New Hampshire homesteader Michelle Visser champions chicory as a natural alternative to chemically decaffeinated coffee.
“I make a tea that tastes like coffee from dried chicory root,” says author, podcaster, and influencer (soulyrested.com) told Fox News Digital shortly after harvesting the easy-to-grow, leafy-flowering herb with thick, flavorful roots in September. (See the video at the top of this article.)
“It doesn't naturally contain caffeine. Many coffee makers add caffeine to their blends to keep prices down. But chicory itself… [has] Zero caffeine. ”
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She has been growing chicory in her farm garden for the past four years. Large hardwoods feed pigs. On National Coffee Day (September 29) or any time of the year, the root produces a sturdy cup of faux joe.
Chicory has long been touted for its medicinal properties, and when steeped in water like black tea (which Visser calls chicory tea), it has an unmistakable coffee-like taste.
Michelle Visser, a New Hampshire homesteader and digital influencer at soullyrested.com, calls coffee an all-natural alternative to coffee, which is often decaffeinated through a controversial industrial process. We are promoting our home-grown chicory. (Michelle Visser/soulyrested.com)
The chicory coffee tradition is perhaps best known today at Café du Monde, a gourmet landmark in New Orleans.
Few tourists leave the Big Easy without eating a fried sugar-dusted beignet at a riverside cafe, or return home without a distinctive bright yellow chicory coffee can.
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“Chicory root has been cultivated since ancient Egypt, but in France chicory has been roasted, ground, and mixed into coffee since the 19th century,” Smithsonian Magazine wrote about the root in 2014.
Chicory “has traditionally been used as a tea alone or as a herbal medicine to treat jaundice, enlarged liver, gout, and rheumatism.”
Dried chicory from plants grown by New Hampshire influencer Michelle Visser. She uses chicory to make an all-natural, caffeine-free coffee. (Michelle Visser/soulyrested.com)
The industrial process used to decaffeinate coffee has received increased attention in recent years, and Visser is showing his followers that there are natural, homemade alternatives to Big Decaf.
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“The main concern is that one of the main methods companies use to decaffeinate coffee contains methylene chloride, a solvent that has been associated with an increased risk of cancer and other adverse health effects. The Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation reported in August 2024. .
“There is no evidence that drinking decaffeinated coffee causes health problems,” William Murray, CEO of the National Coffee Association, countered in the report.
Chicory coffee is sold in the Café du Monde gift shop in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Visser eliminates all controversy by growing chicory at his home in New Hampshire. Her hard-working farming and do-it-yourself lifestyle is the inspiration for her podcast, Simple Doesn't Mean Easy, and her book.
“It basically grows like a weed,” she said, confirming that virtually anyone can grow chicory at home.
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Fifty plants, harvested in September after New England's short summer, will produce enough chicory roots to make a year's worth of coffee.
A basket of chicory roots from homestead influencer Michelle Visser of soulyrested.com. She uses the roots to make an all-natural decaffeinated coffee. (Michelle Visser/soulyrested.com)
The root is chopped “like a carrot”, dried, roasted, chopped and steeped in boiling water like a tea.
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“You just roast the chicory for twice as long and use it like espresso,” says Visser.
She puts double-strength chicory into creative coffees like lattes, mocha cappuccinos, and frothy ice frappes that she brews at big-city cafes.
Michelle Visser makes coffee, lattes, and mocha frappes from home-grown chicory, a traditional natural alternative to decaffeinated coffee. (Michelle Visser/soulyrested.com)
