel
Dried mango
tropical · sweet
Body is lighter than coffee — more like iced tea or cold-brew hibiscus. Sweetness is natural and upfront. Some origins carry a subtle raisin-like depth; others lean floral and bright. There is no roasted bitterness.
Caffeine content
A standard 300 ml cup of cascara contains roughly 25 mg of caffeine — comparable to a cup of black tea and significantly less than an espresso (60–70 mg) or a drip coffee (80–120 mg).
Caffeine is concentrated in the seed, not the fruit skin, which is why cascara sits well below coffee on the stimulant scale. It is a gentler afternoon drink for people who want something from the coffee plant without the wiring.
Espresso (30 ml)
65 mg
Drip coffee (240 ml)
95 mg
Black tea (240 ml)
47 mg
Cascara (300 ml)
25 mg
Green tea (240 ml)
28 mg
Approximate values vary by brew strength and preparation.
Preparation
Cascara is prepared much like a loose-leaf tea. The dried skins steep quickly in hot water; they can also be cold-brewed overnight for a smoother, less tannic cup.
Hot cascara
Cold-brew cascara
The name
The cherry is where terroir lives. The altitude, the soil, the microclimate, the farming decisions — all of it imprints on the fruit before a bean is ever removed. The skin is the most direct expression of what a coffee farm produces; the part that specialty coffee has historically been worst at explaining to the person drinking the cup.
We named Cascara after it because our project is about the same thing: closing the gap between what a coffee is and what the person drinking it actually understands about it. The algorithm we built — the Palate Kite, the Cellar Identity, the matching engine — is an attempt to make that context land.
You do not need to know anything about cascara to use Cascara. But it is a good name for a cellar that cares about the whole fruit.
Questions
No. Cascara is brewed from the dried skin of the coffee cherry, not the roasted bean. It has a fruity, floral flavour and contains around 25 mg of caffeine per cup — roughly the same as black tea and significantly less than espresso.
Cascara has a sweet, tangy, fruity character. Common tasting notes include dried rose hip, hibiscus, tamarind, cherry, and dried mango. It shares nothing with the roasted, bitter notes of brewed coffee.
Steep 15–20 g of dried cascara in 300 ml of water at 90°C for 4–5 minutes, then strain. For cold cascara, use 200 ml of cold water and steep overnight in the fridge.
Yes in most of the world, including the Philippines. It was temporarily banned in the EU as a novel food before receiving approval in 2022. There are no restrictions in PH, the US, Japan, or Australia.
Because the cherry — the fruit that surrounds the bean — is where the flavour story starts. Sweetness, acidity, the delicate terroir of a farm: all of that lives in the fruit long before roasting. We named Cascara after the part of coffee that most people discard but that shapes everything about what ends up in your cup.