Coffee substitute


Coffee substitutes are non-coffee products, usually without caffeine, that are used to imitate coffee. Coffee substitutes can be used for medical, economic and religious reasons, or simply because coffee is not readily available. Roasted grain beverages are common substitutes for coffee.
In World War II, acorns were used to make coffee, as were roasted chicory and grain. During the American Civil War coffee was also scarce in the South:
Coffee substitutes are sometimes used in preparing foods served to children or to people who avoid caffeine, or in the belief that they are healthier than coffee. For religious reasons, members of churches such as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the Seventh-day Adventist Church, refrain from drinking coffee, but not all hot drinks; some may drink a substitute.
Some Asian culinary traditions include beverages made from roasted grain instead of roasted coffee beans ; these do not substitute for coffee but fill a similar niche as a hot aromatic drink.

Ingredients

Grain coffee and other substitutes can be made by roasting or decocting various organic substances.
Some ingredients used include almond, acorn, asparagus, malted barley, beechnut, beetroot, carrot, chicory root, corn, soybeans, cottonseed, dandelion root, fig, roasted garbanzo beans, lupinus, boiled-down molasses, okra seed, pea, persimmon seed, potato peel, rye, sassafras pits, sweet potato, wheat bran.

History

The Native American people of what is now the Southeastern United States brewed a ceremonial drink containing caffeine, "asi", or the "black drink", from the roasted leaves and stems of Ilex vomitoria. European colonists adopted this beverage as a coffee-substitute, which they called "cassina".
In Quebec, the seeds of the black locust were historically used as a coffee substitute, before the stem borer decimated populations of the tree.
A coffee substitute from ground, roasted chickpeas was mentioned by a German writer in 1793.
Dandelion coffee is attested as early as the 1830s in North America.
The drink brewed from ground, roasted chicory root has no caffeine, but is dark and tastes much like coffee. It was used as a medicinal tea before coffee was introduced to Europe. Use of chicory as a coffee substitute became widespread in France early in the 19th century due to coffee shortages resulting from the Continental Blockade. It was used during the American Civil War in Louisiana, and remains popular in New Orleans. Chicory mixed with coffee is also popular in South India, and is known as Indian filter coffee.
Postum is an instant type of coffee substitute made from roasted wheat bran, wheat and molasses. It reached its height of popularity in the United States during World War II when coffee was sharply rationed.

Examples

Coffee substitutes may be powder, which dissolves in hot water; grounds, which are brewed like coffee; or grains, left whole to be boiled and steeped like tea.