Qishr

Qishr is made from the part of the coffee plant most of the world throws away: the dried husk, or skin, of the coffee cherry. In Yemen – one of the oldest coffee-growing countries – these husks are simmered with ginger, often with cinnamon and sometimes cardamom or cloves, and sweetened with sugar. The name simply means “husk” in Arabic.

It looks like a light, reddish-brown tea rather than coffee, and tastes that way too: fruity and slightly tart from the cherry husk, warming from the ginger, with gentle sweetness. Because the husks don’t need roasting and are cheaper than beans, qishr has long been an everyday drink in Yemen, while the beans themselves were valuable exports.

Qishr is drunk throughout Yemen, especially in the afternoon, and is offered to guests as a sign of hospitality. Today the same husks are sold in speciality coffee shops worldwide as “cascara”, and Yemeni coffee houses abroad have helped introduce qishr to new audiences.

Yemen is one of the first places where coffee was cultivated, and coffee drinking spread in the 15th century among Sufi communities there. Early coffee drinks in Yemen are thought to have been made from the fruit and husks as well as the seeds, and the word qishr was also used for an early drink made from coffee-cherry pulp.

Over time qishr came to mean the spiced husk infusion drunk today. It became a staple partly for practical reasons: the husks needed no roasting and were cheap, while the beans were valuable for export through ports such as Mocha. Travellers to Yemen in the 19th and 20th centuries described qishr being offered to guests, a custom of hospitality that continues.

Exact dates for when ginger became the standard addition are not documented, and some popular accounts’ claims about precise origins should be treated with caution.