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Tried making sweet potatoes into a coffee substitute this evening and was pleased at the results.
Diced fine 2 large sweet potatoes and oven roasted them until mostly dry and about half the pieces were browned. (The original articles suggested to dry them in the sun or by a fire. I hope you excuse the use of kitchen appliances for my first go-round.)
Finished roasting to a dark brown in a pan, stirring frequently. Put the pieces up in a handy poke sack and ground the potatoes further.
6 heaping tablespoons of the roasted grounds to 4 cups of boiling water, steeping for 6-7 minutes, yielded a dark brew, naturally sweet, and quite tasty. I'd use a bit more grounds next time for additional strength.
It's not coffee, and it wouldn't keep you awake for the 3am guard shift, but I can certainly see why using sweet potatoes was recommended by so many newspapers during the war (see http://www.uttyler.edu/vbetts/coffee.htm)
Definitely keeping a poke sack of the stuff in my haversack as appropriate to the scenario.
Note: Those two potatoes yielded enough grounds for at least 10 cups of brew.
Diced fine 2 large sweet potatoes and oven roasted them until mostly dry and about half the pieces were browned. (The original articles suggested to dry them in the sun or by a fire. I hope you excuse the use of kitchen appliances for my first go-round.)
Finished roasting to a dark brown in a pan, stirring frequently. Put the pieces up in a handy poke sack and ground the potatoes further.
6 heaping tablespoons of the roasted grounds to 4 cups of boiling water, steeping for 6-7 minutes, yielded a dark brew, naturally sweet, and quite tasty. I'd use a bit more grounds next time for additional strength.
It's not coffee, and it wouldn't keep you awake for the 3am guard shift, but I can certainly see why using sweet potatoes was recommended by so many newspapers during the war (see http://www.uttyler.edu/vbetts/coffee.htm)
Definitely keeping a poke sack of the stuff in my haversack as appropriate to the scenario.
Note: Those two potatoes yielded enough grounds for at least 10 cups of brew.
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