The Topanga: iced cascara and then some.

It’s that time of year where spring feels like a nostalgic dream and all you want are comfort foods and bad TV. But the sun will rise again and the iced signature beverages hand crafted by our baristas will flow, again. For spring, we’ve concocted an icy, minty, spicy drink to prepare your body for cool-down mode that will commence in mere months.

Introducing The Topanga: iced cascara infused with mint, Szechuan and peppercorn with tamarind simple syrup.

The Topanga

 “Give me your hand. I want to see if our energies converge.” – Topanga Lawrence

Hannah Clark is passing the torch of Signature Beverage creator on to Shannon Marks, but before doing so they collaborated to make something really unique.

Hannah: “We found that when brewing it with mint the heavy, syrupy flavor of the cascara was nicely balanced making it a little more accessible. The tamarind was a fruit we wanted to play with because it has a naturally citrusy quality and we thought it could replace lemon nicely in an iced-tea like beverage. It is also naturally very sweet-we only use 1/4 cup of sugar per 4 cups of syrup, so its a great fruit for spring drinks and really easy to work with.”

At the Wormhole, we’ve always tried to make drinks that are dairy free or have a small amount of sugar, because we care about your health, you know?

The idea to use whole peppercorns was one our staff needed some time to get accustomed to, but now we’re all applauding the brilliance of Hannah and Shannon. “Instead of crushing the peppercorns [or boiling them in the syrup], we want each person to bite into one, creating a fizzy, effervescent mouthfeel,” says Shannon of the purposeful drink topper.