Cascara, the fruit that encases the coffee bean, soared in use in beverages such as fruit juices, fitness drinks and ready-to-drink coffees in 2020, according to Mintel's January 2021 Ingredient Zone database. "Beyond the novel taste, coffee fruit can provide added nutrition to food and beverages; its attractive source of antioxidants, phytonutrients and fiber is similar to that of many other potent fruits and berries," said Brian Zapp, creative director at Applied Food Sciences.

Olam Coffee has developed new ways to use cascara, the often-discarded, antioxidant-rich pulp and skin of the coffee cherry fruit. The company is developing concentrate and powder forms to serve as a functional ingredient in nutrition bars, iced teas and other foods and beverages.

Beverage debuts hitting shelves include New Orleans Cold Brew Coffee from Nitro Beverage and two more flavors for Peloton's Cascara Tea line of coffee fruit tea drinks. Southern Breeze has added a watermelon flavor to its range of cold-brew sweetened black teas while Reneva rolls out two collagen protein varieties.

Cascara, a drink brewed from the husks of coffee cherries, has been getting attention from such companies as Starbucks and Slingshot. Now an Austrian company is offering Caskai, a soda that features the floral flavors of cascara, which hit US shelves earlier this season.

Bunn-O-Matic has introduced Trifecta, a coffee and tea brewer with 25 settings. "Leveraging 25 unique settings to bring out the very best flavor based on coffee's distinct origins represents an entirely new concept for home brewing that encourages simple, but highly personalized flavor and taste refinement of specialty coffees," said senior vice president Aimee Markelz Tracy.