5 Cascara Drinks You'd Pay $12 For (Make Them at Home)

by Marc Narrie

These taste like they belong on a cafe menu

Coffee shops charge $6-8 for specialty cascara drinks. Fair enough, they're running a business. But cascara is one of the easiest ingredients to work with at home, and these five recipes are the kind of drinks that make people ask what you're drinking.

All of these start with either cascara cold brew or cascara simple syrup. If you don't have those made yet, here's the quick version: cold brew is 3 tablespoons cascara steeped in 2 cups cold water for 12-24 hours, strained. Simple syrup is equal parts sugar and water heated with half a cup of cascara, steeped 20 minutes, strained.

1. Cascara cold foam latte

This is the one Starbucks made famous and then quietly discontinued. Theirs is gone. Yours doesn't have to be.

What you need:

  • 8 oz cold brew coffee (regular coffee, not cascara)
  • 1/4 cup milk of choice
  • 1 tablespoon cascara simple syrup
  • A French press or milk frother
  • Ice

What you do:

  1. Combine the milk and cascara syrup in a French press or jar.
  2. Pump the French press rapidly for 30-45 seconds until the milk is foamy and doubled in volume. (Or use a handheld frother.)
  3. Pour cold brew coffee over ice in a glass.
  4. Slowly pour the cascara foam on top. It should float and layer.

The cascara foam adds a fruity sweetness that hits before the coffee does. Each sip gets both layers. It's the kind of drink that looks impressive and takes three minutes to make.

2. Cascara vanilla cream soda

This tastes like a craft cream soda from a place that charges too much for everything. Except you made it for about 50 cents.

What you need:

  • 2 oz cascara simple syrup
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 tablespoons heavy cream (or oat cream)
  • 8 oz cold soda water
  • Ice

What you do:

  1. Stir the vanilla into the cascara syrup.
  2. Pour over ice. Add the cream and stir gently.
  3. Top with soda water. Don't over-stir. Let it swirl.

The cream floats through the cascara and soda in ribbons. It looks like a sunset in a glass. Tastes like cherry vanilla with a hint of something you can't quite place (that's the tamarind and hibiscus notes in the cascara doing their thing).

3. Cascara espresso tonic

Espresso tonics are all over specialty coffee shops right now. Adding cascara takes it somewhere new.

What you need:

  • 1 shot espresso (or 2 oz strong cold brew coffee)
  • 2 oz cascara cold brew
  • 4 oz tonic water
  • 1 teaspoon cascara simple syrup (optional)
  • Ice

What you do:

  1. Fill a glass with ice.
  2. Pour in the tonic water and cascara cold brew. Stir once.
  3. Slowly pour the espresso over the back of a spoon so it layers on top.

The cascara bridges the gap between the bitter espresso and the quinine in the tonic. Without it, espresso tonics can taste sharp. The cascara smooths the transition and adds a fruity middle note. This is the kind of drink that makes people reconsider what coffee can be.

4. Cascara horchata

Rice milk, cinnamon, cascara. This one came out of messing around in the kitchen and it stuck.

What you need:

  • 1 cup cascara cold brew
  • 1 cup rice milk (or make your own: blend 1/2 cup soaked rice with 2 cups water, strain)
  • 1 tablespoon honey or condensed milk
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • Pinch of nutmeg
  • Ice

What you do:

  1. Blend the cascara cold brew, rice milk, sweetener, and spices until smooth.
  2. Pour over ice. Dust with extra cinnamon on top.

Traditional horchata is rice, cinnamon, and vanilla. Replacing the water base with cascara cold brew adds a fruity depth that plays off the cinnamon perfectly. The naturally sweet cascara means you can go lighter on the sweetener.

5. Cascara matcha float

Two teas, one glass. It shouldn't work but it does.

What you need:

  • 1 cup cascara cold brew
  • 1 teaspoon matcha powder
  • 2 tablespoons hot water
  • 1/4 cup milk of choice
  • 1 teaspoon honey
  • Ice

What you do:

  1. Whisk the matcha with hot water until smooth and dissolved. Let it cool for a minute.
  2. Mix the matcha with milk and honey.
  3. Fill a glass with ice. Pour in the cascara cold brew.
  4. Slowly pour the matcha milk over the back of a spoon to create a layered float.

The cascara sits on the bottom, golden and fruity. The matcha milk floats on top, green and earthy. As you drink, they blend together. Cascara's cherry and tropical notes meet matcha's vegetal grassiness and the combination tastes like something a very expensive cafe in Kyoto would serve.

The common thread

All five of these drinks take under five minutes. None of them require barista skills or specialty equipment beyond a French press or blender. The cascara does most of the work because it already tastes complex on its own. You're just giving it context.

Grab cascara at buddhabeanscoffee.com and start experimenting.

Cascara is the dried fruit of the coffee cherry (Coffea), sold as a food and herbal beverage, not as a dietary supplement or drug. It naturally contains caffeine, about 25mg per cup. It is not cascara sagrada, an unrelated plant sold as a laxative. Nothing here is intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. If you are pregnant, nursing, or sensitive to caffeine, check with your healthcare provider.

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