Olam Coffee, part of Olam Food Ingredients, has developed a range of coffee cherry cascara products as a key ingredient for beverage infusions and concentrates across multiple applications, from ice teas to nutrition bars, to meet the growing trend for healthy indulgence.
Cascara – translated from the Spanish word for ‘husk’ – is the pulp and skin of the coffee cherry fruit. Its flavour is very different from coffee, often described as sweet and fruity with notes of cherry, raisins, and even caramel. Coffee farmers have used it for years to make tea infusions, but it is typically regarded as an unusable by-product by the coffee industry and composted for use as crop fertiliser, if not discarded altogether.
Today, Olam says there is a growing awareness of cascara as a sustainable superfood due to its unique flavour and perceived health benefits, with several times the antioxidants of blueberries, acai, and pomegranate. In addition, bioactive food compounds such as polyphenols and chlorogenic acid, which are present in coffee cherry cascara, have promising potential to help patients with obesity. The caffeine content can also be considerably lower than coffee.
“There is also the environmental benefit of utilising the skin and pulp that’s otherwise discarded as a bi-product in the primary processing stage” says Siva Subramanian, Vice President of Innovation at Olam Coffee. “As demand for this superfruit grows, upcycling cascara will provide more coffee farmers with an additional source of income.”
Olam Coffee currently sources cascara from its single estate coffee plantations in Brazil, Laos, Tanzania, and Zambia, with integrated processing capabilities, which provide a year-round certified supply of quality cascara that’s traceable back to the specific block. Its teams have carried out multiple trials of husk and pulped cascara production, experimenting with coffee varieties, cherry ripeness and harvesting and processing techniques to define suitability for specific food ingredient applications, such as teas or natural confectionary flavourings.
Olam Coffee can offer a range of cascara products, namely dry cascara for tea infusions and flour; liquid cascara concentrates for jams, jellies, dessert toppings and bakery fillings; and soluble cascara powder for use in hot and cold RTD beverages and mixes. It will also be available for nutraceutical and cosmetic use as an as antioxidant supplement. Olam Coffee will work with companies and brands directly to co-create bespoke cascara products.
For more information, visit www.olamgroup.com