Chicory coffee

Chicory coffee is a brew made from the roasted, ground taproot of the chicory plant, drunk either on its own as a caffeine-free coffee substitute or, more famously, blended with roasted coffee to stretch and deepen it. Roasting turns the root's stored inulin dark and bitter, giving a hot drink that looks like coffee and carries a comparable roasted, toasty, faintly woody and caramel bitterness, with a distinctive earthy, nutty edge. Chicory contains no caffeine, so a pure chicory brew is a stimulant-free hot drink, while the classic coffee-and-chicory blend — the signature of New Orleans and of French café au lait — is milder and cheaper than straight coffee but still caffeinated.