History Confederate Coffee

[13 IL Cav & 64 GA Inf]

Does anyone know what concoctions the Confederates used to make substitutes for "COFFEE?" I read somewhere a long time back that they tried making "coffee" from corn. Because of the blockade, coffee became practically nonexistent in the South. We have read stories about Confederate soldiers on picket duty trading tobacco to Union soldiers for coffee. What concoctions did the Rebel soldiers try as coffee substitutes?

 

[Dan Kohli]

The YouTube channel Tasting History with Max Miller covered one of these recipes. It was sent to General Pickett by his wife if I remember correctly.

Otherwise I'm not to knowledgeable on the subject. I'll look through one of the period cookbook that I have on hand for other recipes.

 

[Sowbelly and Hardtack]

Civil War Era Blockade Coffee Recipe

Try a taste of human ingenuity with this Civil War Era coffee substitute recipe.

www.worldturndupsidedown.com

"The citizens of the south craving coffee made do with using cornmeal, rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes, chicory, cotton seeds, dandelion, okra, and even acorns. (1) Universally people complained of the lack of real coffee and disappointment in the substitutions. Kate Cummings, a Confederate nurse, documented her dismay at the coffee substitutes until she tried sweet potatoes at a friend's house in 1862: "At Mrs. Houghton's We had sweet potatoes as a substitute for coffee, and it was very nice. Mrs. Houghton informed us that she did not intend to use any other kind while the war lasted."

Even in the North, coffee prices soared during the war years and publications printed recipes for coffee substitutes, the most common being, chicory, rye, barley, pea, carrot, dandelion root, and chestnut as well as sweet potato."

 

[Sowbelly and Hardtack]

From Chicory to Cigar Stumps: Confederate Coffee Alternatives in the Civil War - Emerging Civil War

In just about any firsthand account of the Civil War, it’s striking how heavily coffee features in the day to day lives of soldiers. Like many of us today, both Union and Confederate troops found coffee to be absolutely essential as a stimulant, a source of warmth and comfort, and a ritual to...

emergingcivilwar.com

 

[Sowbelly and Hardtack]

Confederate Coffee Substitutes | Foods & Recipes

ALBANY [GA.] PATRIOT, December 12, 1861, p. 2, c. 3 A Good Substitute for Coffee--At the present time, when coffee is selling at a dollar a pound the following suggestion from a correspondent of a Southern paper, is worth trying: Many worthless substitutes for coffee have been named. The acorn...

civilwartalk.com

 

[Sowbelly and Hardtack]

Authentic - Substitute Coffees During The Civil War | Foods & Recipes

As I have posted before, coffee by far was the most popular beverage in the North and the South. It was especially loved by soldiers. The North did not run out of coffee during the war but in the South it became nonexistent. Southerners had many substitutes for coffee which included chicory...

civilwartalk.com

 

[Sowbelly and Hardtack]

Confederate coffee and the effect of the blockade | Foods & Recipes

"During the war, speculators bought up all the coffee for Northern armies in order to charge the U.S. government a high price, but agents in England purchased ship-loads and prevented the action. A Southern woman described the shock in home life when President Lincoln blockaded Confederate...

civilwartalk.com

 

[SWS]

I've always loved this memory shared by Gen. J.B. Gordon in his memoir:

At my headquarters on that Christmas day [1864] there was unusual merrymaking. Mrs. Gordon, on leaving home four years before, had placed in her little army-trunk a small package of excellent coffee, and had used it only on very special occasions--"to celebrate," as she said, "our victories in the first years, and to sustain us in defeat at the last." When I asked her, on the morning of December 25, 1864, what we could do for a Christmas celebration, she replied, "I can give you some of that coffee which I brought from home." She could scarcely have made an announcement more grateful to a hungry Confederate. Coffee -- genuine coffee! The aroma of it filled my official family with epicurean enthusiasm before a cup was passed from the boiling pot. If every man of us was not intoxicated by that indulgence after long and enforced abstinence, the hilarity of the party was misleading.

 

[CDGillum]

Does anyone know what concoctions the Confederates used to make substitutes for "COFFEE?" I read somewhere a long time back that they tried making "coffee" from corn. Because of the blockade, coffee became practically nonexistent in the South. We have read stories about Confederate soldiers on picket duty trading tobacco to Union soldiers for coffee. What concoctions did the Rebel soldiers try as coffee substitutes?

