Coffee substitute
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Coffee substitutes are non-coffea products, usually without caffeine, used to substitute coffee while preserving its taste. The main reasons for making coffee substitutes are medical and economic. In World War II, acorns were used to make coffee, however it tasted foul, became scarce. In the American Civil War there was a similar story -
"For the stimulating property to which both tea and coffee owe their chief value, there is unfortunately no substitute; the best we can do is to dilute the little stocks which still remain, and cheat the palate, if we cannot deceive the nerves." The Southern Banner, 1865]
[edit] Ingredients
Grain coffee and other substitutes can be made by roasting or decocting various organic substances.
Some ingredients used include: almond, acorn, asparagus, barley and malt, beech nut, beetroot, carrot, chicory root, corn, cotton seed, dandelion root, fig, boiled-down molasses, okra seed, pea, persimmon seed, potato peel[1], rye, sassafras nut, sweet potato.
Chicory has been sold commercially on a large scale since around 1970, and has become a mainstream product but was widely used during the American Civil War on both sides.
