suite_mck (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} suite_mck) wrote,@ 2008-09-03 13:38:00 |
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Good Dandelion Questions
A reader over atconan_o’s blog, greenedmonton.ca, and springheel_jill both asked about the taste of dandelion root coffee.
As you can see below, after grinding and brewing, it certainly looks like coffee, and the 50-50% blend with real coffee is barely distinguishable for having been economically adulterated.
I brewed a cup of pure dandelion root coffee for these pictures for a taste test. For the test, I drank it black though you can add cream and sugar.
The flavour reminds me of “Postum”, a powdered roasted grain coffee substitute I used to drink as a child. But I would describe the taste this way: think of coffee as the base flavour, layered with darkly roasted sunflower seeds. There is a slight bitterness that would be masked with cream and sugar.
Also, I’m now convinced that this is not psycho-somatic: dandelion root coffee jazzes you up as fast as an espresso double-shot. From our two-cup coffee maker, Hannah usually drinks a half-cup and I drink 1.5 cups of ordinary java. But I can’t finish a single cup of dandelion root coffee before I start to feel almost uncomfortably hyped-up. Dandelion root is rich in a simple-sugar called inulin which may be the source of its caffeine-free stimulating effects. It would be better to describe this product as dandelion root espresso to convey the idea of much smaller serving sizes.
This reminds me that I should post a disclaimer:
Key Reference: TURNER, NANCY J. AND ADAM F. SZCZAWINSKI Wild Coffee and Tea Substitutes of Canada (Edible Wild Plants of Canada, No. 2) Ottawa: National Museums of Canada, 1984.
While I don’t follow the legal status of these matters closely, some persons have told me that the use of dandelions depicted in this post is unlawful under Canadian Federal Bill C-51- in which case, this post is for weedgeekery-entertainment purposes only and any similarity between persons living or dead is purely coincidental.
A reader over at
conan_o’s blog, greenedmonton.ca, and springheel_jill both asked about the taste of dandelion root coffee.As you can see below, after grinding and brewing, it certainly looks like coffee, and the 50-50% blend with real coffee is barely distinguishable for having been economically adulterated.
I brewed a cup of pure dandelion root coffee for these pictures for a taste test. For the test, I drank it black though you can add cream and sugar.
The flavour reminds me of “Postum”, a powdered roasted grain coffee substitute I used to drink as a child. But I would describe the taste this way: think of coffee as the base flavour, layered with darkly roasted sunflower seeds. There is a slight bitterness that would be masked with cream and sugar.
Also, I’m now convinced that this is not psycho-somatic: dandelion root coffee jazzes you up as fast as an espresso double-shot. From our two-cup coffee maker, Hannah usually drinks a half-cup and I drink 1.5 cups of ordinary java. But I can’t finish a single cup of dandelion root coffee before I start to feel almost uncomfortably hyped-up. Dandelion root is rich in a simple-sugar called inulin which may be the source of its caffeine-free stimulating effects. It would be better to describe this product as dandelion root espresso to convey the idea of much smaller serving sizes.
This reminds me that I should post a disclaimer:
Key Reference: TURNER, NANCY J. AND ADAM F. SZCZAWINSKI Wild Coffee and Tea Substitutes of Canada (Edible Wild Plants of Canada, No. 2) Ottawa: National Museums of Canada, 1984.
While I don’t follow the legal status of these matters closely, some persons have told me that the use of dandelions depicted in this post is unlawful under Canadian Federal Bill C-51- in which case, this post is for weedgeekery-entertainment purposes only and any similarity between persons living or dead is purely coincidental.
