Cascara Returns to The Shelves – Infused in Booze!

Last March we reported that Local Authorities had taken cascara for testing following the lodging of a novel food application. Last week we drunk a new cascara vermouth. So what’s been discarded?

Film: Caffeine

Cascara has largely been off-menu and requires a wink-and-a-nod since a number of local authorities took samples of cascara from shops and roasters last summer for testing, and asked that they remove it from sale.

The trigger was an application for cascara to obtain novel food status, which is required for food and drink items not readily available in the EU before 1997.

Read more about the application

To date the application is pending, so our founder Tim – who is also the editor-at-large for Caffeine Magazine – was more than a little surprised to receive a press release about a new cascara-based vermouth, called Discarded. There are so many questions, but the first step was to get hold of a bottle.

Bottle in hand, Tim meet up with Scott Bentley, the founder of Caffeine magazine, to see how it tastes, and to find out how and why this drink was brought to market.