Cascara, meaning ‘skin’ or ‘husk’ in Spanish, is the outer peel of the coffee cherry (berry). In biological terms, we can say that cascara contains exocarp and mesocarp. The mesocarp contains a lot of pectins and small sugars while exocarp contains mostly polyphenols. It was for a long time a by-product of coffee production. Today, cascara has an added value as food and food ingredient.
The classic use of this by-product is infusion in hot water, but you can now find it as flour. It can then be used in flour blends to add colour, fibres and caffeine.
So, cascara is becoming popular and we expect in the next few years a big increase of its consumption. Why? Simply because Starbucks is launching a cascara latte. They will make cascara a trendy product.
Now, the most important part of this brief article:
How can I choose a safe cascara ?[Sign in to continue]
