coffee subsitute

[cjc]

I know that basicly EVERY sodier in the civil war drank coffee. I think coffee is the worst thing i'v ever drank! is there anything else that would work? are there any other drinks that are at least half way authentic ?

[Ross L. Lamoreaux]

Yep, water. Thats your most authentic and easy to obtain beverage. There is also to lesser degrees shrub, tea, and spirits

[TheQM]

Water? Ross, you've got to be kidding. Do you have any idea of the things fish do in water?

[Boyd Miles]

Ross hit it dead center, water. Canteen or cup it is the most correct thing you can drink.

[mmescher]

As far as coffee substitutes are concerned, do you portray Union or Confederate.

If Union, you would have had the real thing available. But we have also found from a comparison of store ledgers from Maine and Virginia, the Yankees in Maine drank a lot more tea than the Virginians. The dates of the Viirginia ledger was just before the war so the blockade was not a factor.

If you portray a Confederate, you could use any of a wide variety of coffee substitutes. In my wife's booklet, Making Do, numerous coffee substitutes are discussed. My personal favorite is sweet potatoes, cut in small cubes and dried on low heat until they are very hard and then ground. They make a beverage that substitutes very well for the flavor of coffee but doesn't have the caffeine. One of our friends actually put it in his office coffee maker without telling his co-workers and they actually liked the stuff.

And then, as other posters have already noted, there is always water.

[Craig L Barry]

Actually peanuts make a very decent coffee substitute. Being a legume (bean) to start with, when roasted brown and
ground up, they produce a drink not unlike unsweetened cocoa (also a bean). Beats the pants off chicory. Reminds me
of a joke grocers used to tell during the Civil War:

A customer walks into a restaurant in New Orleans and orders a cup of chicory. After tasting it he asks the waiter if he
has any more chicory in the place. "Why yes" says the waiter, "we have a big urn of it in the kitchen." "Well" says the
patron, "bring all of it out here to my table." When the waiter returns with the urn the customer says, "Excellent, now
go make me a cup of coffee."

[hanktrent]

Actually peanuts make a very decent coffee substitute. Being a legume (bean) to start with, when roasted brown and
ground up, they produce a drink not unlike unsweetened cocoa (also a bean).

The cocoa bean is not a legume, so the logic makes no sense. It's only a "bean" in the sense that it looks like a bean. So there's no underlying connection between cocoa beans and peanuts, any more than there is between cocoa beans, coffee beans and jelly beans, which also are all called beans because they look like beans but are not legumes.

The fact that roasted peanuts make a substitute something like hot chocolate was noted in the period, but is coincidence.

Interestingly, the cocoa bean is not a “bean” or any type of legume, rather it is actually the seed of the fruit of the cocoa tree.
http://www.hersheys.com/nutrition-pr...nutrition.aspx

Hank Trent
hanktrent@gmail.com

[lincolnsguard]

In Wilbur Fisks Book, "Hard Marching Every Day," he refers at least one place for sure of his Regiment, the 2nd Vermont being issued tea. In Blocks.

[Cadet]

I've heard of reports of okra seeds being used as a substitute. Can't image what that would taste like, though. I've been meaning to try it some time, but I keep eating the okra from my garden before I have a chance to dry out the seeds.

[FloridaHoosier]

The original poster is looking for alternatives to coffee, not ersatz or coffee substitutes