## 3 Results and Discussion
### Physical-Chemical Analyses  
Figure 2 shows the visual appearance of the coffee cascara infusions evaluated in this study. Table 2 contains the instrumental soluble solids, color pH, and titratable acidity data.  
Figure 2: Infusions of commercial coffee cascara teas from Latin American countries. (**A**): sample 3—El Salvador (F); (**B**): sample 1—Brazil (F); (**C**): sample 4—Nicaragua (F); (**D**): sample 5—Brazil (UF); (**E**): sample 6—Nicaragua (UF); (**F**): sample 2—Bolivia (F). Note: F–fermented; UF—unfermet.  
Soluble solids values (range 1.10-1.30 \({}^{\circ}\)Brix, using 3.5 g cascara/100 mL) were higher in Samples 3 and 4 (both fermented). The present results are higher than those previously reported for arabica coffee cascara infusion (0.54) prepared using 1 g cascara/100 mL water [39], bulk black tea (0.45) and bulk mate tea (0.23) (both using 1.6 g/100 mL) [40].  
The colorimetric data varied for the different infusions. \(L^{*}\) represents the lightness measured as brightness, with 100 and 0 values corresponding to absolute white and black, respectively [41]. The \(L^{*}\) values of infusions were found to be significantly lower (darker) in Sample 3 (56.7 \(\pm\) 1.5) and higher (lighter) in Sample 2 (79.7 \(\pm\) 0.5) (both fermented) compared to the other samples, as visually perceived in Figure 2. \(C^{*}\) represents the chroma or intensity or saturation, the degree of color relative to a similarly illuminated neutral grey [41]. \(C^{*}\) values were the highest in Samples 4, 1 and 3. This indicates that these fermented samples had more vivid colors. \(H^{\circ}\) represents the hue [41]. \(H^{\circ}\) values of fermented infusions varied between 76.71\({}^{\circ}\) and 97.58\({}^{\circ}\), while the values of unfermented infusions were 90.96\({}^{\circ}\) and 96.03\({}^{\circ}\). The lower \(H^{\circ}\) value in Sample 3 indicates that the infusion was more reddish and less yellowish, and the higher \(H^{\circ}\) value in Sample 2 indicates the infusion was more yellowish. Although the fermented cascaras were darker than the unfermented ones (exemplified in Table 1), this was not necessarily reflected in the infusions. In Figure 2, the infusions in cups A and F were from fermented cascaras. However, while cup A presented the highest soluble solids value (1.30 \({}^{\circ}\)Brix), cup F presented one of the lowest values (1.13 \({}^{\circ}\)Brix) (Table 2). Nevertheless, positive correlations were observed between soluble solids and \(L^{*}\) (r = 0.7908, \(p\) = 0.014), \(C^{*}\) (r = 0.6757, \(p\) = 0.047), and \(H^{\circ}\) (r = 0.8549, \(p\) = 0.0083). The variety and intensity of colors observed in the infusions are related to the presence of anthocyanins, responsible for the red, yellow, and purple colors observed in coffee fruit skin, mainly cyanidin-3-rutinoside, and, in small amounts, cyanidin 3-glycos [12].  
In the present study, pH and TA values were generally similar in all infusions. The pH values (ranged 4.18-4.22) are relatively similar to those previously reported for arabica cascara infusions prepared using 2 g cascara/100 mL (range 4.55-4.62) [42] and lower than those prepared using 1 g cascara/100 mL [39], confirming the acidic characteristics of cascara coffee tea and showing that the pH values are related to the amount of cascara used to prepare the infusions.