Serving People Serving Coffee Since 2005
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concept of chicory and coffee other than a novelty stop to Café Du Monde when in NOLA on holiday. It wasn't until a small coffee roaster in the San Francisco Bay Area started serving his version of the brew out of a farmers' market cart that the Southern drink began to catch on in a big way. New Orleans Goes Mainstream "It started as an alternative to iced lattes in the early days of Blue Bottle in 2003 at the Berkeley Farmers' Market," says James Freeman, founder of the now internationally known Blue Bottle Coffee. "It was spring, and people kept asking me for iced lattes." James was convinced he could make something more delicious than an iced latte, and so he started experimenting. Eventually he landed on a recipe he was pleased with that mixed coffee with chicory before be- ing cold-brewed. It was no accident that James landed on chicory as a source of inspiration, however. "I thought back to the Napoleonic era … For me, it was this historical imperative that allowed me to explore chic- ory instead of pumpkin, for example," he says. James brought the drink to the farmers' market and gave it to patrons looking for a cold drink. "When you asked for an iced latte, I'd give people a sample of this." Almost 15 years later, Blue Bottle's New Orleans–style cold brew is available at Blue Bottle's retail cafés in New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo, and throughout the Bay Area. It's also for sale on countless grocery-store shelves. "I still remember the day before that one farmers' market, and now there's an untold amount sold of this drink," James says. Blue Bottle also sells ready-to-go kits so that home enthusiasts can make their own NOLA-style iced coffee at home, and he says he hopes to launch a reci- pe using Blue Bottle's new Perfectly Ground coffee, making the process even easier since everything is premixed and ready to brew. Even if you're not in New Orleans or near a Blue Bottle café, there are plenty of great coffeehouses serving up a variation of the beloved, historically inspired drink. Across the United States, more and more specialty cafés are adding chicory to their cold brew, and even devel- oping NOLA-coffee-inspired signature drinks for their seasonal menus. Mud Pie Vegan Bakery & Coffee in Kansas City, Mo., for example, has been serving its own concoction called Dirty South since opening in 2011. "It has become one of our most popular drinks," says Mud Pie owner Michael Valverde of the chicory coffee café au lait. "We serve both hot and iced versions. And being an all-vegan shop, we create it with any of our house-made milks: soy, cashew, coconut, rice, and hemp. It has caught on so well, in fact, that we've also been selling DIY tins of it for home brewing and mixing." Want to try your hand at creating your own spin on the tradition- al NOLA brew? You might fi nd it's easy as well as cost-effi cient to develop, serve, and upsell a chicory coffee iced drink, especially in warm weather months. Chicory powder is easily accessible at most specialty food stores or online, and you can experiment with different ratios based on preference. Simply add as much or as little as you'd like (common ratios during war times were 1:1, or even one part coffee to two parts chicory) to your favorite coffee and brew as you normally would. Remember, chicory is meant to be a replacement for some or all of your coffee, not an additive, so take that into account when you consider brewing ratios and how much water to add to your recipe. Try adding milk or cream over ice for effect, and play around with a locally sourced herb or sweetener to really make it your own. Indeed, New Orleans–style cold brew has a history much longer and more nuanced than most coffee traditions we see on quality café menus today. From its Napoleonic roots and use in times of war and coffee shortages, to the now ubiquity throughout the specialty-coffee scene, coffee and chicory is an enduring pairing that is here to stay. 83 www.baristamagazine.com