Coffee Drink
Cascara Tea: Coffee Cherry Recipe, Caffeine and Buying Tips
Cascara tea is a fruit-led infusion of dried coffee-cherry skins and pulp. Steep drink-grade cascara in hot water and strain it like tea; it contains caffeine and is a different ingredient from cascara sagrada bark.
Drink Snapshot
- Caffeine
- Contains caffeineStrained coffee-cherry infusionUse a product-specific caffeine declaration when available.
- Calories
- Not established for this brewStrained, unsweetened coffee-cherry infusionDry-husk nutrition is not the same as the liquid you drink.
Serving, sugar and sources
- Serving
- One cup, brewed with 10 g (0.35 oz) cascara and 250 ml (8.5 US fl oz) water input
- Made with
- Food-grade dried coffee-cherry cascara and hot water
- Sugar
- No added sugar. Naturally extracted sugar is not quantified.
- Preparation
- About 7 minutes, including a 5-minute steep
Workshop Coffee brewing instructions, an Onyx Bare Brew comparison and EFSA batch data; reviewed 27 September 2026. See the full calculation or label comparison.
Key Takeaways
- Choose cascara when you want a fruit-led infusion instead of roasted-coffee flavor.
- Start with the supplier’s brew directions: different cascara products can call for quite different amounts.
- Buy coffee-cherry cascara sold for brewing, not cascara sagrada bark.
On This Page10 Sections
What Is Cascara Tea?
Cascara uses the fruit surrounding a coffee seed. The dried outer material is steeped in water and removed before drinking. Use a teapot or another vessel with a strainer.
The word “tea” describes the preparation here. The ingredient is coffee fruit, rather than the leaves used for ordinary black or green tea.
What Does Cascara Tea Taste Like?
Cascara tastes closer to a dried-fruit infusion than to roasted coffee. It can suggest raisins, dried apple or tart red fruit, with a tea-like finish rather than coffee’s toasted bitterness. The exact character belongs to the particular coffee fruit and how it was prepared.
Workshop Coffee describes its Rwandan cascara with cranberry, hibiscus and dried-apple notes. Those notes give a useful picture of its tart, fruit-led character. Taste the strained infusion before adding honey or lemon so you can decide whether it needs sweetness or more sharpness.
I prefer cascara cooled over a modest amount of ice, because its fruit-like tartness stays refreshing without being diluted into a faint tea.
Cascara Tea Recipe
The quantities and steeping time follow Workshop Coffee's published brewing instructions. Allow extra time if your kettle needs it.
Recipe
Cascara Tea
- Makes:
- 1 serving
- Time:
- About 7 minutes; 5-minute steep
Ingredients
- 10 g (0.35 oz) food-grade coffee-cherry cascara
- 250 ml (8.5 US fl oz) freshly boiled water
Equipment
- Scale
- Kettle
- Graduated heatproof water measure
- Heatproof teapot with room for 250 ml (8.5 US fl oz) water and the husks
- Mesh infuser or fine strainer
- Timer
- Heatproof cup of at least 300 ml (10.1 US fl oz)
Method
- Measure the cascara. Put 10 g (0.35 oz) cascara in the teapot or mesh infuser.
- Steep. Pour in 250 ml (8.5 US fl oz) freshly boiled water and steep for 5 minutes.
- Strain and serve. Strain into the cup, leaving the husks behind. Let the tea cool to a comfortable drinking temperature.
Recipe notes
Use coffee-cherry cascara sold for brewing, not cascara sagrada bark.
Water input is 250 ml (8.5 US fl oz); husks retain some liquid. Contains caffeine.
Use a vessel larger than the water portion so there is room for the cascara and safe pouring.
A clean French press can hold and separate the husks if you do not have a teapot. Use the cascara amounts above, not the ground-coffee recipe in that method guide. Pour the infusion away from the wet husks when the steep is finished.
What to Look for When Buying Cascara Tea
Look for dried coffee-cherry cascara explicitly sold as a brewing ingredient, with a named supplier, origin or lot where available, and preparation and storage instructions. A coffee roaster's recipe for its own product is a useful starting point.
Do not assume that any leftover coffee-processing husk is a ready-to-brew food. Workshop describes selecting, drying and handling its cherry skins specifically for this product. Keep your purchased cascara according to its pack instructions and use clean brewing equipment.
Cascara sagrada is different. The European Medicines Agency's monograph identifies cascara bark as Rhamnus purshiana, also called Frangula purshiana. It is not coffee-cherry cascara and is not a substitute in this recipe. Check the full ingredient name when searching a marketplace.
Also distinguish dried cascara from a bottled cascara drink or a cascara-flavored syrup. A sweetened ready-to-drink product has its own serving, sugar and caffeine information.
Why Cascara Brewing Ratios Differ
Two documented supplier recipes make the difference visible:
Swipe to see all columnsScroll to see all columns
| Supplier | Cascara and water input | Steep |
|---|---|---|
| Workshop Coffee | 10 g (0.35 oz) in 250 ml (8.5 US fl oz) freshly boiled water | 5 minutes |
| Onyx Bare Brew | 5 g (0.18 oz) in 250 ml (8.5 US fl oz) hot water; its guide specifies 95°C (203°F) | 4 minutes |
Workshop uses 40 g (1.4 oz) per liter (33.8 US fl oz) of water input; Onyx uses 20 g (0.71 oz) per liter (33.8 US fl oz). That is twice the dry ingredient for the same water volume, calculated from the suppliers' published recipes. It does not establish twice the flavor or twice the caffeine: these are different products and different steeping conditions.
Start with your supplier's guidance. If the cup seems too concentrated, dilute the strained tea with a little hot water or use less cascara next time. If it seems weak, first confirm that you weighed the husks and timed the full steep. Change one variable at a time so you know what helped.
Cascara Tea Caffeine, Calories and Sugar
Cascara contains caffeine, but a dependable milligram amount is not available for this particular recipe. For a packaged drink with a caffeine declaration, use the stated serving on that product.
The unsweetened recipe adds no sugar. Its total calories and naturally extracted sugars are not established by the sources used here, so neither is presented as zero.
What the caffeine evidence does and does not show
EFSA's 2022 assessment reports 135–652 mg caffeine per 100 g of dry coffee husk across seven submitted batches. The highest result is approximately 4.8 times the lowest, before choosing a brewing recipe.
The same assessment reports caffeine extraction of 78.2–100% in five batches brewed with 3 g per 100 ml at 95°C for 5 minutes. Our recipe uses a different dose, and we do not have an analysis of its particular cascara.
The solids left in the strainer are not consumed.
Iced Cascara Tea and Spiced Variations
For an iced version, steep 10 g (0.35 oz) drink-grade coffee-cherry cascara in 250 ml (8.5 US fl oz) freshly boiled water for 5 minutes, then strain, cool and refrigerate it before pouring over ice. Start with a modest amount of ice; melting ice dilutes the infusion. Add sweetener only after tasting, and count it separately if you track sugar.
For a stovetop ginger-and-cinnamon version, use the qishr recipe. It gives a separate two-serving method and explains Yemeni coffee-husk preparations.
If you want the flavor of roasted beans instead, black coffee and iced coffee are the more direct starting points.