Cascara is the dried skin of the coffee cherry. This cascara lot comes from Helsar de Zarcero Micromill in Costa Rica's West Valley. We find this particular cascara to be reminiscent of apple cider, and the cup gets sweeter as it cools down.

Helsar switches the conventional order of coffee processing. Instead of treating the skin as waste, the team picks Caturra, Catuai, and Villalobos cherries specifically for cascara, making the seeds the byproduct. On harvest day, the cherries travel to a dedicated facility where the team removes the seeds, then washes, pasteurizes, and dehydrates the pulp in a sterile environment. This careful process keeps out the pathogens and debris common in conventional cascara, and the result is a crisp, food grade cascara you can steep as a tea, turn into syrup, or eat straight from the bag. Brewed as a tea, it makes a clean, fruit-forward infusion with a deep orange colour. Note: Cascara does contain caffeine.

Helsar sits on a high ridge in Alajuela, between the coffee regions of Zarcero and Naranjo. This cascara lot comes from Finca Santa Lucía at 1,800 metres, where Ricardo Perez Barrantes grows and processes the coffee. Ricardo makes organic fertilizer on site from coffee cherry pulp, molasses, mined zinc, boron, and other minerals, then adds microorganisms cultured from soil on nearby mountains to help protect the plants from disease.

Ricardo has farmed coffee in Costa Rica for decades. In the early 2000s, he joined Felipe and Marvin to build Helsar so they could control the processing, and therefore the quality, of coffee from their own farms. The mill became the centre of the region's micromill movement, helping small producers make better coffee and earn higher prices for it, and offering education and cupping opportunities to improve their coffee year after year. Ricardo's deep understanding of pulping, fermentation, and drying, along with his willingness to work closely with roasters, makes him one of the most respected processors in the region. Since 2012, Helsar has partnered with the University of Costa Rica to research and refine food grade cascara, and this lot shows what that work makes possible! We hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

Brewing recommendation

• Water temp: 92–96ºC
• 10g steeped in 280mL water for 6–8 minutes, or 14g steeped in 350mL water for 6–8 minutes. We suggest crushing up some or all of the cascara before steeping.
  
• Adjust the cascara to water ratio as needed. We recommend between 1:20-1:30. 
• You can do multiple steep with cascara. 
• Try baking this cascara into muffins and cookies, or using crushed cascara to make a syrup.