COFFEE SUBSTITUTES @museum.de

Even back in the mid-18th century, some German states were restricting coffee consumption. Since real coffee was expensive or difficult to obtain, people went in search of substitutes. Whether roots, grain or other crops, in each case, the coffee substitute was dried, crushed and roasted just like coffee.

One important substitute for real coffee is the chicory plant, specifically, its roots. Chicory has blue flowers and is also used as a medicinal plant. It was first grown as a coffee substitute in the Netherlands way back in 1650. In 1770, the first German chicory processing factory was founded by Heine and Förster in Braunschweig – Brunswick. Within a few years, the city boasted 22 more sites where chicory coffee was being made!

Crushed and roasted, the roots produce a dark beverage not entirely unlike coffee, but without the caffeine. Chicory coffee can be brewed up on its own, or mixed with grain. Another advantage is that, being caffeine-free, it’s safe for children.

In the middle of the 18th century, another coffee substitute was being made from figs in Northern Italy. Dried and roasted, the figs produced a sweet-tasting beverage. We have a packet from the firm of Imperial on display, though that’s from Austria, where fig coffee was first produced in Vienna in 1880. Germany had started up production a little earlier, in 1873.

Coffee substitutes made from grain followed later, for example the Kornfranck brand. Until 1914, Heinrich Franck and sons ran the world's largest company for coffee substitute products.

Kathreiner Ersatzkaffee was a coffee substitute developed on the joint initiative of homeopathy founder Samuel Hahnemann, and the Catholic priest Sebastian Kneipp, an early promoter of naturopathic medicine. Both supported calls for a wholesome coffee substitute. In response, the firm of Kathreiner developed a beverage made from rye and barley and called Malzkaffee, malt coffee.

Production began in 1891, and the blue Kathreiner pack, with a portrait of Sebastian Kneipp, is regarded as one of Germany’s earliest branded products.

In 1906, the firm was appointed "Purveyor to the Court of His Holiness Pope Pius X and the Holy Apostolic Popes". This departed somewhat from the verdict of many coffee drinkers, who took the view that Kathreiner had a uniquely nasty taste, quipping “Keiner schmeckt gemeiner als Kathreiner" – Nothing taste worse than Kathreiner.

In the mid-19th century, a faith healer called Arthur Lutze invented a "health coffee" based on barley. Marketed as "Wittigs Gesundheits-Kaffee" (Wittig's Health Coffee), the product was still being made in Köthen near Leipzig until the 20th century.

After the end of the Second World War, real coffee remained scarce. The drinks menus of German restaurants would include "German coffee", a euphemism for coffee substitutes. The market leader at that time was "Linde's Kaffee-Ersatz-Mischung" made by the two entrepreneurs Fritz and Carl Linde from Nordhorn in Lower Saxony.

In 1944, the Franck and Kathreiner businesses merged, and in 1954, they jointly developed Caro-Kaffee, Germany’s first instant coffee substitute. It was made from barley, malt, chicory and rye. East Germany had its own version, an instant barley coffee called "im nu". The brand name translates as “in a flash” or “in an instant”. It contained barley, rye, and barley malt and remained on sale after reunification.