My wife has done a lot of research into coffee substitutes and they basically came down to anything that they thought could be charred and then added to hot water. They knew nothing of caffeine then and all that she has found for the substitutes is that none of them gave the kick that real coffee did but they never knew why.

I have found some of these for her and I know that green peas and okra were both tried as substitutes. Green peas were also tried as flour substitutes (and it made green bread!) I will have to ask her for her list. The period newspapers ran these all the time by the way and a thick book was published during the war by a South Carolina scientist that offered substitutes for almost everything that could be found in forests and fields. She has a reprinted copy of this book.

Greg Biggs