Well, I can say that I am not much of a coffee drinker but please allow me to offer a substitute; peanut coffee. The 16th Virginia used peanuts as a coffee substitute at Military Through the Ages back in MArch and it went over very well.

First you need to shell the peanuts and then roast them till they're as dark and burnt like coffee -- they will have the consistancy of a roasted coffee bean. I found that both raw and roast peanuts work very well. Once roasted ground and use just like you would coffee. It does taste a bit like coffee, but, it may take a bit to get use to the hint of peanut taste and smell that remains.

Hope this helps,
Vincent Petty

That stuff sounds pretty good! We'll surely have to try it, having a fondness for p-nut butter etc.. Do you roast the goobers in the oven, or in a bucket over the fire? Apparantly the US Army was initially issued green coffee to roast in the field, but they had so much trouble doing so without burning it that the Commisary eventually capitulated & had it pre-roasted.

You've no doubt heard of the serious peanut-allergy suffered by a few individuals; althought fortunately rare, these folks can go into life-threatening anyphilactic shock at the slightest contact with peanut products - even the smell is apt to set them off. I'd be a little careful to let pards & bystanders alike know what's cookin', just in case.

First try chicory, then if you want to get bolder then try coffee from parched sweet potatoes and it is not bad.
After the potato cubes have dried (I used a warm oven instead of a
dehydrator), you must them parch or brown them. The first time, I did not
get the brown enough and the brew was weak, but the next time, I browned
them the color of coffee. I ground them in a period coffee grinder and
brewed the coffee. It's not "real coffee" but it's not bad, and the sugar
in the sweet potatoes carmelized and sweetend the brew without adding sugar.
I did not add any real coffee to my mixtures, since I wanted to try them alone.

I have also made coffee from parched corn, parched peanuts, chicory, parched
okra seeds, and roasted dandelion root. I will be making more this spring
from rye, wheat, english peas, field peas, and beets, and in the fall from
parched acorns. I have also seen recipes for using cotton seeds, so I am
trying to locate some cotton seeds to try.

While none of the substitutes have caffeine, or taste exactly like coffee,
some are not bad. I am beginning to think that if the beverage was hot and
brown, they would consider it a coffee substitute. Even in the years before
the war, there were many coffee substitutes menioned in period publications.
They were recognizing that too much coffee was not good, and were trying to
get people to try other things.

Huck

I have read of several references to scortched corn meal as a coffee substatute by veterans. I have also heard of slaves using this as a coffee substatute also.

Rich

John B. Jones in his book "Diary of a Rebel War Clerk" states that the civilians were also using this as a coffee substitute. He documents the availability of food stuffs and household goods, clothing etc. and frequently tells about what he and his family and associates have for meals. Roasted corn meal was used as coffee. Goodness knows what it tasted like. Might be something to try sometime.

Yer pard,
Duke
David Culberson

It doesn't matter so much what you make your coffee out of as long as you drink a beverage made with BOILED water. My theory is that a huge number of coffee drinkers survived the war because they unknowingly killed the germs in the water that they boiled to prepare coffee. Bad water consumed by non-coffee drinkers surely killed several times what the lead in the war killed.

Perfesser