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wulf wrote:I wonder if it's a similar approach for making 'chicory coffee'? I love the flavour of that even though I understand it was only done as a stop gap in periods when real coffee was unavailable.Wulf

Coffee with chicory is a specialty in New Orleans, Louisiana. I'm not really a coffee drinker but in my hometown people love it.
http://www.cafedumonde.com/coffee.html

Ooh, now I want dandelion coffee. Used to drink that as a student because the local health store sold the roasted root. Never rated the instant stuff though... sweet and watery.

albert onglebod wrote:Just seen the syrup thread.
Coincidentally I have been making Dandelion coffee.
Dig up loads of dandelions and cut off the roots to use.
Wash them and dry them then put them in the oven to roast. I did it on 200 degrees c but that might have been a little hot .
When they are brittle and dark brown,grind them up to powder.
Put in a coffee percolator or cafatierre and make coffee.
About a teaspoon per cups worth.
It tastes very like (but not exactly the same as)coffee and even smells like it.

A few tips.

The best roots to use are the side roots; using the older main root can make the coffee overly bitter.

Before roasting the roots, dry them first - pop them in the oven overnight at around 70-80C. The roots should be brittle but not brown.

Then roast them for about 20 minutes at about 200C until they are chocolate brown all the way through. You may have to remove thinner roots earlier to prevent them blackening.

Then grind. You can do chicory in much the same way, but it's much harder to get a consistent coffee from it.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of dandelion coffee but dandelion wine, dandelion jelly and steamed dandelion leaves with crispy bacon and vinaigrette are much more to my taste.

dandelion jelly?

hedgewizard wrote:dandelion jelly?

Yep, absolutely delicious spread on fresh bread but you need a huge amount of dandelions as you only use the yellow part of the blossoms.

Hmm. I'll add this to the list of stuff I want to make... one day. For now I'd settle for a cup of tea!

thanks for the recipe. I keep low caffeine cos of depression, so this is a great thing for me- sick of paying holland and barret prices for the stuff!!

I've found that natural nappy liners make great coffee filters... had a load left over form when I tried natural nappies for a week for my local paper.

on a similar theme.....
Was told that couch grass can be used as a coffee too in the same way as dandelions.
Finally a use for that persistant weed, and no weed killers or such needed to get rid of it too as you end up seeing it as a resource instead of a scourge lol

Chris and Helen

I missed the dandelion jelly bit... Stoneyyyyyy?? Do you have a recipe for this please?? We'll have loads of dandys next year

I'm going to be making use of the jelly recipe next year too, my mate's garden has no actual grass in it. it's all dandelions.