Coffee and Chicory Essence (Homemade)
British · Drink · Pantry · Syrup · Vegetarian
A home version of a British coffee and chicory essence such as Camp: roasted chicory and dark-roast coffee brewed very strong, sweetened, and reduced to a syrup. Use it by the teaspoon in hot milk, or by the tablespoon in coffee cakes and icing.
No published home recipe for a Camp-style essence exists, so these proportions are this kitchen’s starting point. Camp is a quarter chicory extract and 4% coffee extract; this is mostly chicory too, with enough coffee to taste of it.
Untested: not yet made in this kitchen. It is here for the Camp Coffee page.
Ingredients
- 40 g (about ½ cup) roasted chicory granules
- 20 g (about ¼ cup) ground dark-roast coffee
- 500 ml (2 cups) water
- 200 g (1 cup) granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon dark brown sugar or a teaspoon of molasses, optional, for colour
Directions
- Bring the water to a boil in a small saucepan, stir in the chicory and coffee, and simmer gently for 5 minutes. Take off the heat, cover and steep 10 minutes.
- Strain through a fine sieve lined with a paper coffee filter, pressing gently. You should have about 1½ cups of very dark liquid.
- Return it to the clean pan with the sugar (and brown sugar, if using). Bring to a boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves, then simmer gently until reduced to about 1 cup, 15 to 20 minutes. It thickens as it cools; stop when it coats a spoon.
- Cool, pour into a clean bottle or jar, cap and refrigerate.
Notes
Where this recipe came from This kitchen’s. The method follows how Lyons described making its wartime essence (coffee and roasted chicory extracted with steam, concentrated, then sweetened), scaled down to a saucepan. The 2-to-1 chicory-to-coffee ratio echoes Camp’s label, where chicory far outweighs coffee. Keeping it Refrigerate and use within about two weeks; throw it out if it grows mould or fizzes. There is no tested canning process for coffee syrups or essences. Using it 2 to 3 teaspoons in a mug of hot milk; 2 tablespoons in place of Camp in a coffee and walnut cake. Buying chicory Roasted chicory granules are sold for chicory tea in health-food shops and online. See the Chicory and New Orleans Coffee page for roasting the root at home. The photo The chicory plant in flower, not the essence.