Cascara substitute

Best substitute

Rosehip tea

Use the same amount steeped 5 minutes as the cascara you are replacing

Best for hot cascara-style tea

Close match

Rosehip tea is the closest single thing to reach for at one to one, since it is mildly fruity, lightly tannic and not aggressively sour. Hibiscus is more widely stocked and gets the red-fruit tartness right but overshoots badly on acidity, so steep it about half as long and drop two or three raisins or a piece of dried apricot into the cup to bring back the raisiny sweetness cascara has. If you want the caffeine as well, half hibiscus and half very weak black tea is the best approximation. Do not go looking for something that tastes like coffee, because cascara does not: it is a fruit tea that happens to come from the coffee plant.

Other cascara substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Hibiscus plus a little dried fruit
Different taste
Use the same amount hibiscus but steeped 2 to 3 minutes, plus 2 or 3 raisins per cup
Hibiscus for the red-fruit tartness and colour, dried fruit for the sweetness and body that hibiscus lacks.
What changes
Together they cover most of cascara's range.
Best for
iced cascara-style sodas, cascara lemonade, syrups and cordials, when hibiscus is all the shop had
Hibiscus alone is considerably sharper, more cranberry-like and much more deeply red than cascara, and steeped the usual five minutes it is puckeringly tart. Cut the steep and it lands closer. The raisins matter more than they sound: steeped alongside, they contribute the sweet, slightly winey depth that turns a tart red tea into something recognisably cascara-ish. Chopped dried apricot or a couple of dried cherries do the same job.
3Dried cherry or raisin infusion
Different taste
Use 1 tablespoon chopped dried fruit for every cup, simmered 10 minutes
The sweet half of cascara on its own, made from whatever dried fruit is in the cupboard.
What changes
Simmer, steep off the heat for five more minutes, then strain.
Best for
sweet drinks and syrups, poaching liquids, a caffeine-free warm drink, children
Round, sweet and jammy, with none of cascara's tannin or brightness, so it reads as a fruit tisane rather than a tea and can feel a bit cloying on its own. A squeeze of lemon or a small pinch of citric acid fixes that immediately and gets you noticeably closer. Sour cherries are the best fruit for this, since they bring their own acidity. Do not simmer it to a syrup unless you want it that way, because it reduces fast.
4Rooibos with a squeeze of lemon
Different taste
Use the same amount plus a wedge of lemon per cup
Rooibos gives the red-brown colour, a woody sweetness and a body that most fruit teas lack.
What changes
The lemon supplies the acidity it is missing.
Best for
iced cascara-style soda, cascara tonic and long drinks, long steeping or holding in a jug, caffeine-free evening drinking
Sweeter, woodier and more vanilla-like than cascara, with none of its cherry brightness until you add the citrus. Its real advantage is practical: rooibos does not turn bitter no matter how long it steeps, so it holds well in a jug or a cold-brew bottle, where hibiscus keeps getting sharper. Green rooibos is lighter and less woody and arguably closer.
5Weak black tea blended with hibiscus, half and half
Different taste
Use the same amount overall, using half the leaf of each
The option to pick if the caffeine matters, since cascara does contain some and pure fruit infusions contain none.
What changes
Best for
a morning cascara replacement, iced tea, espresso tonic style drinks, when you want body as well as fruit
The black tea contributes tannin, weight and the caffeine; the hibiscus contributes the tart red fruit. Brew the black tea deliberately weak, about half the usual leaf and no more than two minutes, or it dominates and the drink just tastes like fruit-flavoured tea. The result is maltier and more astringent than cascara and less distinctly raisiny, but it drinks well and covers the same function.
6Nothing that quite matches it, in a cascara syrup or cocktail
Different taste
Use Least-bad: hibiscus tea reduced with demerara sugar, plus a teaspoon of pomegranate molasses for every cup of cascara
The honest case.
What changes
In a cascara syrup for an espresso tonic or a cocktail, cascara's particular raisin-cherry-and-tamarind sweetness is the point of the drink.
Best for
cascara syrup, cascara espresso tonic, cocktails built on cascara
The approximation above gets the colour, the acidity and some of the dried-fruit depth, and it is genuinely drinkable, but it tastes tarter and more jammy and less complex than the real thing, and anyone who has drunk cascara will notice. Since dried cascara is cheap, keeps well in an airtight jar and is easy to order from coffee roasters, this is a case where buying it for next time is the better answer than chasing a substitute.

What is Cascara?

