Love your morning cup of Joe, but feel the need for a caffeine free alternative? Well, you’re in luck! because it’s surprisingly easy to grow your own ‘coffee’ (and you can often forage for it too).
in this week’s episode Ben shows us exactly how to grow, roast and blend your own warming hug-in-the-mouth brew, that won’t give you the jitters or keep you awake trying to count sheep!
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27 Comments
I grew up drinking chicory and dandelion! Considering the effect climate change is having on coffee bean growing regions I think the more alternatives we have the better!
At my family cabin up in the Puget Sound of Washington State, I frequently saw what I identified as Chickory! Now I'm eager to harvest some – I'll have to bring my weed pulling fork with me though!!!
7:10 "Dandelion roots are small scraggly things". Really? Mine all seem to be over a foot long, with smaller side roots branching out from a main root about 2" diameter. A good size for a carrot or parsnip. And of course, when you pick one, you leave several bits in the soil, so you get another six plants…….
What an interesting video! Thanks for showing the process from start to finish and comparing chicory and dandelion coffees.
i made 'coffee' a month ago using honey locust beans, it tastes very nice, rich, a little sweet, maybe somewhat like chickory.
most people don't know about honey locust beans, so, you can probably still find a bunch under any decent sized honey locust tree.
takes a bit of effort to remove the beans from the pods, roast and grind them, but worth it, imho.
Cichorium intybus, perfect pronuntiation. You are ready for latin!
Chicory.takes like mud to me, first time I drank it I was like "what is this"
De-caf coffee is much better in my mind.
Chicory is very common in the low country (Charleston SC) and you're right not a bad substitute for coffee. Although the dandelion, I've not tried, but it sounds yummy. Thanks for sharing
Nothing matches the true taste of coffee.
Thanks for trying this! I thought about it, but did not dare. Since you tasted it first, I can give it a go. 💜
Dandelions are amazing. Although considered a loathsome weed, it's seems to be one of the useful plants I can imagine. You can make wine with it, and all sorts of things.
Thanks for the how to. Chicory grows wild all over the place in my yard. No way I'm planting it on purpose. May as well do something constructive with it, as I can't do caffeine. I love coffee, but I just can't drink it. Half a cup of coffee, and you're scraping me off the ceiling with a spatula. Decafs just taste weird. Currently, I've been drinking a brew, brand name Rasa, that uses roast chicory and dandelion root, but it's way expensive. My hubs, who loathes coffee, actually drinks Rasa daily, but if I can make something like it myself, I'll save some money on it.
How long was it on the dehydrator for, and what tempurature.
what if you mixed them?
Hi Ben, what make is your dehydrator? It looks a good (smallish) size and I think rectangular trays are a better use of space than round ones. I assume you sourced it in the UK …?
I have made dandelion "coffee" before. Indeed theres some roots in the fridge waiting to be converted, but i cant help feeling that all the effort and energy is worth the amount you get. Nice experiment though.
Ladies, a word of caution on Chikory. Chikory can encourage menstruation as it somehow affects our hormones.
Brilliant! I'm going to have a go at this.
I'm excited to harvest my dandelions next year and grow my own chicory now. Thank you! What is the coffee contraption you were using? I've never seen anything like it.
Wow! I want to try this dandelion coffee and taste test it myself. Who knows if I will like it? Thank you for sharing this experiment! That is very interesting! ❤️
Ben my dear friend & gardening consultant:
As you know that's WW2 fake coffee.
AND there is no caffeine in it.
So you're better off growing real tea as you said in one of your replies to me.
However I will grow a real coffee tree for my summer & autumn backyard garden in a 5 gal bucket with a handle & simply bring it indoors during winter.
I have 2 beautiful cathedral windows positioned like an L in my entry foyer of my new house (133 sq-meters tiny) facing SE where it will become a stunningly beautiful indoor tree !!
The other cathedral window facing south in the study will get an avocado tree !!
Your gardening videos are truly inspiring !!
As for the coffee fruits & beans they do contain real caffeine. A great source of it besides cola nuts & tea.
I will simply pulverize the beans after roasting them on my stovetop in a big stainless steel cooking pot that I use for frying meats & veggies as well !!
I have an old fashioned pioneer coffee pot already.
Thank you !!
I bet it was pharmacuticals that successfully ingrained the belief of health plants being weeds.
They belong TOGETHER, to taste more like the real thing!
(Mix about 50/50)
Chickory roots easily grow to 3 or 4' in length (90-120cm) DON'T break them off as short as you did, hahaha, you'll waist 70 or 80%
In Germany this (the combi of both roots) used to be known as kid's coffee (no caffeine)
Dandelion is good for a liver detox and Chickory is good for stomach upsets, and both are high in potassium, a nutrient almost nobody gets sufficient quantities of from food.
Enjoy, ssslurrrrp 😁
Thanks so much. I've bought radicchio seeds to grow for the first time. Are they the same, or can I use those roots as well?
Very cool!
I Looooooovvvvvveeeee my coffee…but with the price of it (like everything else) going up, it’s so great to know that I’ve got potential coffee growing in my own backyard!!!
Thank you again for a great video!!
The French name for Dandelion has always amused me because of it's bluntness: 'Pissenlit', which alludes to the plant's diuretic properties – 'piss-a-bed'. You would have to eat several kilos of the plant to have any serious effect, though.
I do like eating Dandelions – they're quite refreshingly bitter, and great mixed in with other salad leaves. My favourite way of eating them, is the French dish, 'Pissenlit au Lard' which is simply bacon, fried quite crisp, and served over shredded Dandelion leaves (remove the mid ribs from the leaves), and is dressed with the fat and scrapings from the bacon pan. It's simple, and stupidly good. Not every day, though. Once a month, in spring and summer, does me fine.