Coffee with chicory is a blend that originated from France during the Napoleonic era when coffee was scarce. It became popular in New Orleans during the American Civil War when coffee supplies were cut off. The blend has a lower level of caffeine and is still popular today for its robust flavor.
Coffee with chicory is a blend of ordinary coffee beans mixed with the dried and ground root of some variety of the chicory plant. Its taste tends to be bitter, more like certain very dark roasted coffee beans. This drink has become associated with the city of New Orleans and with Cajun and, to a lesser extent, Southern cuisine in general. This blend may have health benefits for some coffee drinkers, as it is effectively a low caffeine coffee.
Chicory has been used to provide flavor in cooking for many centuries, especially in the Mediterranean. It was added to coffee periodically when coffee supplies were scarce and expensive. Chicory root is fairly common and easy to grow, although it doesn’t produce the same stimulating effect as coffee since it lacks caffeine. During the Napoleonic era, when France was cut off from world trade by the British fleet, mixing coffee with chicory was widely used as a way to make small supplies of coffee last longer.
The American Civil War led to a large increase in the consumption of coffee with chicory. The Union enjoyed naval dominance during the war and was able to effectively blockade major Confederate ports. This blockade meant that the Confederacy was largely cut off from coffee supplies and was forced to turn to local substitutes to stretch or replace scarce and expensive supplies. Soldiers’ accounts of the Civil War often describe drinking coffee with chicory, and the practice was equally common in areas away from the fighting.
New Orleanians, who had inherited something of the French obsession with coffee, drank a lot of coffee in the years before the Civil War, a practice that was made easier and less expensive by the city’s role as a major port. The outbreak of hostilities did not cause New Orleans residents to give up coffee, but it did force them to switch to coffee with chicory and sometimes chicory with a dash of coffee. This practice led many people to develop a taste for the concoction, and it has remained popular to this day. Café du Mond in New Orleans remains famous for its blend of chicory and coffee.
By mixing coffee and chicory, you get a drink that provides a robust coffee flavor but with a lower level of caffeine. Although the blend was originally a product of necessity, the reduced level of caffeine has led some to consider it a useful substitute for full-strength coffee for people wishing to limit their caffeine intake. Most people, however, consume coffee with chicory for its robust flavor and not for its health benefits.
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