Té de Cerezo de Café Tenejapa

This comes from Chiapas, from Los Altos, from Tenejapa and the Tseltal communities that live with coffee as work, income, and daily rhythm. Not the roasted bean in a city cafe. The fruit around the bean. The cerezo de café that many people throw away because they don't know what they are holding.

Cascara is the dried skin and pulp of the coffee cherry after the bean is removed. In the highlands, where the mornings bite and the fog sits low over the slopes, women have long understood how to use what the harvest leaves behind. They rinse it, simmer it gently, and season it with canela and jengibre when the body needs warmth. No chiles here. Not all Mexican food needs chile. This is a 32-state cuisine, and Chiapas knows its own pantry.

The rule is gentleness. Do not boil the cascara like you are angry at it. Treat it like jamaica with less acid and more raisin. The drink should be amber, tart, lightly sweet, and alive with the smell of fruit drying near a coffee patio. Si no conoces el mercado, no conoces la cocina. Ask the coffee producers, not the supermarket shelf.