Finca Mauritania Cascara - It's Cofftea!

Cofftea! What am I on about!? Well to explain - this little gem 'Cascara' is actually made from Coffee Cherries. Put through a drying process to create a very special and rare Coffee product indeed and is the result of some hard work and talent of the owner of Finca Mauritania, Aida Batlle of El Salvador.

Thanks to Square Mile Coffee Roasters I get the chance to try this special stuff out, though how to go about this is a bit of a 'try it and see' type situation. I decided to take Square Mile's advice and brew this as Tea. I chose to use a Gaiwan which is a perfect tool for trying out a new 'Tea' for the first time, as it really reveals all the flavours on offer. Playing around with water temperature and steeping times is all part of the fun. I started with 3.5grams of Cascara and around 90c water for a 4 minute steep.

This resulted in a surprisingly sweet and fruity liquor with big plummy notes and a port like quality to it - minus the alcohol of course, but not in short supply of a good caffeine kick!

Also I found that you were left with an aftertaste reminiscent of dried figs. Interesting yes, unusual yes, yummy for sure!

So a second steep was in order, in fact I pushed it to 3 steeps in total. Each progressively calming down in flavour but revealing different layers to these special dried coffee cherries. I found the second steep to be more grapey than plummy.

I found brewing in a 150ml glass gaiwan to be a good decision as you get to see those sweet bits of coffee cherries dancing around and also judge the colour of the brew. A lovely colour it is too as seen in the photos. Also I enjoyed sipping it from my 'Singing cup' from Taiwan.

All in all an interesting and pleasant experience. One which I look forward to repeating in the days to come. Think it makes a perfect drink for those cold winter evenings sitting by a hot open fire. Yummy!