What Is Coffee With Chicory? Answered

What is coffee with chicory? In short, it’s a drink brewed with chicory root. Dive into our guide to learn everything about this drink and how to make it at home.

Whether you’re looking for a coffee substitute or a way to make your favorite drink even more interesting, you’ve surely come across coffee with chicory. And that’s exactly what the name says – coffee brewed with ground chicory roots.

While it may sound like an avant-garde drink, chicory coffee actually has a rather universally appealing flavor.

I will tell you everything in this article – from the drink’s origins to instructions on making it at home.

If you feel like experimenting with other unique beverages, check out our coffee and orange juice recipe afterward.

Now, let’s dive straight in!

What Is Chicory, Anyway?

Even if you don’t know it by name, I’m sure you’ve seen the chicory plant along roadsides. Cichorium intybus belongs to the dandelion family, and you can see the similarities in looks.

Like a dandelion, it has a tough and hairy stem, but the flowers are blue-purple instead of yellow.

But what’s also true for both plants is that the flowers open in the morning and close at night. So, if you’re driving through at midday, you’ll surely catch a glimpse of radiant blue flowers along the sides of the road.

So, how does this plant end up in a cup? Well, while the plant leaves are commonly added to salads, the root is used for coffee. Of course, it’s not raw – it has to be roasted and ground first.

A Brief History Of Coffee With Chicory

Chicory is native to the Old World (Africa, Asia, and Europe), where it was cultivated many millennia ago. While Ancient Egyptians used it as a medicinal plant, Ancient Greeks and Romans often included chicory in their dishes.

Who was the first to come up with the idea of drinking it? While we can’t pinpoint the first person who had the honor of inventing the drink, we can say who indirectly made that happen. That person is Frederick the Great of Prussia.

Europe, 18th century – everyone’s drinking coffee. So much so that it impacted sales of beer, the original, “much healthier” drink of the German people. Well, the king of Prussia was having none of that foreign vice meddling with the country’s economy. 

So, what he did was ban the coffee. Well, technically, coffee roasters only needed to obtain a license to continue their work. However, unless they were on very friendly terms with Frederick, no one would get approved, so the number of licensed roasters was close to zero.

The king was also determined to keep this ruinous luxury away from the poor. He hired around 400 soldiers to work as sniffers – coffee spies who would roam the town in search of people roasting or brewing coffee without a permit.

At this point, people discovered that chicory root works as a decent alternative to their favorite drink. A century later, Napoleon initiated the Continental System, an embargo against the British Empire. Unfortunately, coffee was one of the many things the French were deprived of.

Of course, it didn’t take them long to start using chicory as a substitute. Even after the embargo was lifted in 1814, the people of France continued adding chicory root to their regular coffee. This practice also spread to French colonies, where it was introduced.

During the American Civil War, when coffee importation to New Orleans was blocked, many descendants of French colonists revived the practice of using chicory. The locals could extend the region’s limited coffee supply by mixing it with coffee beans.

After the war, the tradition of combining coffee and chicory never disappeared in Louisiana, especially New Orleans. Today, chicory coffee is a part of the region’s cultural identity.

What Does Coffee With Chicory Taste Like?

As we already established, chicory root goes into your cup of coffee. Raw chicory root is rather bitter, but it must be roasted first, which mellows down the astringent notes so that other flavors can shine.

The roasted chicory root flavor is nutty and earthy, with a slight sweetness and a hint of licorice. Generally, the flavor profile is similar to coffee taste, which is why the two go so well together.

The main distinction between coffee and chicory is that the latter doesn’t have caffeine and is much less acidic.

But when you mix the two, you get a cup of java with a more herbal, nutty undertone, slight bitterness, and a long-lasting aftertaste.

How To Make Chicory Coffee

First things first, where to get chicory? You can buy ground chicory at health food stores and online carriers. Alternatively, you can grind the chicory roots yourself, which you can get at your local grocery store or even harvest in the wild.

To grind chicory root, you can use a coffee grinder. If you don’t already own a grinder, here are our recommendations for the best budget coffee grinder.

Here’s how you can make ground chicory:

1. Rinse the chicory roots until they’re completely clean from dirt and dust. 
2. Let the roots dry out in the sun. Alternatively, you can dry them manually with a kitchen towel.
3. With a sharp chef’s knife, mince the chicory roots into tiny, 1-inch cubes.
4. Place the cubes onto a baking sheet, then bake in the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
5. After a while, the roots should get a nice golden brown color, which is your cue to take them out of the oven. Let them cool completely.
6. Add chicory cubes to your coffee grinder and select the grind size suitable for your brewing method.

So, which brewing method should you use? That’s really up to you. Due to both ingredients having a similar flavor profile, any brewing method will bring out the prominent undertones.

But everyone has their preferred coffee maker, and I lean towards the French press. This method makes coffee rich and full-bodied, allowing you to taste every flavor note of the drink.

For this brewing method, you’ll need:

• 3 tablespoons coffee grounds
• 1 tablespoon ground chicory
• 12 ounces water

Obviously, both coffee and chicory need to be ground to the suitable grind size for the French press, which is coarse. The particles should be the same size as sea salt.

Here’s how to make this delicious beverage, step by step:

1. Add ground coffee and chicory to the French press. 
2. Let the water boil, then pour a small amount into the brewer. Stir the grounds and let them sit for about half a minute.
3. Add the rest of the water into the French press.
4. Place the lid onto the brewer, but don’t press the plunger just yet. Allow the coffee grounds to steep for about three and a half minutes.
5. When the set time has passed, press the plunger all the way down to filter the grounds from the coffee.

And there you have it. If you add some scalded (not steamed) milk to the cup, you get New Orleans-style cafe au lait.

Nutritional Information And Health Aspects Of Chicory Coffee

As you probably know, coffee has practically no calories. But how about chicory? Well, one raw chicory root is roughly 60 grams (which is two ounces), and it contains:

• 43 calories
• 0.8 grams protein
• 10.5 grams carbs

Now, since you’re only using about one tablespoon of ground chicory per cup, that roughly translates to 5 grams. So when you divide all of these numbers by 12, it turns out that you shouldn’t be bothered with the caloric value of chicory either.

Plus, since chicory is naturally caffeine-free, you don’t have to worry about getting jitters from adding it to your coffee.

There are many health benefits of chicory. First, it contains inulin fiber, which acts as a prebiotic. It promotes the growth of beneficial bacteria involved in carbohydrate metabolism.

This helps your body in numerous ways. Since it’s a fiber, it goes through the body undigested, thus promoting bowel movement and reducing constipation. It also promotes the growth of healthy bacteria that feed on carbs, thus balancing out your blood sugar levels.

With that being said, if you’re allergic to daisies, ragweed, chrysanthemums, or any other plant in the Asteraceae/Compositae family, you might want to stay away from chicory. There’s a chance you might be allergic to it as well.

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