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The Coffee Atlas
Cascara (Coffee Cherry Tea)
Cascara is dried coffee cherry pulp steeped like tea: how it tastes, how the trade cups it, and the EU rule that sets its caffeine warning level.
Flavor profile
avg. of 1 published reviewScale: 1-10, Coffee Review / SCA-classic-form convention. This is an illustrative editorial composite, not an average of graded reviews. No cupping sheet or 100-point score exists for cascara (Perfect Daily Grind says so directly), and Coffee Review does not score it, so nothing could be averaged. The numbers only translate the descriptors in the sources below (hibiscus, tamarind, raisin, honey, apricot, green tea) into the SCA 1-10 attributes, with a light body because this is an infusion, not a brewed bean. nReviewsAveraged is 1 only because the schema requires at least 1; it counts the Sweet Maria's description used as the anchor, not a scored review. Treat the radar as a rough sketch: individual lots, drying methods, and steep strength vary widely.
What it tastes like
Cascara is Spanish for husk, and that is the whole product: the dried outer fruit of the coffee cherry, left over once the beans are removed, steeped like a tea. The EU’s 2022 traditional-food authorisation defines it as the dried, unroasted pulp of Arabica and/or Robusta cherries, and allows infusions of up to 6 g per 100 ml of hot water.
In the cup it is closer to dried fruit and hibiscus than to coffee. Sweet Maria’s lists hibiscus, tamarind, apricot and green tea for a Costa Rican lot, while Nossa Familia describes cherry, honey and hibiscus. Perfect Daily Grind’s cupping guide notes that natural-processed husk tends to run sweeter and lower in acid, with molasses and red berry notes, and washed or honey pulp brighter and more citrusy.
There is no cupping sheet or score for cascara, which is why the radar above is a labeled sketch and not a measurement. Steep strength matters more than origin: the same material can taste thin and tea-like or syrupy and sharp depending on how much you use and how long you wait.
How to brew it
Method fit for this origin · editorial guidance from roaster convention
The supplier-recommended method: Sweet Maria's suggests steeping 8-10 g in 350 ml of hot water for at least 5 minutes.
Nossa Familia settled on French press for its cascara iced tea after other preparations tasted unpleasant or overly sweet.
Cascara is a dried fruit husk, not a roasted bean, so there is nothing for an espresso machine to extract in the usual way.
⚠ Fit tiers are editorial guidance drawn from roaster convention; no industry standard scores brew fit, so we show tiers, never invented numbers. Steep times and ratios come from a named seller and a cafe write-up; the espresso verdict is editorial reasoning, not an SCA standard.
Caffeine content
Caffeine by dry weight · each gold dot = 0.1%
Cascara is the fruit around the bean, not the bean, so bean-level species figures do not carry over, and this page gives no per-origin mg number because no credible category-level one exists. The one hard figure we could verify is regulatory: EU Implementing Regulation 2022/47 requires a high-caffeine warning on cascara products exceeding 150 mg/l. Steep strength changes the cup far more than origin does.
Where to buy it
Transparency: some links on this site are affiliate links; if you buy through them we may earn a commission at no cost to you. Roasters are picked for genuine, current sourcing of this coffee, never for who pays us.
Sources & data
- Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/47 (text via LawPlayer)Authorises dried coffee cherry pulp and its infusion as a traditional food from a third country (13 January 2022); infusion up to 6 g per 100 ml of hot water; warning label above 150 mg/l caffeine
- Sweet Maria's: Costa Rica Helsar Cascara Coffee Fruit TeaFlavor description (hibiscus, tamarind, apricot, green tea) and steeping recommendation (8-10 g to 350 ml, 5+ minutes)
- Perfect Daily Grind: How to cup cascara and evaluate qualityCupping method (4% and 10% brews), husk vs pulp descriptors, and the statement that no cupping sheet or score exists for cascara
- Nossa Familia: Our New Cascara Iced TeaCascara as a Yemeni and Ethiopian tradition, cherry/honey/hibiscus notes, and the French press method