Cascara is Cascara is the dried skin and pulp of the coffee cherry, the fruit that surrounds the coffee bean and is normally discarded at the farm, and it brews into a sweet-tart amber infusion that tastes of raisin, cherry and hibiscus rather than of coffee.

Cooking tips

Brew it like tea, not like coffee. Five to eight grams per eight ounces of water just off the boil, steeped four to five minutes, then strained. Do not grind it and do not run it through an espresso machine or a filter cone as though it were a coffee. Steeped much longer than five minutes it turns tannic and drying and loses the fruit.
Cold brew is the best use of cascara: about twelve grams per litre of cold water, twelve hours in the fridge, then strain and serve over ice with a wedge of lemon or topped with tonic. It is sweeter, cleaner and far less tannic than the hot brew, and it is the version that made cascara popular in specialty coffee shops in the first place.
Cascara syrup is easy and useful: brew a strong batch, then combine equal weights of that liquid and sugar and warm gently until dissolved. Demerara suits it better than white sugar because it echoes the raisin note. Use it in an espresso tonic, in iced coffee, over ice cream or in a cocktail.
It is worth being clear that cascara and cascara sagrada are unrelated. Cascara sagrada is the bark of a North American shrub, sold as a herbal laxative, and it is not a drink ingredient. If you are buying online, look for coffee cherry tea or coffee fruit tea from a coffee roaster rather than for cascara in a herbal supplements listing.
Cascara does contain caffeine, less than a brewed coffee and roughly in the range of a cup of green tea. That makes it a good afternoon drink but not a caffeine-free one, which matters if you are replacing it for someone avoiding caffeine, in which case rosehip, hibiscus, rooibos or a dried fruit infusion are the swaps to use.
Store it airtight and away from light, and use it within a few months. Dried coffee cherry is fruit, and stale cascara loses its brightness and starts tasting flat and hay-like the way old dried fruit does.

Frequently asked questions

Does cascara taste like coffee?

Not at all, which surprises almost everyone. It comes from the coffee plant, but it is the fruit around the bean rather than the bean itself, and it tastes like a sweet-tart fruit tea: raisin, cherry, hibiscus, sometimes a tamarind or rosehip note. That is why the good substitutes are fruit teas and the bad ones are coffee substitutes such as chicory or roasted barley.

Does cascara have caffeine?

Yes, some, but much less than a brewed coffee, generally in the same territory as a cup of green tea. So it will not keep you up the way an espresso does and it is not a caffeine-free drink either. If you need a genuinely caffeine-free stand-in, use rosehip, hibiscus, rooibos or a simple dried fruit infusion, all of which have none.

Is cascara the same as cascara sagrada?

No, and it is worth checking what you have bought. Cascara in the coffee world is dried coffee cherry skin, sold as coffee cherry tea or coffee fruit tea. Cascara sagrada is bark from an entirely different plant, Rhamnus purshiana, sold as a herbal laxative, and it is not something to brew as a beverage. Buy from coffee roasters or tea sellers rather than from supplement listings and you will get the right thing.

What is the closest tea to cascara?

Rosehip, on its own. It has the same mild fruit tartness, the light tannin and the russet colour without hibiscus's aggressive sourness. If you only have hibiscus, cut the steeping time roughly in half and add two or three raisins or a piece of dried apricot to the cup, which supplies the dried-fruit sweetness hibiscus is missing and brings it much closer.

Can I make cascara from my own coffee beans?

No. The fruit is removed and dried at the farm during processing, so by the time coffee reaches you as green or roasted beans the cherry skin is long gone. There is nothing you can do to whole beans, ground coffee or spent grounds that produces cascara. It has to be bought as its own product, usually from a specialty roaster, and it is inexpensive when you find it.

Can I just leave cascara out of a recipe?

If it is the liquid in a cocktail or a soda, no, because it is providing both the flavour and much of the sweetness and the drink collapses without it. Use a hibiscus or rosehip tea in its place instead. If it is a small flavouring element, for instance a splash of cascara syrup in an iced coffee, you can leave it out and simply have a slightly less interesting iced coffee, adjusting the sugar to taste.

Related substitutes

More beverages substitutes

Cascara substitute

Other cascara substitutes

2Hibiscus plus a little dried fruit

3Dried cherry or raisin infusion

4Rooibos with a squeeze of lemon

5Weak black tea blended with hibiscus, half and half

6Nothing that quite matches it, in a cascara syrup or cocktail