Acorn "coffee"

Necessity is the mother of invention

So we actually made acorn coffee. We have a huge oak tree and it releases sooooo many acorns, I'm always trying to figure out what to do with them.  I have to say that I did like the taste. But the process is tedious. You have to keep boiling the acorns until most of the tannins are out.

We boiled the acorns meat for fifteen minutes, than dumped out the water than rinsed the acorns about 4 times. That part alone took about an hour or more. This method was to remove the tannins. Don't get me started on chucking the damn things. That was monotonous, and also took at least an hour.

Not to be discouraging anybody else from trying to make acorn coffee, but it is a process. Not only did I want to try and make something out of all the acorns that my oak tree produces. But I had read that it was used during war time, and during the depression when coffee was limited.

It was used as a substitute for real coffee in conflicts like the American Civil War and World War II, and also became a traditional drink in some cultures like Lithuania. Coffee is a misnomer, and I don't really like using the word coffee to describe this acorn beverage. There is no caffeine in Acorns and it doesn't taste like coffee. Maybe acorn tea would be a better description or acorn brew. Acorns weren't the only nuts used as a substitution, other nuts, roots, and grains, and chicory were also employed to make a warm substitution.

Acorns do have health benefits, they contain antioxidants, are a complex carbohydrate. They aid in digestive issues and can regulate blood sugar levels. But this is not why I want to make this acorn drink. It feels like a war time Christmas, or at the very least that we are in a depression made of tariffs and layoffs caused by our own government. Coffee prices are high, and I have found myself hording it like a squirrel hiding nuts. I wanted to know how how our ancestors coped without our beloved coffee. The ingenuity that arises from necessity. And acorn coffee isn't that bad. It's not coffee, but I kinda like it's nutty taste.