Cascara is legal. Almost no roaster can buy it.
Dried coffee-cherry husk has been authorised in the European Union since 4 February 2022. Supply is not the blocker either: Harar burns, composts or feeds to cattle thousands of tonnes of it every season.
The blocker is paper. A roaster cannot put cascara on a menu until a food-safety officer has read seven documents about it. Rimbaud sells the paper and the husk as one object.
This page asks for nothing. No form, no address, no account. The first graded lot of the 2026/27 harvest lists from the drying beds in November 2026.
RIM-26/27-EH-01
- East Hararghe, kebele named on the lot
- Whole sun-dried Harar cherry husk
- Dried fig, wild blueberry, hibiscus
- Syrupy, red wine
- Cherries picked from November 2026
Every lot page carries this sheet, its lab panel, its drying log and a signed dossier. Nothing behind a form.
10.5%
18–25days
8turns a day
1,600–2,100m
A roaster does not refuse cascara. Their food-safety officer does.
Ask a head roaster in Berlin or Copenhagen and they want it on the menu tomorrow. It is coffee, from the same farms, and it earns more per cup than hibiscus. Then the request reaches the person who signs off food, and it stops.
That person is not being difficult. They have a HACCP plan and a regulation to satisfy, and they need seven specific things. Most cascara on the market arrives with none of them.
Many roasters have also been sold dusty, fermented husk swept off a mill floor. The second refusal is easier than the first.
- 01The specification for dried pulp of coffee cherry
- 02Moisture, measured on the lot that ships
- 03Caffeine, in mg per 100 ml of prepared infusion
- 04Ochratoxin A, from an accredited laboratory
- 05Microbiology: plate count, yeast and mould, E. coli, Salmonella
- 06Phytosanitary certificate and origin declaration
- 07The correct trade name printed on the packet
Rimbaud publishes all seven, per lot, before anyone asks.
Green-coffee importers
A token cascara line
One anonymous origin, thin documents, out of stock by February.
Bulk marketplaces
Container quantities
A buyer who wants 20 kg is quoted a shipping container.
Origin sellers on WhatsApp
A photograph of a sack
No lab panel, no licence on file, and no way to pay by card.
Doing nothing
The slot stays empty
Hibiscus goes on the menu instead, and the fruit is burned in Harar.
A link a roaster can forward, and the objection dies in one email.
| Moisture | ≤ 10.5% | Oven method, per lot |
|---|---|---|
| Caffeine | mg per 100 ml | Prepared infusion, per lot |
| Ochratoxin A | µg/kg | Accredited laboratory, per lot |
| Microbiology | 4 tests | TPC, yeast and mould, E. coli, Salmonella |
The certificates are lot-specific and open on the page. The signed dossier adds the phytosanitary certificate, the origin declaration, the drying log and the label kit, as one PDF.
cascara (pulp of coffee cherry) Dried pulp of the coffee cherry (Coffea arabica). Origin: Ethiopia, East Hararghe. Authorised in the EU as a traditional food from a third country under Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/47. High caffeine content. Not recommended for children, pregnant women and nursing mothers. Caffeine: [lot figure] mg per 100 ml of prepared infusion. Store dry, below 20 °C, out of direct light.
The trade name is fixed by the regulation. The caffeine figure is filled from the lot that ships to you, and above 150 mg/l the warning is required.
Qishr has been drunk here for centuries. We only wrote it down.
The husk comes from smallholder families in East Hararghe, between 1,600 m and 2,100 m, picking heirloom Arabica. It is whole cherry husk, sun-dried — never the wet output of a de-pulper, which is what makes the flat, smoky cup a roaster remembers.
Eighteen to twenty-five days on raised bamboo beds. Turned eight times a day. Off the beds under 10.5% moisture, then a laboratory sees it before a buyer does.
Ahmed holds his own export licence. The chain from cherry to courier is his, with no broker in it, which is why 20 kg can land at a roastery door at one delivered price.
| Day | Turns | Moisture % | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | — | — | — |
| 02 | — | — | — |
| 03 | — | — | — |
The log fills from the beds, one line a day, from November 2026.
Delivered to the roastery. Not a freight problem handed over.
Prices publish with each lot, per destination zone, from quotes confirmed before the lot page goes live. Payment is by card at a hosted checkout, and there is no account to make.
A sample is 250 g of a named lot, couriered, and credited in full when you order kilos. It is paid, so it separates a roastery from a collector.
Sample 250 g
Couriered to your door, credited in full against your first lot.
Lot 5 kg
One delivered price. Five kilos is a real order.
Lot 20 kg
The size most roasteries reorder on.
Lot 60 kg
For a menu that has stopped treating cascara as a trial.
Harvest reservation
A fixed-price deposit on a lot still on the beds.
Buying above 60 kg, or shipping to the Gulf, Korea or Japan? Ahmed works the freight out by hand and sends one fixed price.
This page was built to be forwarded.
Send it to the person who has to approve the product. Everything they need to read is already open, and the first graded lot lists in November 2026.