Is the refrigerator a good venue for weirding out? A new ready to drink brand from Holland says “yes”.
Vincent Rikken runs Cascara Cabinet out of Amstersdam, making a line of ready to drink cascara sodas with names like “Cascara Fizz” and “Cascara Boom.” When we asked Rikken about their take on the RTD category his answer was clear: “More weird stuff, please. The fridge is getting very good at giving us beautifully designed versions of things we already know. RTD feels like the perfect category to be a little less sensible—new ingredients, unexpected flavors, things that don’t fit neatly into an existing box. We’re obviously biased, but there’s a whole coffee fruit sitting around waiting to be drunk.” We couldn’t agree more!
Cascara Fizz has all the taste without the buzz while the Cascara Boom has a gentle 45mg of caffeine.
We spoke with Vincent Rikken, Chief Cascara at Cascara Cabinet, to learn more.
What coffee is used in this product?
A mix of Arabica varieties, currently sourced from Costa Rica and Colombia.
Tell us a bit about the coffee!
It’s a bit of everything! Our cascara can come from several Arabica varieties. We’re less obsessed with the cultivar than with what happens to the fruit after picking: you need farms and mills that can sort, dry, and handle the coffee cherry carefully enough to turn what is normally a by-product into something we actually want to drink. So the mix changes from lot to lot—the quality of the cascara is the constant.
Describe the product.
Our cascara comes from a mix of coffee varieties—and for us, variety is actually less important than what happens to the fruit after picking. We look for farms and mills that have the capacity to process, dry and handle the coffee cherry carefully and consistently enough to turn it into a great beverage ingredient. One of our current lots, for example, combines Catuai, Caturra, Marsellesa, Sarchimor, and SL28. The cherries are selectively picked, washed, and naturally dried before the dried fruit is separated and preserved as cascara. So the varieties and origins can change from harvest to harvest; what we’re really sourcing for is great cascara.
Tell us about the design on the product.
If coffee is Barbie, cascara is Ken. Same universe, but for a very long time nobody was particularly interested in his story. So when we finally gave cascara its own drink, the last thing we wanted was for it to look like coffee—or like every clean, tasteful new beverage brand on the shelf.
We went in the opposite direction: collage, comics, strange characters, coffee cherries, tongues, toucan feathers, and lots of little references and Easter eggs. It’s deliberately a bit chaotic. The drink tastes unlike what people expect from something related to coffee, so we wanted the can to create that same sense of surprise. Have a look and see how many references you can find.
How long have you been working on this project?
On and off, about eight years. We first got inspired by the lovely people at Rösterei VIER back in 2018 and started playing with cascara ourselves. A few detours, regulatory adventures and quite a lot of cans later, we’re still at it.
Where is it available?
The Netherlands, mostly! But we’re popping up in Belgium and Berlin too. We’ve even heard reports of Cascara Cabinet propaganda being spotted in Sri Lanka. So apparently it travels.
What is the product price per unit?
€3.50–€5.00 per 250ml can, depending on where you find us.
Who is the target customer for this product?
Thirsty drinkers! It’s surprisingly good at doing the most important job of a soda: quenching thirst. Coffee people are an obvious crowd, but curiosity is really the main requirement.
How are folks describing the taste?
Well, if you ask us, we’ll start talking about a delicate bouquet of redcurrant, rosehip, and plum on the palate. Nobody else does. Mostly, people tell us how incredibly fresh and fruity it tastes. It’s definitely a lightweight when it comes to body and sweetness—and people seem to be digging that.
Do you have future RTD products in development?
We sure are! Can’t wait to share.
Thank you!
Sprudge showcases coffee products in the “ready-to-drink” (RTD) category: packaged beverages sold in a prepared form, ready for consumption. Learn about this growing segment of the coffee industry, get inspired, discover new brands and more!
