Bidaar Finca Los Congos Caturra Cascara

  This was another great product from Bidaar Roasting. This isn't coffee though. Coffee's parent perhaps? This is cascara. As some of you may not know, as it was new to me, coffee is actually a seed, not a bean. It's a seed inside a fruit. Some coffee is washed, where the entire fruit is removed prior to drying. Some coffee is processed "naturally" where the fruit is left on the seed while it dries. Cascara is the fruit of the coffee seed. 

  This is a naturally processed Caturra from Finca Los Congos. Bidaar notes flavors of dates, dried figs, tamarind. I brewed this two ways. I did the hot version first. 1:20 ratio. Water 30 seconds off boil. 4 minute steep. So fruity. Tea? Coffee? Kind of both? I do like tea, but this was something so different. Super fruity like some teas, but also you can taste the natural process. The tart fermenty taste that you can get from natural Ethiopians sometimes. I then tried a cold brew. First I tried it in my smaller Kyoto Drip tower. That was too weak; the water went through the tea too fast. There was almost no retention time. Then I did a 1:10 ratio in the fridge for 24 hours. This was super awesome too. More fruity. Super sweet. At some point I'm going to combine cascara and coffee & also cold brew some coffee with cascara, experiment and see what I come up with. This is definitely a product I feel more roasters should carry. It is so good. It is definitely something I would like to keep on hand. 

  Thanks again to Varin & Bidaar for the tasty cascara.

Go check these guys out:  bidaarcoffee.com