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 certified3 supply of quality cascara that’s traceable back to the specific block. Their 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 confectionery flavourings.

There are two main processing methods which produce different flavour profiles. During the wet processing method, the fruit pulp is collected and dried slowly on raised beds in a controlled environment. The resulting ‘pulped’ cascara, has a sweeter, fruitier flavour and deeper colour than the ‘husk’ variety – produced using the dry or natural method – and lends itself well to fruit concentrate applications and extracts.

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.

At their Innovation Center in Fresno, California, Olam continues to develop new cascara offerings derived from various processing conditions, in partnership with external laboratories and customers to meet their specifications.

Food safety continues to be a primary focus and Olam Coffee is working with local partners and agencies to secure wide-spread use of cascara for integration in multiple applications on the market.

1 Certified by UTZ, Rainforest Alliance

2 ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity) score

3 A. Heeger et al. / Food Chemistry 221 (2017) 969–975