Chef Lupita
Agua de Alfalfa
Ciudad de México's highland market agua fresca, fresh alfalfa blended with pineapple and lime until bright green, strained clean, and poured cold from the vitrolero.
Culinary Explorer
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Té de Cerezo de Café Tenejapa
Created by
Chiapas highland cascara tea from Tenejapa, made with dried coffee cherry husks, canela, and jengibre, a bright low-caffeine infusion built from what the coffee bean leaves behind.
Beverages
Mexican
Weeknight
Comfort Food
Make Ahead
5 min
Active Time
15 min cook•20 min total
Yield4 servings
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.
Coffee arrived in Chiapas in the 19th century and became deeply tied to the highland and Soconusco economies, with many Indigenous communities later organizing around smallholder production and cooperatives. Cascara, the dried husk of the coffee cherry, was often treated as agricultural waste in commercial processing, but producing communities have used it as an infusion because it carries the fruit flavor of coffee with much less caffeine than the roasted bean. In Tenejapa and nearby Los Altos municipalities, the drink belongs to a practical tradition of using the whole harvest, a principle older than coffee itself in Mexican cooking.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
water
Quantity
4 cups
dried coffee cherry husks (cascara or cerezo de café)
Quantity
1/2 cup
rinsed quickly
Mexican canela stick
Quantity
1 small
fresh jengibre
Quantity
4 thin slices
piloncillo, grated, or honey from Chiapas
Quantity
1 to 2 tablespoons
to taste
orange peel (optional)
Quantity
1 strip
sea salt
Quantity
1 pinch
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| water | 4 cups |
| dried coffee cherry husks (cascara or cerezo de café)rinsed quickly | 1/2 cup |
| Mexican canela stick | 1 small |
| fresh jengibre | 4 thin slices |
| piloncillo, grated, or honey from Chiapasto taste | 1 to 2 tablespoons |
| orange peel (optional) | 1 strip |
| sea salt | 1 pinch |
Equipment Needed
- •Small clay olla or 2-quart saucepan
- •Fine-mesh strainer
- •Clay jarritos or heatproof cups
- •Wooden spoon
Instructions
- 1
Rinse the cascara
Put the dried coffee cherry husks in a fine-mesh strainer and rinse them quickly under cool water. Do not soak them. You are removing field dust, not washing away the fruit. Good cascara smells like raisin, tamarind, and dry apple skin. If it smells musty, old, or sour in the wrong way, do not use it. Sourcing wins before technique.
- 2
Warm the water
Pour the water into a clay olla or small saucepan and bring it just to a bare simmer over medium heat. You want small bubbles at the edge, not a hard boil. Cascara gives up its fruit cleanly when treated gently. Boil it hard and you pull bitterness from the skins.
- 3
Infuse the aromatics
Add the cascara, canela, jengibre, orange peel if using, and the pinch of sea salt. Lower the heat and let it move quietly for 10 minutes. The liquid will turn amber red, somewhere between jamaica and weak coffee, with a bright smell that belongs to the coffee fruit, not the roasted bean. This is not coffee. Do not expect coffee.
- 4
Sweeten lightly
Stir in 1 tablespoon piloncillo or Chiapas honey and taste. Add more only if the cascara is very tart. The sweetness should support the fruit, not bury it. Women in coffee-growing towns know this because they taste the harvest all year, fresh cherry, dried husk, roasted bean. Nothing gets wasted when the work is that hard.
- 5
Rest and strain
Turn off the heat and let the infusion rest for 5 minutes. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into clay jarritos or a small pitcher. Serve warm, or chill it and serve over ice later. It keeps well because the flavor is clean and lightly acidic. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.
For a stronger infusion, use more cascara instead of boiling longer. Longer heat makes the drink rough. More husk gives body without punishing the flavor.
Chef Tips
- •Buy cascara from a Chiapas coffee producer if you can, especially from Los Altos or Soconusco cooperatives. It should be dry, clean, and fruity. If the bag has no origin, no harvest date, and no smell, that tells you something.
- •This is not a substitute for coffee. It is the coffee fruit speaking in a different voice: lighter, tart, and low in caffeine. Expect tamarind, raisin, apple skin, and a little hibiscus brightness.
- •Mexican canela is softer and sweeter than the hard cassia sticks sold in many supermarkets. If your cinnamon stick looks like a thick piece of bark and refuses to break, it is probably cassia. It will work, but it is a compromise.
- •Do not add milk. This infusion is clean and acidic, and milk muddies it. Sweeten lightly with piloncillo or Chiapas honey. Así se hace y punto.
Advance Preparation
- •The infusion can be made 2 days ahead and refrigerated in a covered glass jar. Drink it cold or rewarm gently without boiling.
- •For a stronger make-ahead concentrate, use 3/4 cup cascara with 4 cups water and steep off the heat for 10 extra minutes before straining.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 235g)
Calories
30 calories
Total Fat
0 g
Saturated Fat
0 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
0 g
Cholesterol
0 mg
Sodium
40 mg
Total Carbohydrates
8 g
Dietary Fiber
0 g
Sugars
7 g
Protein
0 g
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