Coffee and chicory
Chicory coffee, the New Orleans way.
CR Coffee Shop sells its own coffee-and-chicory blend, the St. Roch Blend, by the cup at four New Orleans shops and by the bag online.
Roasted the week it ships. Ships anywhere in the U.S.
The tradition
Why New Orleans drinks coffee and chicory.
Chicory is a plant with a blue flower and a long, tough root. Roast the root, grind it, and it brews up dark and full, a little like coffee, with no caffeine at all.
The French figured this out first. Coffee had to cross an ocean to reach France, so it was expensive, and it vanished from the shelves whenever the ships stopped coming. Chicory grew in French fields for next to nothing. Blend a little into the pot and a pound of coffee went a lot further. The habit spread through northern France, Belgium, and Holland in the 1700s, and it became a national routine in the early 1800s, when a trade war with Britain cut France off from coffee for years. When the ships came back, the French kept the chicory. They had come to like the taste.
New Orleans was a French city before it was an American one. The people who settled here drank their coffee the French way, strong and dark and often cut with chicory, and they kept drinking it that way as the city grew into one of the biggest coffee ports in the country. Green coffee still comes up the river today. The Port of New Orleans is the second-largest coffee port in the United States.
Chicory stayed in the cup here for the same reason it stayed in France. Every time coffee got scarce, whatever the cause, New Orleanians stretched what they had with chicory, which grew easily nearby and cost almost nothing. And every time the coffee came back, the taste stuck around. Chicory gives a cup a heavier body and a soft, caramel sweetness that milk loves. That is why the classic New Orleans coffee is a cafe au lait: half coffee and chicory, half hot milk, poured at the French Market coffee stands and in kitchens across the city for generations.
That is the tradition St. Roch Blend comes from. We roast the coffee on century-old Royal No. 6 drum roasters and blend in the chicory with a lighter hand than most, so the coffee leads and the chicory rounds it out. It is the cup New Orleans has always poured, made the way we think it tastes best.
St. Roch Blend
How we do it.
St. Roch Blend is our coffee and chicory. It uses a higher ratio of coffee to chicory than most blends, so you get the tradition without losing the coffee. Cocoa body, caramelized chicory sweetness, soft balanced finish. The coffee is roasted on century-old Royal No. 6 drum roasters on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
Born at St. Roch Market. Now poured at every CR Coffee Shop.
Full blend detailsHow to drink it.
Café au lait
New Orleans classic · Hot
Hot drip St. Roch Blend and steamed milk, half and half. It is on the menu at every shop.
See it on the menu →Black
Drip or French press
Nothing added. You taste cocoa first and the chicory sweetness at the finish.
Cold brew
Iced
Coarse grind, cold water, an 18-hour steep. The chicory keeps it smooth over ice.
Where to get it.
Magazine Street
Uptown
3618 Magazine St. Open daily 6am to 7pm.
St. Roch Market
Downtown · St. Claude
2381 St Claude Ave. Daily 7am to 7pm. The blend was born here.
Old Metairie
Metairie Road
603½ Metairie Rd. Weekdays 6am to 6pm, weekends 7am to 6pm.
MSY Airport
Kenner
Inside Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. Hours vary by terminal.
By the bag
Online · Ships nationwide
12 oz, whole bean or ground, roasted the week it ships. Ships anywhere in the U.S.
Common questions.
Where can I buy chicory coffee in New Orleans?
At CR Coffee Shop. We pour St. Roch Blend, our own coffee and chicory, at Magazine Street, St. Roch Market, Old Metairie, and our kiosk at the MSY airport. Bags are on the shelf at the neighborhood shops and in the online store.
Does CR Coffee sell chicory coffee by the bag?
Yes. St. Roch Blend comes in a 12 oz bag, whole bean or ground, for $19.75. It is roasted the week it ships and ships anywhere in the U.S.
What does chicory coffee taste like?
Fuller and a little sweeter than the same coffee without chicory. St. Roch Blend tastes of cocoa first, then caramelized chicory sweetness, with a soft balanced finish and no bitterness.
Is a café au lait made with chicory coffee?
The New Orleans version is. Ours is equal parts hot drip St. Roch Blend and steamed milk, and it is on the menu at every shop.
Brew it at home.
St. Roch Blend in a 12 oz bag, whole bean or ground, $19.75.
Roasted the week it ships. Ships anywhere in the U.S.