I ran across this in this book.

 

[13 IL Cav & 64 GA Inf]

I ran across this in this book.

View attachment 512626

View attachment 512627

View attachment 512628Burnt Rye - YUK! Thanks.

 

[Pollaco]

Okra but I don't recall the recipe.I don't know if the whole pod is used or just the seeds? Acorns, we had a great crop of acorns several years ago. I had intended to try a "coffee recipe" but my wife threw out the acorns. Carol said to "get them out of her freezer."

 

[13 IL Cav & 64 GA Inf]

Okra but I don't recall the recipe.I don't know if the whole pod is used or just the seeds? Acorns, we had a great crop of acorns several years ago. I had intended to try a "coffee recipe" but my wife threw out the acorns. Carol said to "get them out of her freezer."

Thanks Polloco - this is beginning to taste Worse and Worse! Okra is good, but what would okra coffee taste like? Acorns - I don't have any idea what they would taste like, but have heard that when hungry, explorers would cook them and eat them.

 

[13 IL Cav & 64 GA Inf]

Thanks Polloco - this is beginning to taste Worse and Worse! Okra is good, but what would okra coffee taste like? Acorns - I don't have any idea what they would taste like, but have heard that when hungry, explorers would cook them and eat them.

Uncooked acorns reportedly gave them diarrhea.

 

[Pollaco]

The flavor probably came close to being matched but the caffeine was sorely lacking.

 

[SWS]

From D.S. Freeman's bio -- Lee at the Cox home (Clover Hill) on 3 April 1865:

Miss Kate had been assigned to sit by Longstreet and to help him cut his food, for he was still unable to use his right arm; but when dinner was announced Lee insisted that she stay by his side. As coffee was passed at the close of the meal, Lee put cream in his.

"General Lee," said the vivacious Miss Kate, "do you take cream in your after-dinner coffee?"

The weary soldier smiled. "I have not taken coffee for so long that I would not dare to take it in its original strength." Kate understood this better when one of the staff confided to her that Lee sent all his coffee to the hospitals...

 

[13 IL Cav & 64 GA Inf]

From D.S. Freeman's bio -- Lee at the Cox home (Clover Hill) on 3 April 1865:

Miss Kate had been assigned to sit by Longstreet and to help him cut his food, for he was still unable to use his right arm; but when dinner was announced Lee insisted that she stay by his side. As coffee was passed at the close of the meal, Lee put cream in his.

"General Lee," said the vivacious Miss Kate, "do you take cream in your after-dinner coffee?"

The weary soldier smiled. "I have not taken coffee for so long that I would not dare to take it in its original strength." Kate understood this better when one of the staff confided to her that Lee sent all his coffee to the hospitals...

Lee was indeed a special human being.

 

[nc native]

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/hist... source of energy,you can hold” your position.

Here's an interesting article that explains why the Union for the most part got their coffee during the Civil War while the Confederates had to make do with substitutes or do without.

 

[Pollaco]

It was no secret that the Union had a "secret weapon" and they knew it.

 

[Sowbelly and Hardtack]

Thanks Polloco - this is beginning to taste Worse and Worse! Okra is good, but what would okra coffee taste like? Acorns - I don't have any idea what they would taste like, but have heard that when hungry, explorers would cook them and eat them.

Coffee/Tea - Okra Coffee (Substitute) | Receipts of the Blue & Gray

(from the Georgia Journal and Messenger of Macon, Georgia, October 16, 1861) Ingredients: dry okra seeds Instructions: (One of three "Recipes for the Times.") I would also add something of my experience in domestic coffee, being desirous of contributing my little mite to aid the people of...

civilwartalk.com

 

[13 IL Cav & 64 GA Inf]

Coffee/Tea - Okra Coffee (Substitute) | Receipts of the Blue & Gray

(from the Georgia Journal and Messenger of Macon, Georgia, October 16, 1861) Ingredients: dry okra seeds Instructions: (One of three "Recipes for the Times.") I would also add something of my experience in domestic coffee, being desirous of contributing my little mite to aid the people of...

civilwartalk.com

The one that includes Cigar Stumps trumps all the rest so far. Thanks.