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This is the same recipe already on this site, with one change: half the tray is chicory now.
Chicory in a coffee cup is not a new idea and not a wellness invention. It has been roasted and blended into coffee for two and a half centuries — Prussia in the 1760s, France under Napoleon’s blockade, New Orleans from the Civil War onward, where Café du Monde has served coffee and chicory since 1862. Pairing roasted chicory with roasted dandelion root is a long-standing combination in caffeine-free coffee substitutes for the same reason: the two plants are close relatives that roast alike and taste better together than either does alone.
Everything below is the method already described on how to roast and how to brew. Nothing here contradicts it. There are simply two plants on the tray instead of one.
Why the two get blended
Straight dandelion is good. It is also unmistakably bitter and unmistakably earthy, and on some mornings that is more character than a cup needs. Chicory softens it without making it taste like something else.
There is a concrete reason for that. Chicory carries far more fructan going into the roaster than dandelion does — raw chicory root runs around 68% inulin by dry weight, while dandelion root swings anywhere from 2% in spring to 40% in autumn. More sugar polymer entering the oven means more caramelisation coming out, and roasting converts a good deal of chicory’s inulin directly into fructose, the sweetest of the common sugars. Whatever inulin survives the roast also gives the brew measurable body, which is exactly why chicory was historically valued as a coffee extender: thin coffee tasted fuller with chicory in it.
The two plants also bring different bitter compounds. Chicory’s bitterness comes from lactucin and lactucopicrin; dandelion’s comes from taraxinic acid and a set of eudesmanolides. Roasted together, they do not simply dilute each other. They layer.
What it tastes like
Rounder and sweeter than straight dandelion, with more weight in the mouth and a burnt-sugar note underneath the bitterness. Drink it black and it is a strong dark cup. Frothed into milk it makes a better latte than dandelion alone — the extra body holds up against the milk instead of getting lost in it.
What to buy and where
This recipe uses the whole fresh green chicory plant — leaves and root together, the same way the dandelion is used. Asian and Middle Eastern groceries are the easiest place to find it fresh and cheap; it sits in the produce section near the other leafy greens.
- Dandelion: Tom Thumb, Green Vine, Whole Foods, farmers markets. Around $2–3 a bundle.
- Chicory: H Mart. Similar price.
- Buy, don’t forage. Same rule as everywhere else on this site. Two dollars is not worth wondering what was sprayed on it.
Get roughly equal amounts of each by volume. One bundle of each is close enough — no scale needed, and the ratio is forgiving.
Roasting them together
The useful surprise here is that the two plants need nothing different from each other. Both go on the same tray, at the same temperature, to the same finish line.
Rinse both bundles
Wash them well and shake off as much water as possible. There is no need to dry them separately — the roast does the drying.
Lay them out on parchment
Single layer, parchment paper, both plants mixed together or side by side on the same sheet. Whole roots, stems and greens — nothing gets trimmed and nothing gets wasted. Chopping is optional; the bundles can go on the tray much as they came.
Do not crowd the tray. Crowded means steamed, and steamed means soggy.
Roast at around 300°F
Treat 300°F as a starting point, not a rule. Ovens vary, bundles vary, and how wet the plants went in matters more than the dial does. Start checking at about 45 minutes.
Go by look and feel, not the clock
There is one finish line and it is the same for both plants: dark and crunchy, snapping clean. No soft pieces. No leathery pieces. If a stem bends instead of breaking, the tray goes back in.
Under-roasted material will not grind. That is how you find out it came out early.
Don’t chase “dark roast.” Dark and crunchy is the target; blackened and smoking is past it. Chicory in particular runs higher in acrylamide than coffee does, and pushing the roast past done is what drives that up. Crunchy, not carbonised.
The smell is normal. It comes out rich and savoury — closer to tomato paste than to a coffee shop. That is the roast working, not going wrong.
Cooling, crumbling, grinding
Let the tray cool completely. Warm material grinds badly and sweats in the jar.
Then crumble everything by hand. Roots snap, greens crush to flakes. Precision is not the goal here — just break it down enough to feed a grinder. Anything that will not crumble under your fingers was not roasted long enough; set those pieces aside and put them back in the oven rather than forcing them.
Grind in a basic coffee grinder — a thrift-store one costs less than a bag of beans and does the job. Aim for something like coarse coffee grounds. Because both plants went in together, the blend is already mixed; there is nothing to measure or combine afterwards, which is most of the appeal of doing it this way.
Boiling and bottling
Boil it, do not steep it. This is a decoction, not a tea. Roots need heat and time to give up what they have; a teabag dunk gets you brown water.
- 1 tablespoon of grounds per 4 oz of water. Grounds and water go in the pot together.
- Bring it to a boil, then let it simmer. Ten to fifteen minutes is plenty.
- Filter through a paper coffee filter, not a sieve. A sieve lets fine grounds through and the brew goes gritty.
- Bottle it. It keeps in the fridge as cold brew for about a week.
Filtered, it looks like iced black tea. Bottled, it looks like cold brew from a coffee shop. One batch on the weekend covers the week.
How to drink it
- Black, hot. A strong dark cup. The chicory keeps it from being as sharp as straight dandelion.
- Latte. 2–4 oz of brew, the rest steamed and frothed milk. This is where the chicory earns its place — the extra body means it does not disappear into the milk.
- Iced latte. Same ratio, cold milk, straight from the bottle.
- Honey and sage. The signature version works exactly the same with the blend — froth the milk with 2–4 tsp honey, cinnamon, sage and a tiny dash of cayenne. The full recipe is here.
Adjusting the ratio
Half and half is the default here, but it is a starting point rather than a formula.
The ratio is by volume of fresh plant, before roasting. Both bundles lose a lot of weight in the oven and they lose it at roughly the same rate, so what goes on the tray is close to what ends up in the jar.
Before making this a daily habit
Dandelion root is contraindicated for anyone with gallstones, bile duct obstruction, or other biliary disease. Both plants are in the daisy family, so skip this entirely if you react to ragweed, mugwort or chamomile. Chicory’s fructans can set off IBS symptoms — start with a small cup rather than a big mug. Neither is recommended in pregnancy, while nursing, or for children under 12. This site is education, not medical advice.
Common questions
Can they really be roasted on the same tray?
Yes. Both are fresh whole plants of similar density, and both hit the same finish line — dark and crunchy, snapping clean. Roasting them together is the main convenience of this method: they cool, crumble, grind and boil together, so nothing has to be measured or blended afterwards.
Does adding chicory add caffeine?
No. Neither plant contains any caffeine, so the blend is completely caffeine-free. The only chicory products with caffeine in them are the pre-blended coffee-and-chicory mixes sold for New Orleans or Indian filter coffee, and those get it from the coffee.
Can dried chicory root be used instead of the fresh plant?
Yes, but it roasts much faster than a fresh bundle because most of the water is already gone. Add it to the tray part-way through rather than at the start, and watch it — it will hit crunchy well before the fresh dandelion does.
How long does the blend keep?
The dry grounds keep for months in a sealed jar, same as coffee. The brewed and bottled concentrate keeps about a week in the fridge.
Is the blend healthier than straight dandelion?
There is no evidence for that, and it would be a stretch to claim it. Taste is the honest reason to blend. Both plants have real measured composition and very little human evidence as a brewed drink — there is a full accounting on the dandelion and chicory pages.