Coffee! Coffee!! Coffee!!!

This entry is from Brownlow's Knoxville Whig, and is a document compiled by the  TENNESSEE HISTORICAL COMMISSION found at the Art Circle Public Library, Crossville, Tennessee website.

September 14, 1861 - "Coffee! Coffee!! Coffee!!!"

In these days of blockades, when coffee is scarce, prices high, and in many places none to be had at any price, many substitutes are tried.

I am glad to have it in my power to recommend a substitute which is so nearly like the genuine article as to satisfy the most delicate taste and deceive the oldest coffee drinkers. It is as follows:

Take the common Red Garden Beet, pulled fresh from the ground, wash clean, cut into small squares the size of a coffee grain or a little larger, toast till thoroughly parched, but not burned, transfer to the mill and grind. -The mill should be clean. Put from one pint to one and a half, to a gallon of water, and settle within an egg as in common coffee, make and bring to the table hot-with nice, fresh cream (not milk) and sugar. I will defy you or anybody else to tell the difference between it and the best Java.