Dandelion root coffee

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Billy-o

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Apr 19, 2018
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Yeah, ever tried Camp? Same. Grim. Apparently a cup of Camp and a fried egg was Michael Heseltine's favourite meal.
 

Billy-o

Native
Apr 19, 2018
1,981
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Canada
Like chicory, dandelion leaves are good to eat, and you can buy them here in supermarkets in big bunches. Bit coarse when they are bigger and need wilting. Like anything else, they are especially excellent with bacon and bacon fat poured over. They do make you pee, though.

Not as earthy-tasting as fiddleheads, the taste of which grows on one after a while ... good job really as you can only bury their flavour in barbecue sauce. They similarly benefit from an application of bacon.
 
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Kadushu

If Carlsberg made grumpy people...
Jul 29, 2014
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Kent
I've got loads of chicory in my garden, might try roasting it for coffee. I don't care for the leaves much, blanched or not, but the chickens love them.
 
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Nice65

Brilliant!
Apr 16, 2009
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W.Sussex
Yeah, ever tried Camp? Same. Grim. Apparently a cup of Camp and a fried egg was Michael Heseltine's favourite meal.
Used to actually take Camp coffee camping. It was in the early days of instant coffees, all of which were terrible. Nowadays good coffee is so accessible I don’t see any need for substitutes apart from in a ‘situation’. Drinking Camp or acorn or dandelion coffee reminds me of the novel ‘The Martian’ in the same way as I’m reminded of the Lucy Irvine book ‘Castaway’ where the guy who organised abandoning himself and Lucy on an island hung out his repeatedly re-used teabags so he could smoke them. I remember nicking my grandads pipe as a kid and stuffing a teabag in it to try it, it wasn’t good.


I washed it down with some Martian coffee. That’s my name for “hot water with a caffeine pill dissolved in it.” I ran out of real coffee months ago.
Andy Weir, The Martian
 
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Billy-o

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Apr 19, 2018
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I still rather like instant. It's good with maple syrup and evap in it. Just don't go trying to compare it actual coffee.
 

Silverclaws2

Nomad
Dec 30, 2019
287
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Devon
Dandelion coffee I might try that again, given I have shed my need for the sweet tasting to find bitterness more daily palatable, I might even try acorn coffee again.

The Camp stuff I sometimes use that in the summer to make ice cold refreshing coffee milk shakes. The method if any are interested ; follow the Camp instructions to make cold coffee with milk and drop a blob of vanilla ice cream in it.

But coffee as in the stuff from coffee beans, I can only drink instant.
 

Toddy

Mod
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Jan 21, 2005
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S. Lanarkshire
If you're making dandelion coffee make sure you roast the roots until they go sweet.
It's a bit like making French onion soup; you really need to get them browned not burnt.

After that it's quite good really. Same with acorn coffee. Roast it well and it works.

It's not coffee, the same way that herbal tea isn't 'tea', if I make myself clear ? but it's still rich and tasty :)
 
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Toddy

Mod
Mod
Jan 21, 2005
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You can do it in a pan, but you'll need to turn them often so they don't stick and burn. It's easier to do them in the oven (I don't have a fan oven, I loathed the one I did have and got rid of it pdq, it's horrible to bake in, too drying) in a roasting dish, just like over-doing veggies.
When they're browned and sweet, turn off the heat, open the oven door a bit and let them go cold and hard. Then grind them :)

Acorns I just roast in a saute pan and keep stirring them with a wooden spatula. Bit like doing peas to make roasted peas for peasemeal.

M
 

TeeDee

Full Member
Nov 6, 2008
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I must admit I thought the taste of Dandelion root was quite similar to the flavour of the Coffee I drink.

But then again, I do drink instant dried granule s##t coffee. So maybe that explains a lot.

Agree , the oven method is best.
 

Broch

Life Member
Jan 18, 2009
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Mid Wales
www.mont-hmg.co.uk
I must admit I thought the taste of Dandelion root was quite similar to the flavour of the Coffee I drink.

But then again, I do drink instant dried granule s##t coffee. So maybe that explains a lot.

Agree , the oven method is best.

Oh dear, and I thought you were a man of taste :)

In my opinion the best thing that can be said about dandelion or or acorn 'coffee' is that it's a hot drink with a distinctive taste; coffee it's not - but then, I only drink Italian roast ground coffee, quite strong ;)

On the subject of 'Camp' coffee, the stuff is so bad that the guys from the QRIH that I was on exercise with laced it with copious amounts of Baileys even at breakfast - got us through the day :)
 

Toddy

Mod
Mod
Jan 21, 2005
38,937
4,570
S. Lanarkshire
......I like Camp coffee :)
It's one of those tastes of early teenage freedom, when me and my girlfriends went camping down the Gareloch :) Four of us crammed in a three man A frame tent. Sunburnt, heels blistered with our new boots, barnacle scrapes, half frozen washing in the loch every day (and swimming at night under a huge moon) and surviving on Camp coffee, sugar, and rolls and bananas. I don't think we laughed so much in our lives until then.
Anyway, Camp coffee, I still keep it in the pantry, and use it up slowly. Not much of a fan of coffee otherwise. I'd rather have tea.

M
 
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TeeDee

Full Member
Nov 6, 2008
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Oh dear, and I thought you were a man of taste :)

In my opinion the best thing that can be said about dandelion or or acorn 'coffee' is that it's a hot drink with a distinctive taste; coffee it's not - but then, I only drink Italian roast ground coffee, quite strong ;)

On the subject of 'Camp' coffee, the stuff is so bad that the guys from the QRIH that I was on exercise with laced it with copious amounts of Baileys even at breakfast - got us through the day :)

Unfortunately Broc I managed to annihilate my taste buds over 4 years of Night shift abusing the free Vending machine coffee - A coffee every hour on the hour and two before you tried making the drive home without micro sleeping at the wheel was de rigueur.


You are right I should explore more coffee related things along with cigars and whisky. :)
 
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baggins

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Apr 20, 2005
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Hmm, wasn't keen on dandelion coffee. tried it a few times, but not to my taste. However, currently have a batch of Dandelion Honey on the stove, flower petals (about 400), steeped in water and lemon, then the liquid boiled down with sugar. Got another hr to go, but it's looking great.
 

Brizzlebush

Explorer
Feb 9, 2019
581
397
Bristol
Hmm, wasn't keen on dandelion coffee. tried it a few times, but not to my taste. However, currently have a batch of Dandelion Honey on the stove, flower petals (about 400), steeped in water and lemon, then the liquid boiled down with sugar. Got another hr to go, but it's looking great.
How does it taste when it's done?
 

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