Panama Hacienda Esmeralda Geisha Cascara 'Tea'

About Panama Hacienda Esmeralda Geisha Cascara 'Tea'

Arrived in August by airfreight, this is cascara from Esmeralda's famed Geisha Natural coffee.

Cascara is the dried skin or husk of the coffee cherry and it has become popular as "tea" in its own right. It contains caffeine like the rest of the cherry and the amount of caffeine in the cup varies by the strength of the brew. Cascara doesn't really taste like roasted coffee but more like the concentrated coffee fruit itself. There is a cherry-like taste and sweetness, with mild florals.

While Cascara is not yet a widely consumed product in its own right there are a few things to learn. Most Cascara, like this one, is produced from Natural process coffees so that the skins are a naturally occuring by-product of dry method processing. The entire cherry is milled and the largest pieces of dried coffee cherry skin (pulp) are separated for export. This cascara is made entirely from the famed Geisha coffees grown on various plots of Esmerlada's properties, all in Boquete, Panama.

You can brew Cascara to various strengths but start with a ratio of 1:20.  This roughly translates to 11g of cascara to 8 ounces of water and adjust to your taste. Volumetrically, this is about 2.5 tablespoons of cascara to 8 ounces of water. Steep for 4 minutes. Subsequent infusions from the same cascara will be slightly weaker, much the same as is true with tea.

You might experiment with different ratios and water temperature. The resulting beverage is a medium to dark red depending upon strength (ratio water to Cascara).