What Is a Chicory Root Beverage? History, Taste, and How It's Made

The Plant Behind the Drink

You may have seen chicory before without knowing it — the delicate blue wildflower that grows along roadsides across Europe and North America is technically the same species (Cichorium intybus). But that roadside plant is not what makes your drink. The beverage comes from an entirely different cultivar: industrial root chicory (Cichorium intybus var. sativum), bred over centuries for a single purpose — growing an enormous taproot.

Where wild chicory puts its energy into tall, wiry stems and flowers, root chicory channels everything underground. The result is a dense, pale taproot that resembles a large parsnip or sugar beet, packed with inulin — the prebiotic fiber that caramelizes beautifully during roasting.

Timing matters too. Root chicory is a biennial plant. In its first year, it produces only a leafy rosette above ground and its large root below. Left in the ground a second year, it would bolt, flower, and hollow out — making the root woody and useless for drinks. So farmers harvest in the autumn of the first year, when the root is at peak size and inulin content. By the time those blue flowers appear, the opportunity has already passed.

The root itself is pale, fibrous, and unremarkable in its raw form. What makes it remarkable happens during processing.

How a Chicory Root Beverage Is Made

The production process is where chicory transforms from a humble root into something genuinely coffee-like, and it closely mirrors the process used for actual coffee.

After harvest — which in northern France and Belgium takes place between mid-September and mid-December — the roots are washed and sliced into thin strips called cossettes (roughly 6mm thick). At this point the root contains about 76% water, so the cossettes are dried in a kiln called a touraille down to under 10% moisture. This step preserves them for roasting.

Roasting is the critical stage. Like coffee, the skill of the torréfacteur (master roaster) is everything. The goal is to coax the natural sugars in the root into caramelization through what's known as the Maillard reaction — without burning them. The heat converts the root's primary compound, inulin, into fructose, and then into caramel, while another compound called intybine combines with that fructose to create chicory's characteristic flavor: earthy, slightly bitter, and deeply caramelized.

The roasted cossettes are then crushed and sorted into grains. From there, the product can be used as-is for brewing, ground into a fine soluble powder, or processed into a liquid concentrate.

Stéphane Catrice, who along with his wife Agnès Lutun runs Chicorée du Nord — one of the last traditional chicory roasters in northern France — describes the process this way: "Production is methodical and demanding. The roots are harvested between mid-September and mid-December, cleaned, cut and dried to obtain thin strips called cossettes. Roasting transforms the natural sugars into caramel through the Maillard reaction, giving chicory its characteristic taste."

What Does It Taste Like?

Chicory root beverage doesn't taste exactly like coffee — and any honest brand will tell you so. But it occupies fascinating territory: somewhere between coffee, caramel, and dark chocolate, with a nuttiness and smoothness that coffee rarely achieves on its own.

When blended with milk (plant or dairy), the bitterness softens considerably and the caramel notes come forward. Cold, over ice, it takes on a mellow roundness. Drinkers frequently describe it as "coffee-adjacent" — familiar enough to satisfy the craving, different enough to be its own thing entirely.

One useful French framing: café au lait made with chicory has historically been described as tasting like "café au lait and caramel combined" — comforting, warm, and less sharp than standard coffee.

A History Rooted in France and Belgium

To understand chicory root beverage, you have to understand where it came from — and that story begins with Napoleon.

In 1806, Napoleon Bonaparte imposed the Continental Blockade, cutting off trade between continental Europe and Britain. Among the many shortages this caused was coffee, which could no longer reach French ports. Necessity, as always, drove invention. The French turned to a plant that grew abundantly in the fields of the North: chicory. When roasted, it produced a beverage close enough to coffee to fill the void.

The enthusiasm was immediate. Northern France, particularly the region around Lille and what is now the Hauts-de-France department, became the epicenter of chicory production. By 1835, France was exporting 1.25 million pounds of chicory annually; twenty-five years later, that figure had grown to 16 million pounds. Belgium, just across the border, developed parallel traditions and remains to this day the world's largest producer of chicory root — responsible for roughly two-thirds of global production, according to FAO data.

