What happens when coffee disappears?

This is not a thought experiment! It’s happened many times in history: War, blockades, tariffs, ideology, health panics, sanctions, supply shocks. 

When coffee is not around, people still need something warm, comforting, and familiar. And throughout history, people have reached for coffee surrogates: roasted plants and grains engineered to look like coffee…but do they actually taste like coffee? 

In this episode, Jonathan and James time-travel by taste testing a truly alarming number of coffee substitutes. 

Spoiler: you will hear a lot of spitting! 

Which leads to the bigger question: can anything actually replace coffee—or will we always come crawling back?

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This free educational content for the coffee community was made possible by Mahlkönig, manufacturers of world-leading coffee grinders for 100 years for your home and cafe. 

Read Jonathan’s book, ‘Coffee: A Global History’

Support James’ work directly by buying him a coffee at Ko-fi.com/FilterStories

Read James’ article on the history of decaf technology in Standart

See Colin Smith’s amazing coffee museum at Smith’s Coffee in Hemel Hempstead, UK

Get nerdy about the intersection of AI and the occult on Karin’s Subtack, Mercurial Minutes

Do your own surrogate taste test!

Postum

Atomo

Orzo

Fig

Dandelion root

Dateseed

Acorn

Chickpea

Chicory Root

Camp Coffee