What Can You Do With Cascara?

There is a great variety of uses for cascara (You can even make chocolate out of it - see here) but it is most commonly used similar to how one would use tea or used in the form of simple syrup. We’ll be walking through some recipes on how best to use cascara below.

Hot Cascara Tea

One method of preparing a hot cascara drink is by treating it like it is a loose-leaf tea. The amount of cascara to use for a typical 8-oz cup is 25 g (approximately a heaping teaspoon). Put the cascara in either an empty tea bag or any other tea infuser, and steep it in boiling water (100℃ or 212℉) for around five minutes. To serve, you can get creative with it with sweetened condensed milk.

“Cold-Brew” Cascara Drinks

Iced cascara can be prepared in a way similar to a batch of cold brew coffee or big batch iced tea. To make it, we used our 32 oz Cold Brew System. The proper ratio is about 100g (approximately 4 teaspoons) of cascara for every liter of water. Our small cold brew maker holds a little over a liter (~4 cups) of water when the strainer is in. Place the cascara in the basket and submerge in water in the cold brew maker and let it sit for 24 hours. Remove the cascara and serve over ice with your preferred cream and sugar. Store the remaining cascara cold brew in the fridge.

Cascara simple syrup

Cascara simple syrup is a cascara flavored sweetener that can easily be used in a variety of creative ways. The most common ways to use it are in cold-brew coffee or in hot coffee. Today, we’ll also be sharing how to make a cascara lemon soda and how to make a cascara cocktail. Before getting to these drinks, however, we first have to make the simple syrup.

The basic recipe is one part sugar, one part water, half part cascara. You can create this in any amount you desire, but an easy amount to go by is one cup of sugar, one cup of water, and one half cup cascara. Simmer in a small saucepan until the sugar fully dissolves. Let the syrup cool, then strain the cascara from the syrup and either serve or store in the fridge.

This is just a simple home-made version of simple syrup, but Iconic Cocktail does it best. They’ve got a delicious Cascara Vanilla Mixer and so much more. We love partnering with them and if you like these recipes, check out their page and their products!

Cascara “Soda”

To craft this drink, serve either tonic or plain seltzer over ice. Add cascara simple syrup and lemon juice to taste. The ratio that we suggest is about an ounce of cascara syrup and an ounce of lemon juice for 8 oz (1 cup) of sparkling water.

Cocktails

There are a lot of cascara cocktails that can be made, but our current favorite is a simple rum cocktail. One ounce of rum, one ounce of cascara syrup, and one ounce of lemon juice shaken with ice and served.