Cascara natural from Costa Rica – husk of coffee dried coffee fruits

Full bodied and very sweet Cascara drom Costa Rica

We want to share with you dried coffee fruits from natural processed coffee in Hacienda Sonora. We have choosen this cascara while our last trip to Costa Rica, where we visited many beautiful farms, processing stations and forests.

If you want to discover new flavors you will appreciate taste of this coffee husk. You can spot taste of sweet apples, berries and gean.

Cascara contains around four times lower amount of caffeine than coffee, so if you avoid caffeine or your tolerance for caffeine is lower, it can be great alternative to coffee for you.

What cascara is?

"Cascara" in Spanish is a husk - peel, skin, that surrounds coffee bean. That dried skin of coffee fruit are appreciated by coffee lovers around the world.

Fruity taste of cascara will move you into new, totally different coffee dimension. Brewed infusion reminds taste of tea from dried cherries and plum.

Infusion from cascara contains less caffeine than brewed black coffee, that's why it is great alternative to coffee for people who are sensitive to effects of caffeine, pregnant women, breastfeeding and just a fans of new tastes!

Meet coffee fruits from our trip to Costa Rica

In March 2024 we had a pleasure to visits coffee plantations and coffee processing stations in Costa Rica. We have also visited Hacienda Sonora where we found great Cascara.

The coffee fruit from Hacienda Sonora has a complex flavour that will take you to the heart of the plantation.

A short history of cascara - where did the habit of brewing the coffee husk come from?

In Ethiopia, Bolivia and Yemen, an infusion of coffee cherry shells has been drunk for centuries. Cascara is a popular drink in most coffee-growing countries. Apart from its traditional use, cascara is usually considered a side product during the coffee processing. 

What does an infusion of Cascara Costa Rica taste like?

In your cup of dried fruit infusion from Costa Rica, you will sense a mass of flavour from sweet apples, berries and cherries. You can always add spices to your dried fruit infusion or drink it solo - it's also the tastiest.

Flavour of Costa Rican Cacara

Costa Rica Cascara has a fruity and sweet character. Due to the natural processing, quite rare in the sourcing of cascara, it will surprise you with its roundness and long, cherry-like aftertaste.

How to brew cascara?

Preparing cascara can be accomplished in many ways. We want to share with you our favourite basic recipe, that you can use. But in our blog you can read an article about different ideas to prepare cascara, which covers:

• How to prepare spice cascara infusion,
• How to prepare cold brew cascara with or without berries,
• How to make a white, mulled wine with cascara (also non-alcoholic version).

Basic recipe for preparing hot drink from cascara

Those propositions and brewing methods, that you can recreate in various containers - jars, regular pot, aeropress, hario largo.

If you do not have your own Largo or AeroPress, you can easily get it from our store, you want regret it!

Cascara from Costa Rica – detailed informations

Details about cascara

• Origin: Alajuela, Central Valley, Costa Rica
• Producer: Alberto Guardia
• Plantation: Hacienda Sonora
• Altitude: 1300 m n.p.m
• Specie: Coffea Arabica
• Varietal: Caturra
• Processing methos: sucha (natural)
• Harvest: 2024
• Quality: this cascara came from processing specialty microlots

Explore Alajuela region

Alajuela is located in the north-central part of Costa Rica and is famous for its steep slopes with altitudes ranging from 100 to 2,600 metres. Most of the coffee is grown and harvested at altitudes between 1,200 and 1,600 metres. Coffee from this region is known for its apple and apricot flavour. Caturra and Catuai are the main varieties that are grown there.

Meet Alberto, his son Diego and Hacienda Sonora coffee farm

Hacienda Sonora has been part of the specialty scene since its beginning. It always leads the way in innovation, thanks to its different processing methods and plant varieties. The plantation has belonged to the Alberto's family for more than a century. In the 1970s, when Alberto took over the farm, he planted most of the land with coffee, which soon enough, became a source of income for the whole family. In 1999, during historically low coffee prices, Alberto invested in a mill to improve the quality of the green beans. This decision change Hacienda Sonora into pioneering plantation, among those that used other processing techniques such as honey and natural. In 2011, Alberto's son Diego joined the management of the plantation and started to experiment with more processing methods, like aerobic, anaerobic, natural with prolonged in-fruit fermentation.

Today, Sonora has more than 20 different plant varieties on 80 hectares of land (+ 20 hectares of forest reserve) and is known as a friendly place for coffee lovers.

How its made - cascara

Cascara is most often obtained during the washed processing of coffee cherries, specifically at the very beginning of the process. Depulping is a prelude to further processing, and consists of removing the peel along with some of the pulp from the green coffee beans using the brushes of the washing system. The peel, which has been picked from the cherry, dries in the sun. Like coffee, washed-processed cascara will be characterised by a clean taste, higher acidity and lower sweetness.

The exception in the coffee market is the naturally processed cascara, it is quite rare. Shortly after the cherries are picked from the coffee plants, the fruit goes to a bed or concrete yard where it dries in the sun. After about 10-28 days, the coffee cherries are sufficiently dried. This is the moment to mechanically detach the skin along with the pulp from the green bean - huling. After that it takes a lot of time to detailed separating true cascara from the parchment. This is how our cascara was created!