Chicory factory

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A chicory factory (in the 19th century mainly spelled " chicory factory" ) was a production facility for the production of a coffee-like drink from the roots of the common chicory ( Cichorium intybus , called chicory and more commonly known as the variety chicory ).

Advertisement for the Ludwig Otto Bleibtreu chicory factory in 1906

history

The establishment of chicory factories took place in the second half of the 18th century. In 1766 Frederick II of Prussia banned the private importation and private trade in expensive overseas coffee in order to improve the trade balance of mercantilist Prussia. The ban not only resulted in extensive smuggling of coffee beans, it also encouraged the search for alternatives to the popular overseas coffee.

The inventors of chicory coffee are the Hanoverian officer Christian von Heine from Holzminden and the Braunschweig innkeeper Christian Gottlieb Förster († around 1801), who received a concession for the production of chicory coffee in Braunschweig and Berlin in 1769/1770 .

Zichorienturm of the factory built in Altenplathow in 1808

The city of Braunschweig quickly developed into an early center for chicory coffee production. By 1795 there were already 22 to 24 companies of this type. The focus of German chicory coffee production shifted to the Magdeburg region at the end of the 18th century . In 1797 14 chicory factories with 1228 employees produced 3100 t of chicory coffee. The Napoleonic continental barrier favored the sale of chicory coffee and the establishment of factories from 1806 to 1814.

The first chicory factory in Bohemia was founded in 1804 by Wilhelm Günter in Mochtín . Almost the entire production of chicory coffee in southern Germany was concentrated in Fürth around 1805 with 40 manufacturers . Two of the factories remained until 1930: the Georg Joseph Scheuer chicory factory and the Julius Cohn chicory factory . Both had developed into industrial companies from the 1860s.

Cicorie factory of Wilhelm Bader in Goldbach (around 1856)

In Wuerttemberg the chicory was in 1828 Heinrich Franck sons , Vaihingen founded. For the first time, steam grinders , mechanical conveyors and large roasters were used. Heinrich Franck Söhne then acquired numerous factories and market shares from competing German coffee manufacturers, such as the Georg Joseph Scheuer chicory factory in Fürth in 1928. With 27 plants in eleven countries, the company rose to become the world's largest manufacturer of chicory coffee.

From around the 1880s, fig and malt coffee gradually supplanted chicory coffee. Around 1890 there were still 123 chicory factories in what was then the German Empire . The production of dried chicory was 1,173,400  quintals (about 60,000 t) and the export of chicory products from Germany in 1880 was 178,382 quintals (about 9200 t).

Although chicory is still added to replacement coffee products, including “ Caro-Kaffee ” and “Linde's”, pure chicory coffee is hardly available in stores anymore.

Manufacturing process

In a chicory factory, the cleaned roots of the chicory are first crushed. In a kiln , or in a drying oven , the water content of the roots is reduced. Thereafter, they are at a temperature of 100 ° C to 120 ° C roasted . During this process , the inulin contained in the root , a polysaccharide , caramelizes , creating the taste reminiscent of coffee. The cooled roots are then ground to a fine powder. Sometimes sugar beets , edible fats and oils, table salt and alkali carbonates are added. Chicory coffee can be recognized by its intense caramel brown color.

literature

Web links

Commons : Chicory Factory  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cichorienfabrik, chicory in German literature (1850-2000; NGRAM Viewer)
  2. ↑ Beer instead of coffee - Deutschlandfunk calendar sheet , accessed on December 2, 2014
  3. ↑ Christian Gottlieb Förster : History of the invention of the chicory coffee . Georg Ludewig Förster, Bremen 1773.
  4. ^ Teuteberg, p. 109.
  5. ^ Carl Philipp Ribbentrop: Complete history and description of the city of Braunschweig . Volume 2, Braunschweig 1796, pp. 146-148.
  6. ↑ a b Teuteberg, pp. 110-112.
  7. ↑ The first Czech chicory factory on www.mochin.cz (Czech)
  8. ↑ Erhard Schraudolph: Coffee substitute manufacturer . In: From a craft town to an industrial metropolis. Industrialization in Fürth before 1870 . Historical Association for Middle Franconia, Ansbach 1993, p. 146-155 .
  9. ^ Company chronicle of Heinrich Franck Sons. Baden-Württemberg State Archive . Retrieved February 27, 2016 .
  10. ^ Meyers Konversations-Lexikon . 4th edition. Volume 4, Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig 1885-1892, p. 125.
  11. ↑ Joseph König : Chemistry of human food and beverages . Volume 2, J. Springer, Berlin 1920, p. 547.
  12. ^ Hans-Dieter Belitz , Werner Grosch, Peter Schieberle : Textbook of food chemistry . 5th edition, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York 2001, p. 938, ISBN 3-540-41096-1 .