Introducing 'cascara', the coffee and tea hybrid

Are you a coffee person or a tea person? If you're struggling to pick between the two, this new hybrid drink is for you.

Named 'cascara' - Spanish for 'peel' or 'skin' - this drink is made by using the outer peel of a coffee cherry and then having it sun-dried and brewed in a similar way to tea.

The blend was created by Aida Batlle, a coffee grower from El Salvador, who said she came across it accidentally after discovering a sweet aroma from a pile of discarded cherries.

Speaking to NPR, she said: "I just picked through it, cleaned it, and then put it in hot water to see what it was like.

Usually, the flesh of the coffee cherry is usually thrown away or composted. Peter Giuliano, from the Specialty Coffee Association of America, told NPR: "We have been throwing away this perfectly good coffee fruit for a long time, and there's no real reason for it, because it tastes delicious."

 Owners of 44 North Coffee Roasters in Maine, Megan Wood and Melissa Raftery have been selling cascara since tasting it on a coffee tour of Portland a few years ago: "It's a tropical, berry fruit that just happens to be coffee. It's not tea - it's 100 per cent coffee - but it smells like herbal tea.

"It's a great cold drink, because it's refreshing and it's caffeinated. It's kind of like nature's Red Bull."

According to Fresh Cup Magazine, the drink taste has a sweet and fruity taste "with notes of rose hip, hibiscus, cherry, red currant, mango or even tobacco."

(The Telegraph)