Chicory

[BigDuke634]

Has anyone tried to make chicory coffee? And if so, what were the results? Rick Giles 8th KY

[TimKindred]

Comrade,

By way of answering, my advice would be for you to hit up your local "natural foods" store and purchase a small bag of chicory coffee substitute and make it at home. See what you think about it. At most you'll be out a couple dollars.

Respects,

[WoodenNutmeg]

Go to your local Whole Foods or to http://shop.cafedumonde.com/coffee.html and order a can of this...

http://home.pacbell.net/mabjo/cafedumonde1.jpg

Chicory coffee is traditionally a French influenced New Orleans favorite and it by far the best coffee in the world. If you buy this and do not love it, I will personally refund your money (wink, wink)!

Best of all, Cafe du Monde is historically accurate, established in the French Quarter in 1862!

So buy it, toss some in a solid canvas mess bag and enjoy!

Hope this helps.

[7thNJcoA]

Ive had that same stuff Its not half bad on occasion I will put some in a poke sack and bring with me if im campaigning

[jgr1974]

There is some stuff out there called Postum. Comes in a glass jar. I think it was popular during the depression. Check local grocery store.

The Mad Mick!!!

[Rob Weaver]

Postum is more like the "ersatz" coffee sold in Germany after the Great War (origin of the word "ersatz" in English). I tried Postum once when I was decaffeinating. Appalling. Like drinking sawdust water. It was worth years off my life to trade that stuff in for a steaming cup of strong black coffee.
"Chock Full o' Nuts" coffee, I believe, uses chicory. It produces a flavor a friend who used to live in Louisiana pronounces to be "Southern." Frankly, as long as it involves a healthy dose of the fine Central American bean itself, you can always count me in for a cup.

[Ocaliman]

Go to your local Whole Foods or to http://shop.cafedumonde.com/coffee.html and order a can of this...

http://home.pacbell.net/mabjo/cafedumonde1.jpg

Chicory coffee is traditionally a French influenced New Orleans favorite and it by far the best coffee in the world. If you buy this and do not love it, I will personally refund your money (wink, wink)!

Best of all, Cafe du Monde is historically accurate, established in the French Quarter in 1862!

So buy it, toss some in a solid canvas mess bag and enjoy!

Hope this helps.

Beignets and Chicory coffee from Cafe Du Monde just off of Jackson Square... Ahh.. Un de plaisirs simples de lifes.. Beats the crap out of Starbucks any day of the week...

[WoodenNutmeg]

You said it, friend.

[Frenchie]

Ahh.. Un de plaisirs simples de lifes..

Pardon, M'sieur, ''Un des plaisirs simples de vie''. Et je suis d'accord!

[BigDuke634]

Well what I meant was , has anyone actually dried and roasted the roots of the chicory plant? They sell the stuff in the yellow can at wal mart I believe,but my wife is going on the savings kick and won't buy it till we're completely out of our regular stuff. I'm not a big coffee drinker anyway like I said in an earlier post. But I might go out and get some this weekend.

[Rob Weaver]

I think chicory is used more as a stretcher than the main ingredient, even during the war. I think you'll find dried and ground chicory to be extremely bitter.

(Related trivia: In the movie Gettysburg, when Pickett arrives to meet with Longstreet and the other commanders of the July 3rd assault, he's romantically carrying a flower. What is it?)

[WoodenNutmeg]

Rob is correct. While not a main ingredient, still a critical one for certain blends.

[vmescher]

I think chicory is used more as a stretcher than the main ingredient, even during the war. I think you'll find dried and ground chicory to be extremely bitter.

(Related trivia: In the movie Gettysburg, when Pickett arrives to meet with Longstreet and the other commanders of the July 3rd assault, he's romantically carrying a flower. What is it?)

Plain chicory is bitter and it was used as an coffee extender or a flavor enhancer. It was not just a wartime thing but was used before the war and was used as early as 1801 by the Dutch. Some thought it was an adulteration of coffee while others thought that it improved the flavor of coffee.

In Germany, chicory was mixed with ground acorns to make the chicory sweeter and it was used as a coffee substitute.

During the war, there were northern articles on how to use chicory to extend coffee since coffee prices also rose considerably there. Instructions for its used appeared in northern publications.

The blue flower that Longstreet has is a chicory flower and it grows wild along the roadside in July and August.

[WoodenNutmeg]

During the war, there were northern articles on how to use chicory to extend coffee since coffee prices also rose considerably there. Instructions for its used appeared in northern publications.

This is the very reason why Cafe du Monde coffee became existent in 1862.

The stories and facts surrounding product alteration and the influence of Northern ideologue on the New Orleans market(s) in 1862 are of huge pertinence.

[hanktrent]

The stories and facts surrounding product alteration and the influence of Northern ideologue on the New Orleans market(s) in 1862 are of huge pertinence.

Yes, the adulteration of coffee with chicory and other things, was an issue increasing in public awareness. One reason people preferred whole beans was so they could be assured of getting pure coffee, since pre-ground coffee was more easily adulterated, and many people just assumed it was.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[tompritchett]

Well what I meant was , has anyone actually dried and roasted the roots of the chicory plant?

Ages ago in Kentucky, my brother was taught how to do so in scouting. I remember that he made chicory tea for us but it was so long ago that I do not remember anything about the taste.

[vmescher]

"Chock Full o' Nuts" coffee, I believe, uses chicory. It produces a flavor a friend who used to live in Louisiana pronounces to be "Southern."

