Günzburger Nahrungsmittelfabrik Gebr. Strehle GmbH

• Home
• Products
• Routing
• Info
• Contact
• Impressum
• Shop
• 

Günzburger Nahrungsmittelfabrik Gebr. Strehle GmbH Auweg 1, 89312 Günzburg

Information about coffee substitutes

---

Fig beverage, Inulin, Cereal beverage, Malt beverage,   Chicory

• Cereal beverage
  Caffeine-free beverage made of diverse cereal ingredients such as malt, barley, rye, figs, chicory etc. An easily digestible and savory alternative to coffee.
  History:
  Following the prohibition of coffee of 1780 and during Napoleon`s Continental Blockade against England in 1806, alternatives to the luxury coffee were much sought after and found. Muckefuck (from the French mocca faux = false coffee) and the water-bewitched weak coffee soon became generally accepted names for coffee substitutes. Originally produced from the roots of the wild succory - related to our chicory plant -, the salad-like, extremely roughage-rich (inulin-containing) plant has today become nothing but an ingredient to cereal beverage.
  Production:
  The basic ingredients are e.g. malt, barley, rye, figs and chicory. Barley, rye and chicory develop their piquant and hearty taste while being roasted or kilned. Figs are used to round off the taste. The roasted ingredients are ground (filterable variant) of extracted and spray dried to be offered on the market in the form of a coffee substitute extract powder from either conventional or controlled biological cultivation.

• Malt beverage
  Patented name for a caffeine-free beverage made of malted barley. An alternative to coffee.
  History:
  Following the prohibition of coffee of 1780 and during Napoleon`s Continental Blockade against England in 1806, alternatives to the luxury coffee were much sought after and found. Muckefuck (from the French mocca faux = false coffee) and the water-bewitched weak coffee soon became generally accepted names for coffee substitutes. The barley-based malt beverage soon became very popular aside from fruit and fig beverage.
  Production:
  Barley is soaked in water and brought to germinate. During this process, the starch is partly converted into maltose and the protein breaks down into its amino acids. The barley is then heated to stop germination. During the following roasting process the maltose converts into caramel. Color and flavors develop. The product is now either ground to make it filterable or extracted and then spray or freeze dried to provide the water-soluble instant version.
   
• Fig beverage
  Fig beverage is a traditional "coffee complement" which has for decades attracted coffee-drinkers in Germany as well as worldwide. According to one`s taste, a smaller or larger amount of fig coffee is mixed with coffee. It is produced by roasting and subsequently grinding kilned figs. With fig beverage added, coffee becomes somewhat easier on the stomach.

• Chicory
  Cichorium intybus (var. sativum) (root chicory, coffee chicory) is a member of the family of compositae.
  The progenital plant is the well-known blue blooming wild succory (cichorium intybus). Already the ancient Greeks and Romans would take the wild succory`s pulpy beet as a remedy for their gastric, kidney and liver diseases and apply it also externally to cure skin diseases. In the early 18th century, the increased cultivation of root chicories gave cause to an invention:
  Production of a coffee substitute from roasted beets.
  In particular Friedrich the Great sponsored the cultivation of chicories. By 1797 already, 19 companies had been established in Prussia to produce the so-called Prussian Coffee. Chicory coffee used to be en vogue still in the World War II period.
  Chicory in its cultivated form is a biennial plant. In its first year, it develops a flat leaf-shaped rosette spreading on the ground and a beet which may be up to ten inch long. In the second year, the plant reaches the stage of inflorescence. The beet contains inulin, a reserve substance typical of compositae, which is a polymeride consisting of up to forty fructose molecules and one glucose molecule. The beet is harvested in the fall of its first year.
  Roasted, ground and pressed, the chicory is added to the coffee powder.

• Inulin
  Indeed, roughage enhances well-being and health to a large degree. Though not digestible itself, it supports digestion, stimulates the intestine and so prevents constipation. Vegetables, fruit and whole-meal products contain plenty of roughage. Inulin and oligofructose are so called pre-biotic substances because they serve as a substrate in the intestines, that is as food for lactic acid bacteria.

 

Dear reader:
We should very much like to expand this site with your comments and/or recommendations to the topic of coffee substrates. So we are very much looking forward to hearing from you.

Sources: Naturkost, Hobbythek, Biozentrum Universität Würzburg