The history of coffee and What Cascara is {coffee cherry}

We’re on our way down to Florida and a great friend happened to be in Mississippi at his families church camp. The Malones are the sweetest family and offered up one of there bunk houses, dinner, and breakfast with them. This morning we were sitting in the porch of the dinning hall over looking the beautiful lake sipping some amazing coffee and Trey stared talking about visiting coffee farms and how the cascara there are such a waste but can be utilized in so many ways (thanks Trey for sparking interest in cascara and for a wonderful time with your family:). So it got me thinking, and right away I went researching and I thought if I want all this info on hand, I must put it all in a blog post. And why not add the history??

Cascara, aka coffee cherry, is the fruit from the coffee tree, scientifically: Cofea L. and coffee comes from the seed of the coffee cherry, (yup, coffee an’t related to beans) but before we get to deep into cascara, let’s start with the history of coffee…

Coffee trees has been around forever nobody really knows who discovered it, all I know is that God made this amazing tree. But they have evidence of people starting to drink coffee in Yemen by the 1500’s, and trees started being planted in other parts of the world.

Legend has is it that in the 1600’s a goat farmer in Ethiopia saw his goats so energetic after eating these “cherries” they couldn’t even sleep at night! This was when coffee started to spread around the world. Although, in many religions coffee was banded and thought to be “toxic” but really they were just intimidated by the drink. The first mainland European coffee house was opened in Venice in 1645.

Coffee in America…

In 1607 a settler named Captain John Smith, (the founder of the Colony of Virginia) introduced this “new coffee” to America after his trip from Turkey. Though they did bot like the idea since tea was widely enjoyed. But in 1688 a drink in New York was made with coffee beans, honey, and cinnamon. By the mid-1700’s, taverns started to carry coffee calling it “only a drink for the well-to-do”. While Americans were still stuck in tea. Interestingly enough, in 1773 when the “Boston tea party” happened, tea started becoming “unpatriotic”, making coffee the American drink, and British drink the tea. (Though I do love a good cup of tea, don’t we all?) Coming into the 1800’s coffee shops starting popping up all over New York and Boston. In 1922, America became “the chief coffee consumer of the world,” consuming more than half of the world’s coffee, (now I think thats just me;),

Before World War II, coffee consumption was at an all-time high. An average of 20 pounds of coffee were consumed a year per adult. Then the us government limited imports and people had to learn to cut back the coffee, they allowed one pound of coffee per person over 15 years old every five weeks. To make there coffee last longer, some people would add chicory root to make more cups. Then by February they stretched it to six weeks instead of five. But but July of 1943, when Franklin D. Rosevelt was presented, he lifted this regulation.

Fast forward into 2021 where the coffee industry in now $225 billion dollars, We now drink about 2.25 Billion, yes billion, cups of coffee DAILY in the world.

Ok let’s talk about this cascara, the reason coffee is a thing… cascara is the fruit form the coffea tree. It is often referred to as coffee cherry, coffee fruit, or cascara! Cascara is really a bi-product of coffee beans, it’s the outer part of coffee and is just discarded or used as fertilizer and sometimes feed.

The outer skin of cascara is dried and used as a tea. Where coffee first started in Yemen and Ethiopia, they mix ginger and cinnamon with cascara for a nice cheaper coffee they call Qishr or Gesher. Nowadays cascara has been popping up more in USA, UK, and Australia for good reasons, it’s health benefits are amazing! Just take a look:

Health benefits of cascara tea…

High in Polyphenols, an antioxidant that helps your skin rejuvenate, protect you from cancer by getting rid of free radicals in your body, helps your immune system, and is anti-inflammatory.
Contains BDNF. BDNF (Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor) is protein essential that naturally occurs in cascara. BDNF helps your mood, healthy memory, cognitive function and can improve your and sleep.
Drinking coffee cherry tea regularly is also beneficial to prevent Dementia, Alzheimer and Parkinson, like coffee does.
May help fat loss cascara can also help break down fat cells, cascara also contains chlorogenic acid, promote weight loss and boost fat burning.
Easy to make, you just steep the dried fruit like tea.

The outer skin is used, the coffee bean is used, but what about the flesh? For now, the flesh is actually being used as a flour, making it easier to up your intake in fiber, iron, potassium, and calcium.