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Saturday, June 15, 2013

Saturday coffee. | Fred Klonsky

Saturday coffee. | Fred Klonsky:

Saturday coffee.

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Celebrating Freedom Day,  Juneteenth in New Orlean’s Treme. 2011 Photo: Fred Klonsky.
This morning we provide a history lesson while you’re drinking your coffee.
If you are in New Orleans it is possible that your coffee has chicory root in it.
Although coffee with chicory root in it has a long tradition, most historians agree that it’s use in New Orleans coffee became more common as a result of the blockade of the Confederacy during the Civil War.
Coffee beans became scarce.
In other parts of the South corn and nuts were also mixed into what coffee beans were available.
Back in the 70s I developed a taste for coffee with chicory since our best friends Nat and Cisco had moved from New Orleans to Chicago and brought their coffee with them.
That experiment lasted for about six months. Then I discovered Bustello brewed by pouring hot water over