I was just at the grocery store and checked the cans of "Chock Full o' Nuts" coffee and it contains only 100% coffee with no chicory. It started out as a company in Brooklyn, NY in 1932 and is celebrating it 75th anniversary.

You may be thinking of Louisianne coffee as that has some chicory in it but they don't have it in the stores here.

[Spinster]

Yep, I have dried and roasted the roots. Works better if you dice them up to give a more even roasting.

Certainly an acquired taste--I was never a coffee drinker until I spent a span of time in Western China---where the drink of choice was not tea, but chickory coffee. Since everything had to be boiled anyway, whatever flavor was available to mitigate the taste and appearance of the water was a welcome addition. Community Coffee, Cafe du Monde, and other regional brands provide bends of varying strength.

Hank--thanks for that insight---I was under the impression that folks purchased whole beans only during the period, and that ground coffee wasn't commerically available.

[WoodenNutmeg]

Well, chicory is certainly a better additive to coffee grounds than dirt.

[vmescher]

Yes, the adulteration of coffee with chicory and other things, was an issue increasing in public awareness. One reason people preferred whole beans was so they could be assured of getting pure coffee, since pre-ground coffee was more easily adulterated, and many people just assumed it was.

Hank Trent


In my research on chicory coffee, sometimes the chicory was chopped in pieces resembling coffee beans and the dried pieces were mixed with the green coffee. The customer purchased the whole coffee beans and took them home and roasted the chicory along with the coffee and then ground them together.

Chicory really wasn't considered an adulterant but more of an economy measure or a way to make coffee healthier. As early as 1820 there were extensive articles mentioning the use of chicory and the results of experiments. It became very popular in Germany and France. It was surprising to see the number of extenders and substitutes recommended for coffee and this was years before the CW.

Another way to mix the chicory with the coffee was to purchase the already roasted and ground in packets and add it to the coffee after one ground it at home.

There was a great deal of discussion of adulteration of coffee in London coffee houses and since the coffee was served to the patrons, it was very easy for the owner to cut costs with less than quality coffee. Dickens wrote about this as did other English authors but I didn't find a great deal about it from American authors.

Chicory had been grown commercially in the US in Cook Co., IL since 1860. It was selling for 11 cents per pound in NY in 1864 and coffee was selling for
$ .28/pound in ME.

The main reason that whole green beans were preferred was because that after coffee is roasted the oils are very volatile and oxidize quickly so that the coffee has an off taste of rancidity. Period instructions indicate that the best flavor is right after roasting and the coffee should be made right after grinding.

The Arbuckle Coffee Company was the first to sell pre-roasted whole beans but they were coated with an egg white and sugar mixture which sealed the bean and prevented oxidation. They were also the first to sell, on a large scale commercial basis, pre-ground coffee in one pound bags.

[hanktrent]

Chicory really wasn't considered an adulterant but more of an economy measure or a way to make coffee healthier.

The main reason that whole green beans were preferred was because that after coffee is roasted the oils are very volatile and oxidize quickly so that the coffee has an off taste of rancidity.

I'd argue that chicory could be considered either an adulterant or an economy measure, depending on whether the purchaser was lied to by the seller, but there was a lot of lying going on.

Dr. Hassell of London had just started his crusade against adulterated foods before the war, which didn't really spread to America and reach fever pitch until post-war, but there was already a suspicion about the true ingredients of ground coffee.

From "The Coffee Trade--Its Production and Consumption," Debow's Review, Sept. 1857:

No family should ever purchase ready ground coffee, which is liable to adulteration with chicory, beans, corn, rye, &c. The berries should be bought green, and parched and ground at home, as wanted. The article which has been most largely used for the adulteration of coffee is the chicory root... Its consumption, through aduleration with coffee, in the United States, especially since the advance in the price of coffee, has greatly increased.


And from the same article:

While good Rio coffee sells at 10 1/4 a 11 3/4 cts., and Java at 14 1/2 cts., chicory, roasted and ground, sells at 4 and 5 cts., and in its green and dried state sells at 1 and 2 cts. per pound. Hence the inducement for the perpetration of the fraud on such an immense scale. It has reached such a pitch that we doubt whether there is a coffee roaster or grinder in New York, Boston, or Philadelphia, that does not sell more or less ground coffee mixed with chicory...

We one day met a man driving a vehicle through the streets of New York, offering the "essence of coffee" for sale, done up in small papers, and for which he asked a round price. We asked him to let us examine a package, to which he consented, and which, on examination, we found to be pure chicory. Yet he was retailing this stuff to poor, ignorant people as the "essence of coffee."

From "Peeps Through A Microscope, The Ladies' Repository, June 1860:

You purchase what purports to be genuine ground coffee. In such a case, "if ignorance is bliss," it might be "folly to be wise;" but ignorance is not bliss. The decoction sent up to breakfast is insufferable, and cook is scolded. If Bridget knew that she had been boiling ground peas, beans, oats, dry bones, oak, or mahogany, chicory, and sawdust she might make a good defense; but a microscope is not yet considered--as it ought to be--an essential part of kitchen furniture, and nothing else will expose the villainy of the coffee vender.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[Rob Weaver]

Sorry "Chock Full" didn't pan out. I have to admit that I haven't read the ingredients on the can in years, but it was said to still contain chicory in my childhood (about 30 years ago). Chicory was still added to coffee during the Depression, meaning that a whole new generation acquired that taste then. Vmescher is indeed right; that's a chicory. Pretty little flowers on a stem that's tough and stringy. If you leave it alone, it grows to be about 3 feet high. If you cut the stems, it'll still flower, but close to the ground.