Why Chicory Coffee in New Orleans? The Real Story

Why does New Orleans drink chicory coffee? The habit came from France, where roasted chicory root was mixed into coffee in the 1800s, and it stuck here because the city was French in its tastes long after it stopped being French on paper. The popular story that it all started during a Civil War blockade is part of the picture, but historians aren't sure it's the whole thing.

Either way, it's why coffee here tastes a little darker and a little bitter, with something almost chocolate underneath. Visitors either love it or ask what's wrong with it. There's not much middle ground.

What Is Chicory?

Chicory is a plant. The part that ends up in your cup is the root, which gets roasted, ground, and blended with coffee. It has no caffeine. Smithsonian magazine describes the ground root as tasting a lot like coffee on its own, which is why it made such a good stretcher.

In the cup, chicory does a couple of things. It adds body, so the coffee feels heavier. And it adds a woody, slightly bitter edge that stands up well to hot milk. That second part matters, because around here a lot of chicory coffee goes into a café au lait.

The French Connection

Chicory in coffee is older than New Orleans' attachment to it. Smithsonian reports that the blend probably started in Holland and that two men, M. Orban and M. Giraud, are credited with bringing it to France in 1801.

Then Napoleon got involved. When his Continental System cut off trade with Britain in the early 1800s, coffee got scarce across Europe, and the French turned to chicory to make up the difference. Atlas Obscura notes that Napoleon encouraged it. By the time coffee came back, a lot of people in France had gotten used to the taste.

Louisiana had been French until 1803, and the city kept its French habits. Atlas Obscura points out that New Orleans favored dark, strong roasts, which is exactly the kind of coffee chicory works best with. By 1840, according to Smithsonian, New Orleans was the second largest coffee importer in the country. This was a coffee city before it was a chicory city.

The Civil War Blockade Story

Here's the version you'll hear on a walking tour. During the Civil War, Union ships blockaded the port, coffee stopped coming in, and New Orleanians stretched what they had with chicory. They got used to it, and the habit outlasted the war.

Smithsonian tells it more or less that way, with details from 19th century sources about people stretching coffee with chicory, or even acorns and beets, during the blockade.

The catch, as Atlas Obscura reports, is that some scholars doubt the story, because chicory was also imported and would have been squeezed by the same blockade. That doesn't mean the war had nothing to do with it. It means the clean "the blockade invented New Orleans coffee" version is probably too neat. French habits and a taste for dark roasts probably did as much work as any wartime shortage, and chicory being cheap didn't hurt.

We like a good story as much as anybody. We also sell shirts to people who will repeat what they read here at a dinner party, so we'd rather be honest about it.

Cafe du Monde and the Coffee Stand Tradition

You can't talk about chicory here without Cafe du Monde. It has been open in the French Market since 1862, Atlas Obscura notes, serving café au lait made with a coffee-and-chicory blend, plus beignets. We wrote about why it's still worth it in Cafe Du Monde: Two Items, 160 Years, and No Closing Time.

The orange can is also part of a story most visitors don't know. According to Atlas Obscura, Vietnamese refugees who came to the Gulf Coast in the 1970s found American coffee too weak. New Orleans' chicory coffee was strong enough. Cafe du Monde hired many Vietnamese employees, word spread as they mailed the blend to family, and the company started selling its tins to Asian grocery stores around the country. That's a big reason you'll see that orange can in Vietnamese restaurants far from Louisiana.

How Locals Drink It

At home, a lot of New Orleanians just buy a coffee-and-chicory blend at the grocery store and make it however they make coffee. There's a whole section of the aisle for it here. Plenty of people drink it black.

Out in the world, the classic is a café au lait: chicory coffee and hot milk, half and half. We've got a whole post on café au lait if you want to get into the details, like whether it should be scalded milk or steamed, and whether anyone actually cares.

A few things that help if you're new to it:

• Start with a café au lait. The milk softens the bitterness.
• Brew it a little weaker than you'd brew regular coffee at first.
• Don't judge it by one cup at the airport.
• Drink it with something sweet. There's a reason it's sold next to beignets.
• If you hate it, that's fine. Order a regular coffee and nobody will say a word. Probably.

Chicory at Home

If you've moved away and miss the smell of a Monday morning kitchen, our Coffee & Beignet Candle from the Smells Like Home line is about as close as we can get you without a plane ticket. Pour your chicory into a Breakfast Coffee Mug and you're most of the way there. And for the friend who would wear powdered sugar as a lifestyle, the Beignet Socks by Bonfolk exist.

Why Chicory Coffee New Orleans: FAQ

Why do they put chicory in coffee in New Orleans?

The habit came from France, where chicory was blended into coffee in the 1800s, especially during Napoleon's trade blockade. New Orleans kept French tastes and a love of dark roasts. The Civil War blockade story is popular, though some historians doubt it fully explains the tradition.

Does chicory coffee have caffeine?

Chicory root itself has no caffeine. A coffee-and-chicory blend still has caffeine from the coffee, just less per scoop than straight coffee, depending on the blend.

What does chicory coffee taste like?

Chicory coffee tastes darker and slightly more bitter than regular coffee, with a woody, almost chocolatey note and a heavier body. Many people find it best with hot milk as a café au lait.