What is chicory and why does Martha Stewart put it in her coffee?

Question

What is chicory and why does Martha Stewart put it in her coffee?

Answer 1

Chicory is the root of a flower that gets dried and baked and then ground up.  It has been used at times as a replacement for coffee when coffee was not available or was very expensive, and in the South, especially New Orleans, they would add chicory to coffee to extend it.  Some people really like the way it tastes, so they still add it into their coffee.  Martha Stewart must be one of those people.  I think it tastes okay ( I used to work at a coffee shop where we sold it), but I prefer to have just regular coffee.

Answer 2

It's not added to coffee, it is the coffee.

Chicory is the root of the belgian endive, it's used as a cheaper substitute for coffee.

Answer 3

If you go to New Olrean and have coffee and beignets at Cafe du Mode they make there cafe au lait with coffee and chicory. As said it is a wild root and has been used for centurys as a drink, ( used as far back as the middle ages) long before coffee was first discovered/or used, it adds a mellow taste to coffee, taking some of the edge of it and is something that is popular in the US and in some grocery stores there is a bottle in the coffee aisle called "Camps Coffee" which is a chicory extract.

Nestle used to make a brand called "Encore", not popular in North America anymore, but when I worked in Asia, there they have it made in India by Nestles Asian division, we used it for baking as a coffee flavouring.

Answer 4

Chickory is a ground root that is very similar to coffee, and in early america it was used to make coffee as opposed to the bean of today. Try it, its not bad....you can buy it at gourmet stores....