Tag Archives: Drinks

“Chicory”

Chicory
Informant info: (Left to Right) Sadhana Puri, age 20, Jessica Link, age 20, Alex Ledoux, age 21 all from New Orleans, LA.  Collected May 15, 2016 via iPhone.
Verbal Lore: Slang/ Material Lore: Drink
Language: English, French
Country of Origin: The Caribbean, France
Social / Cultural Context: This is a caffeinated root which is ground up and added to coffee for a stronger flavor and increase the amount of caffeine in the beverage.  It is one of the many French influences in New Orleans.

 

 

Transcript:

“Sadhana: Chicory

Jessoca: I was about to say Coffee and chicory.  Is a thing.

Sadhana: What exactly is chicory.

Jessica: Chicory-

Alex: Is it a root?

Sadhana: Yeah it’s like a root.

Jessica: Yeah it’s like a root.  The myth is that the reason we started using chicory is because during the civil war during the union blockade when the union soldiers came and blocked New Orleans off so we couldn’t trade or whatever anymore.  People could grow chicory in new Orleans even though we couldn’t really grow coffee beans, I guess.  So people started using chicory because it has caffeine and it kinda tastes like coffee so they use that to make coffee.  But in reality what it was, was like French people even in the 1700s and 1800s were also using chicory, like I don’t know from- it grew in the Caribbean and stuff so they brought it back to France which brought it to New Orleans.  New Orleans people were already drinking chicory with their coffee before the civil war.  But during the civil war when it was harder to get coffee they drank even more chicory with their coffee. I think that’s it, I remember reading that somewhere.  Cause that’s like a misconception.  But the point is we still make, like some places still put chicory in their coffee, like Café Dumont which is where everyone goes to get beignets.  And it’s super famous.

Sadhana: Alex you have chicory blocks in your room right.

Jessica: Well it’s coffee and chicory.  You can’t get just chicory by itself.

Alex:  Well it’s coffee.  So like the coffee from Café- Well I think maybe you can (get chicory itself), I don’t think you could just make coffee with that.

Jessica: I feel it would taste gross.

Alex:  Yeah that’d be really gross.

Sadhana: It’s pretty bitter.

Jessica:  It’s extremely bold.

Alex: It’s super strong.

Sadhana: it’s an acquired taste.

Alex:  Like for me it’s really funny because I can drink like black regular coffee, because I am so used to drinking CDM which is Café Dumont coffee with Chicory ad um it’s super strong.

Sadhana: How much chicory do they put in it, do you think?  Like probably just.

Alex: *shrugs*

Sadhana: I like it.

Alex:  I don’t know it’s just ground up, it looks like regular coffee grinds I put in my thing.

Katelyn: So you drink pure chicory?

Sadhana: Sorry I was confusing.

Alex: No, no it has coffee and chicory the chicory just makes it a stronger coffee.

Sadhana:  Yeah it give s it a slightly bitter.

Jessica: Yeah like a super strong flavor.

Alex: It’s like dark dark, like probably the darkest roast coffee you could have.

Sadhana: It’s not real coffee though.

Aex: The chicory isn’t.

Sadhana: Oh no, but the taste is of coffee”

Collector’s comments:  This word again shows off New Orleans French roots while also giving the chance to tell a myth about the origins of Chicory.  The word can be considered slang because of it’s specific use in New Orleans and this one item that is not used much elsewhere.  It is also most likely that the French pronunciation of the word is different which adds to the slang aspects of the word.

Tags/Keywords: Chicory, caffeine, food, material lore, verbal lore, café du monde, New Orleans.

 

Pre-Deployment Ceremonies

Title: Pre-Deployment Ceremonies

Informant info: Matt Menezes. Informant attends Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH as a United States Army Veteran (2004-2013) . Informant was a member of the 82nd Airborne Division and deployed twice to Afghanistan (2007-08, 2008-09) as well as spent two years as a drill sergeant for basic combat training (2011-13).

Type of lore: Customary/ Verbal, Tradition, Ceremony, Recipe, Toasts

Language: English

Country of Origin: USA

Social / Cultural Context: Informant was interviewed at Dartmouth College. Informant was asked about various ceremonies that they experienced during their time in the military. Informant took a minute to remember the different ceremonies. The informant discussed the pre-deployment ceremony and how they would make different mixes of drinks that were inspired by alcohol from different regions of the world in which they had military victories.

Associated file:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/11vv5a27kzlycgq/Dartmouth_Folklore_Collections_Matt_Menezes.mp4?dl=0

 

Transcript: [I have recorded the item exactly how it was told to me in the interview]: So the military in general has ceremonies for everything. Going from promotion ceremonies, award ceremonies and just kind of pre-deployment ceremonies. One of the things, one of the ceremonies in particular is the pre and post deployment ceremony, where we basically mix a bunch of different liquors together to be a grog that is supposed to signify all our units past combat contributions in the United States History. So for example, I remember one of them was Schnapps for defeating the Germans. Another one was, I think a bottle of wine for beating the Italians and something else for the French, but I can’t remember.

Informant’s comments: Spoke about how those ceremonies were always good times.

Collector’s comments: Although informant spoke light-heartedly about the pre-deployment ceremonies, the interviewer noted a very serious tone to the ceremonies as well.