If you have ever watched a video about how coffee is made, you know that the beans are separated from the pulpy fruit, and those beans are used to make coffee. But what happens to the fruit? Typically, it is simply — and wastefully — discarded.
That's where a new company called Up To Good comes in. Up To Good has set out to take the once-discarded coffee fruit, called cascara, and use it to make an energy drink.
Cascara contains caffeine (around half as much as the beans, according to Inhabitat) as well as antioxidants. However, Up To Good has worked its formula so that one can of its new energy drink is an energy boost equivalent to one cup of coffee.
The company has partnered with small coffee farms in Latin America to buy their cascara and claims that the farms it has chosen are sustainably run, with attention to water conservation, Inhabitat reported.
By saving the cascara from the discard pile, Up To Good explains that it is fighting waste and pollution on multiple fronts.
"In traditional coffee farming the beans are harvested for roasting, but the surrounding coffee fruit is discarded once it is separated from the beans," Up To Good says on its website. "That means billions of pounds are wasted globally every year! This not only contributes to food waste, but negatively impacts the environment by allowing mountains of coffee fruit to decay in landfills and potentially poison water sources."
The taste of cascara is not equivalent to the taste of coffee. A writer for Inhabitat reviewed the product and attempted to describe it, concluding, "The closest beverage I can compare it to is unsweetened, flavored iced tea … with bubbles. [I] would say cascara has a fruity and slightly sweet taste with notes of dried fruit, cherry, and raisin."
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