Herbal Coffee Substitutes

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Herbal coffee substitutes are roasted, ground, and brewed just like coffee.

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About a thousand years ago, some Arabs trading on the East African coast spotted local inhabitants chewing a pemmican-like mixture of fat and herbs. Curious about the substance, they purchased some. The peanut-size bean turned out to be just the thing for keeping Arab sailors alert when on watch. The Arabs named it qahwah, meaning “keeps awake.” This seed of Coffea arabica, an Ethiopian shrub of the madder family, would go on to ­become one of the most valuable herbs on Earth. Coffee, the beverage brewed from the bean, now starts the day for millions of addicts around the world.

According to scientific research, caffeine, the xanthine alkaloid that is coffee’s principal active ingredient, stimulates the nervous system and can cause nervousness, irritability, anxiety, insomnia, and disturbances in heart rate and rhythm; it may also influence blood pressure, coronary circulation, and the secretion of gastric acids. These effects, coupled with coffee’s high price, have spurred herbalists to seek healthful, cheaper alternatives.

The most successful alternatives to coffee combine several ingredients to achieve a complex flavor. Coffee substitutes don’t taste exactly like real coffee but may be mixed with it to extend it and reduce the caffeine content or they may be blended into a satisfying drink that contains no C. arabica at all.

Read about alternate flavors yaupon and yerba maté. 

Root Brews

The roots of several familiar plants may be washed, sliced or chopped, and dried for use as a coffee substitute. When slow-roasted at 300°F until crisp and dark brown, they are ready to be ground and infused like genuine coffee.

A bitter blend of chicory (Cichorium intybus) and real coffee complements the spicy food that made New Orleans famous. Residents eschew the mild brew sold to tourists in favor of mixtures in which chicory’s acrid bite is the dominant flavor. To preserve freshness and flavor, some aficionados grind their own roasted chicory roots just before brewing.

Chicory emigrated from the Old World to colonial gardens as a medicinal and culinary crop. Although it is now a common weed at roadsides across North America, most of the chicory used in commercial coffee blends comes from varieties specially bred for coffee duty and raised in Europe. Roots gathered from roadsides may contain toxic substances from automobile exhausts or other sources.

Chicory’s sky blue blossoms, pinned to wiry stems that rise from a rosette of dandelion-like leaves, decorate the landscape in midsummer. Dig the roots before or after the plant has flowered to minimize bitterness. Because chicory doesn’t reseed aggressively, foragers should dig no more than a quarter of the plants in a given colony. Better yet, collect some seeds during September and October and plant them in the garden, where they delight the eye.

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