Tags
Blue Bottle, chicory, coffee, easy, how to, New Orleans, recipes
How does one go to New Orleans, yet not experience the city or even the food?
Answer: with the sole purpose of taking an orchestra audition.
Whenever I think about New Orleans, I always forget that I’ve actually been there, but really, it shouldn’t count. It was four years ago that I auditioned for the orchestra there, and all of my time was spent in my hotel, a church (audition location), an airport shuttle, and an airport. Good times!
As for the food… Oh, how I would love to tell you about the blissful beignet that I consumed with a perfect cup of coffee, or even a po-boy or a simple bowl of gumbo, but alas; I try to keep the truthiness levels of my blog high. I’ll spare you the details of my boxed granola bars and subpar hotel burger.
Instead, let’s talk about New Orleans style iced coffee. What makes it different from the regular stuff? It’s brewed with chicory! Yeah, I didn’t know much about chicory either, but it’s the root of endive, AKA that lettuce that I’ve somehow never bought. It can be roasted and brewed with coffee! Apparently it gives the coffee a deeper and less bitter flavor. In fact, back in times when coffee was not easy to come by, folks would brew pure chicory. Maybe it tastes similar coffee (or does it?), but I want to know how they then got their caffeine fix! Continue reading