STiR coffee and tea magazine

44 STiR coffee and tea / Issue 5, 2017 (October / November) C By Anne-Marie Hardie ascara is a new beverage brewing in indie and chain coffee shops. Although consumed primarily as a tea, it is made from the hulls of coffee berries. High in flavonoids and fiber, cascara has the potential to be the next super food. Opportunities are seemingly limitless, cascara can be used to make flour; to enhance the flavor of chocolate; it can be steeped or even extracted and reduced as a syrup. Dan Belliveau, founder and c.e.o. of Seattle-based CoffeeFlour, (www. coffeeflour.com) says "the main benefit as a beverage is that it seems to be a good bridge between coffee and traditional teas." CoffeeFlour is used as a base for coffee cherry tea. It doesn't taste like coffee, but rather expresses more floral, citrus, and roasted fruit notes, he explains. "We have found that both coffee and tea drinkers who don't like the other's category, seem to both like coffee cherry tea or cascara." said Belliveau. Market research firm Mintel International cites cascara as a leading prod- uct in the reduce, reuse, upcycle trend, part of its 2017 Foodservice Trends report. TV personality Dr. Oz praised it as an example of "found food." Starbucks launched a cascara latte in 2017 and drew attention to the new beverage at its bi-annual investor conference. This summer it followed with an iced cascara coconut milk latte. "The fruit of the coffee cherry gives our latte a subtle, lightly sweet fla- vor," said Erin Marinan from Starbucks beverage research and development Now is the Time for Cascara team. Cascara syrup is added to espresso to make the drink. "Hot teas, iced teas, blended teas, sodas, and spritzers are great, and with its tartness cascara is a great element of a cocktail," says Nanelle New- bom a coffee lifer and cofounder of Barefoot Cof- fee Roasters, Finca Coffees, and Brew El Salvador. "Breweries are also very receptive to using cascara as an ingredient," she said. Newbom, cofounder of San Diego-based Oddity consulting, says that adding this unique product in your offerings can really open discus- sions on how coffee is grown and processed. Belliveau adds that utilizing cascara as a food or beverage, has helped to remove coffee cher- ry fruit, which is a by-product of green coffee, from the landfill and water streams. The coffee bean represents only 55% of the cherry on a dry weight basis. The remaining 45% (skin, pulp mucilage, partridge) is commonly discarded. Cascara, pulp, and skin, represent 28.7% of the coffee berry on a dried weight basis. Cascara is sustainable, pro- viding coffee farmers and the mill workers at the origin additional revenue and jobs. Finding new vehicles of income for coffee farmers utilizing more of the berry, offers sizable humanitarian, environmental and monetary gains for the coffee industry. Cascara (outer skin and pulp): The outer skin is thick and slightly bitter. The pulp (fruit) directly beneath is sweet and has the texture of a grape. Mucilage: This layer is slippery and thin, and covers the parchment. Parchment: The protective layer of the coffee bean and silver skin. Silver Skin: The coffee beans are coated in a very thin layer called silver skin. Green Bean: Nestled in the center of the coffee cherry are two green coffee beans. Starbucks introduced a cascara latte in January 2017 Courtesy Starbucks Co.

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