Chicory's role as a substitute was reinforced twice more: during World War I and World War II, when blockades and rationing again cut off coffee supplies across Western Europe. Entire generations grew up drinking chicory, and in northern France and Belgium, it never entirely went away.

The Belgian Dimension

Belgium's relationship with chicory deserves its own mention. As the source of the majority of the world's chicory root supply, Belgium has shaped the ingredient more than any other country. Belgian chicory cultivation is concentrated in the Flemish regions, where the chalky soils and temperate climate are ideal for root development. The Belgian witloof — a forced-grown variety eaten as a vegetable — is perhaps better known internationally, but the root grown for beverage use is what drives the agricultural scale.

The flavor profiles vary slightly depending on origin and roast level, but the Belgian and French traditions share the same foundation: deep respect for the root, careful roasting, and a preference for the drink served hot with milk.

Why People Drink It Today

Chicory root beverage is having a genuine renaissance, and it's not nostalgia driving it — it's the plant's remarkable nutritional profile meeting modern priorities.

The most important compound in chicory root is inulin, a prebiotic dietary fiber that feeds beneficial bacteria in the gut. Inulin is not digested in the small intestine; it travels to the colon where it selectively nourishes the microbiome. Research suggests it promotes the secretion of satiety hormones, supports immune response, and may play a role in preventing colon cancer. Chicory root is in fact the primary commercial source of inulin used in modern probiotic and fiber supplements.

Beyond inulin, chicory root contains natural antioxidants, vitamins (including B9 and C), and minerals such as calcium, magnesium, and potassium. It has a mild diuretic effect and is considered beneficial for liver and kidney function. And crucially for the many people who've had to give up coffee: it is entirely caffeine-free.

Gault & Millau, France's most prestigious culinary guide, covered chicory's culinary revival in 2025, noting that it is now appearing on TGV trains and in Paris coffee shops that are looking for sustainable, caffeine-free beverage options.

How to Drink It

The most accessible format for most people is soluble powder — one teaspoon stirred into hot water or milk, ready in under a minute with no brewing equipment. The liquid concentrate format is even simpler: a few drops or a small squeeze into whatever you're drinking, hot or cold, no measuring required.

For those who prefer a more involved ritual, roasted chicory grains can be brewed exactly like coffee — in a French press, a filter, or even a Vietnamese phin. The resulting cup is rich and dark, and with a splash of steamed milk, it's as satisfying as any morning coffee.

Chicory also blends exceptionally well with coffee at ratios of 1:3 or 1:4, reducing caffeine content while adding body and caramel depth. New Orleans has been doing this for over 150 years.

A Drink With Roots Worth Knowing

Chicory root beverage is not a trend product dreamed up by a marketing team. It is a drink with deep agricultural roots in northern France and Belgium, a production tradition refined over two centuries, and a nutritional profile that reads like a gift. The people who make it — like the Lutun family at Chicorée du Nord, carrying four generations of roasting expertise — are as much craftspeople as any specialty coffee roaster.

If you're looking for something rich, warming, and genuinely good for your gut — with a story worth telling — this is where to start.

References

• Chicory: The Comeback of a Forgotten Root — Gault & Millau (Tiana Salles, November 2025)

• Le grand retour de la chicorée — J'imagine / jimagine.org (Eric Cooper, June 2025)

• The Roots of Café Chicorée — En Route / Drift Magazine, Paris Edition (Shanthy Milne, May 2022)

• Chicorée du Nord — Chicorée Lutun, Oye-Plage (founded 1934, Agnès Lutun, 4th generation)

• FAO, FAOStat — Cultures (chicory root global production data, 2017)

• ADEME — Carbon footprint per cup data (10g CO₂ chicory vs. 49g CO₂ coffee)

• William Law, The History of Coffee, including a Chapter on Chicory (1850), as cited in Drift Magazine