Brewable Coffee Fruit (Cascara)

More Information

Cascara is a sun-dried fruit, not a roasted bean, and the brew obtained from this fruit is totally unique. Notes of cherry, brown sugar, hibiscus, and tamarind create a balanced and layered brew with many facets. This complexity makes it incredibly versatile—you'd be amazed at how many ways you can serve it! A few favorites:

• The Purist: Just put a generous spoonful of cascara in your favorite mug, add boiling hot water, and wait 3 minutes. The brewed fruit settles to the bottom, so there's no need to strain it out.

• The Cascara Latte: Put coffee fruit together with ground coffee into a French press in a 1:2 ratio, then brew about 3 minutes. Add plenty of whole milk and sweeten to taste. (Psst! You can also make this with Cascara Syrup – click here for the coffeehouse version of this recipe)

• The Cascara Refresher: Brew a double-strength cup of cascara, pour over ice, add a generous squeeze of lemon or lime and a shake of cinnamon (optional), then sweeten to taste.

• More recipes and detailed instructions included with every purchase.

A serving of brewed coffee fruit has about 1/4 the caffeine of coffee, although of course you can increase or decrease this by using more or less cherry per serving. Brew time does not affect caffeine content. It's lightly sweet on its own, but to be honest, we think the flavor blooms more with a pinch of sweetener.

More about the health benefits of the coffee cherry

The antioxidant benefits of coffee fruit and its brew aren't from huge amounts of vitamins, but rather from potent polyphenols that offer strong antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. As noted above, a serving of coffee cherry tea has several times as much antioxidant power as blueberries and many other famous superfruits.

Fitness enthusiasts, take note: next time you work out, skip the vitamin water and reach for coffee cherry tea! Artificial supplements of antioxidants (such as vitamin C) have been shown to be ineffective at helping your body cope with stress and recover quickly, so your body will benefit far more from natural polyphenols from real fruit.

In addition to its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, coffee cherries may offer significant benefits to the brain. A pilot study on coffee cherry extract indicates the extract may boost the brain's supply of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which protects the brain against mental illnesses, including depression and aging-related illnesses such as dementia, by an average of 143% over baseline. This is a new area of research, but results so strong are exciting--BDNF is essentially what keeps a brain "young" and the medical community is actively researching ways to fight aging and illness by boosting the aging brain's supply of this vital protein.

Dried coffee cherries, per serving, is also extremely nutrient-rich. It has three times more iron than spinach and twice the potassium of a banana. Potassium is extremely water-soluble, which makes brewed coffee fruit beverages a delicious and calorie-free way to give your body a vital nutrient.

Of course, we aren't doctors and we don't make health claims. All we can do is share research with you. But dang, coffee fruit is looking good to us right now!