Roasted chicory root

Chicorée torréfiée

What it is

Napoleon's continental blockade cut France off from coffee after 1806 and roasted chicory taproot filled the pot; when the ships came back the French kept it anyway, and it never left the north. New Orleans acquired it the same way, from the Union blockade of 1861, and still cuts its coffee with it.

In the kitchen

It has no caffeine and more body than coffee: cut the ground coffee with 15 to 30 percent chicory and the cup thickens and sweetens. Above that it turns to burnt caramel and wood, and it over-extracts fast, so pull it shorter than you would a straight coffee.

Goes with

Cassonade Cream Dark chocolate Cassia Vergeoise Date syrup (silan)

Same species

Barbe de capucin Castelfranco chicory Belgian endive Escarole Frisée Puntarelle

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