Yemeni Qishr
قشرkish-er
A copper-coloured, tea-like drink that tastes of dried cherries, hibiscus and fresh ginger, with a gentle caffeine kick. It is made from the part of the coffee plant the rest of the world throws away, in the country that first traded coffee to everybody else.
At a glance
- Husk : water
- 1:30
- Active time
- 3 min
- Total time
- 13 min
- Makes
- 2 cups
- Serve
- Hot
- Kit
- Saucepan
Ingredients
Note: Coffee husks are sold as cascara, qishr or coffee cherry tea. They should smell like dried fruit, not like coffee.
Method
-
Crush the husks a little
Break the husks up between your fingers or give them a few bashes in a mortar. You want pieces, not powder.
Broken husk gives up its flavour faster. Powder makes the drink muddy and hard to strain.
-
Everything into the pan
Put the husks, ginger, sugar, cinnamon and water in a small saucepan and bring it to the boil.
-
Simmer until copper-red
Turn it down and simmer for eight to ten minutes. It turns a deep amber red and smells of raisins and ginger.
Yemeni households often bring it to the boil two or three times, lifting it off between each, which does much the same thing.
Simmer 8 to 10 minutes -
Strain and serve hot
Pour it through a fine sieve into small cups or glasses. Drink it hot.
It is a mid-morning and evening drink in Yemen, often with something sweet.
Why this works
A coffee bean is the seed of a fruit. Around it is a thin sweet pulp and a skin, and when the cherry is dried and hulled that outer layer comes away as a brittle husk. Most of the world composts it. In Yemen it became a drink of its own. The husk carries fruit sugars, organic acids and some caffeine, so the result tastes of dried cherry, raisin and hibiscus rather than roast, because nothing in it has been roasted.
It has less caffeine than brewed coffee. Estimates for husk teas vary widely with the dose and the cherry, but a cup is generally well below a cup of filter coffee. That gentler kick is part of why qishr is drunk in the evening.
Ginger is the other half. Its pungent compounds, gingerols, turn sharper and warmer as they are heated, and they give a drink with no roast a backbone and some heat. The sugar rounds off the husk's acidity. Boiling is right here, unlike almost any bean coffee, because the husk is tough and there are no delicate roasted aromatics to lose.
Yemen is where coffee was first cultivated as a crop and drunk as a beverage, in the fifteenth century, by Sufis who used it to stay awake through night prayers. For two centuries nearly all the world's coffee left through the Red Sea port of al-Makha, which is where the word mocha comes from. The beans were the export. The husks stayed home, and qishr is what Yemenis made of them.
Variations
- With cardamom: two crushed pods with the ginger.
- Unsweetened: some prefer it without sugar, which shows off the fruit and the acidity.
- Iced: brew double strength, strain, sweeten and pour over ice with a slice of lemon.
- With a spoon of ground coffee: some households add a little to give it more depth. It is no longer strictly qishr, but it is a good drink.
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Questions
What is qishr made from?
The dried husk of the coffee cherry, the fruit that surrounds the bean. It is simmered with ginger and usually sugar. No coffee beans are used.
Is qishr the same as cascara?
Cascara is the same raw material, dried coffee cherry husk, usually sold today from Central and South American farms. Qishr is the Yemeni drink made from it with ginger and sugar.
Does qishr have caffeine?
Yes, but less than coffee. The husk carries some caffeine, and a cup of qishr is generally well below a cup of filter coffee, which is why it is often drunk in the evening.
What does qishr taste like?
Fruity, slightly tart and warming: dried cherry, raisin and a hibiscus-like sourness under fresh ginger. It does not taste like coffee.