Chicory Coffee: What It Is, Caffeine, Ratio and How to Brew It

Chicory coffee is coffee brewed with roasted, ground chicory root, or sometimes chicory root brewed on its own. The root tastes dark, woody and a little bitter, a lot like coffee but without the acidity. It is best known in New Orleans, where coffee and chicory blends have been a local habit for well over a century.

Here is what chicory is, how much caffeine a cup has, why New Orleans drinks it, and how to brew it at home.

What Is Chicory?

Chicory is a hardy plant in the daisy family with pale blue flowers; you may have seen it growing wild along roadsides. Its leaves are eaten as a salad green (endive and radicchio are close relatives), and its long taproot is what goes into coffee. The roots are dried, cut into small pieces, roasted until dark brown, and ground. Roasting turns some of the root’s natural sugars into the bitter-sweet, coffee-like flavor.

Does Chicory Coffee Have Caffeine?

Chicory root itself has no caffeine. So the answer depends on what is in your cup:

Drink	Caffeine (8 oz cup)
Pure roasted chicory	None
Coffee and chicory blend (about 70/30)	Roughly 65 to 75 mg
Regular brewed coffee	About 96 mg

The blend figure is an estimate: chicory replaces some of the coffee, so the caffeine drops roughly in proportion. If you want the taste of a New Orleans blend with no caffeine, mix chicory with decaf. Our caffeine guide has the numbers for other drinks.

Why New Orleans Drinks Chicory Coffee

Roasted chicory became popular in France in the early 1800s, when Napoleon’s Continental Blockade made coffee scarce and expensive. The French acquired a taste for it and kept using it after coffee returned. New Orleans, with its French roots and its busy coffee port, picked up the habit, and the Civil War cemented it: when Union blockades cut off coffee shipments, people stretched what they had with chicory.

The taste stuck. Café du Monde, open in the French Market since 1862, still serves its coffee and chicory as café au lait, half coffee and half hot milk, alongside its beignets. Local brands sell coffee and chicory blends in supermarkets across the South, and the flavor has spread well beyond Louisiana.

How to Make Chicory Coffee

You can buy coffee and chicory already blended, or mix your own from coffee and roasted chicory granules. Mixing your own lets you set the ratio. Chicory is stronger and more soluble than coffee, so a little goes a long way.

In a drip machine, mix the chicory into the coffee grounds in the filter at the same ratio and brew as usual. Our French press guide covers grind and timing in more detail.

New Orleans Café au Lait

Brew a strong coffee and chicory blend. Heat an equal amount of whole milk until it steams, without boiling it, then pour the coffee and milk into the cup at the same time. The milk softens chicory’s bitterness and brings out its sweetness. For a summer version, cold-brew the coffee and chicory together overnight and serve it over ice with milk; our cold brew guide has the method.

Is Chicory Coffee Good for You?

Chicory root is rich in inulin, a type of fiber that feeds helpful gut bacteria, and it is the main commercial source of inulin added to foods. A cup of chicory coffee contains only a small amount, though, so treat any health benefit as a bonus rather than a reason to drink it. The clearer advantage is practical: pure chicory lets you enjoy a dark, coffee-like cup with no caffeine.

Where to Buy Chicory Coffee

Ready-made coffee and chicory blends are sold in many U.S. supermarkets, especially in the South, often in the coffee aisle next to the Louisiana-style dark roasts. Café du Monde’s blend is the best known. For pure roasted chicory granules to mix yourself, try health food stores or Amazon. Buy roasted granules rather than raw root unless you plan to roast it yourself.