Coffee Turns Into Tea (Cascara) At Dean & DeLuca

I’ve been hearing a lot about Cascara, the dried fruit of the coffee cherry, which can be brewed into a sweet, full-bodied “tea” that can be sipped hot or iced. Now, my friends over at Dean & DeLuca is introducing Cascara at their stores. Cascara (which means skin, peel, rind or husk in Spanish) not only represents sustainable innovation by one of the world’s most renowned coffee farmers, but also a delicious glimpse into coffee’s history.

The coffee bush bears beautiful, sweet fruits (a fruit is typically called a cherry or sometimes a berry) that ripen in the tropical sun to a deep, ruby red. It is the seeds of these fruits that we know as coffee “beans.” Innovative, world-renowned coffee farmer Aida Batlle, who has always had a thing for experimentation, has carefully selected and sun-dried only the best coffee fruits from her three farms in Santa Ana, El Salvador, to produce Cascara, which is called Hashara or Qishr in Ethiopia and Yemen, where it has been prepared this way and steeped like tea for centuries by coffee farmers.

Batlle shared some of her Cascara with Durham, North Carolina-based coffee roaster Counter Culture Coffee, and in turn, Counter Culture shared some with Dean & DeLuca.

“Cascara, with its delicious fruit overtones and syrupy body, offers a truly rare, handcrafted food experience that offers even the most seasoned coffee lover a new dimension of coffee flavor,” said Peter Giuliano, Director of Coffee & co-owner of Counter Culture Coffee.

This year, just in time for the gift-giving season, Dean & DeLuca is making Cascara ($12 for ¼ lb.) available at its famous flagship market in SoHo (560 Broadway). In addition to being available in-store, Cascara can be shipped across the contiguous U.S. Call 212.226.6800 x2 to order.

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Photo courtesy of Counter Culture Coffee

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Category: Coffee News