Coffee/Tea Persimmon & Potato Coffee (Substitute)

potato and persimmon coffee
(from The Daily Intelligencer, Atlanta, Georgia, November 8, 1863)

Ingredients:

persimmon seeds​

dried potatoes​

Instructions:

But another important item is, to save the seeds of the persimmons after they have boiled, and you let out the slop, for they are excellent for coffee, rather stronger or rougher than the genuine Rio; hence I mix two parts of dried sweet potatoes to one of persimmon seed. Dr. Buck says this coffee is equal to Java coffee. By the boiling the seeds are rid of all mucilaginous substances, and are just right for coffee or button. If you use them for buttons the washer woman will hardly break them with her battling stick. For coffee they should be parched twice as long as any other substitute; so as to make them tender to the center.​

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Alabama.​

(* "Rio" is South American coffee, usually imported from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)