Roasting Okra Seed as a Coffee Substitute

One of the burning garden controversies of the 1830s and 1840s was using okra seeds as a substitute for coffee. The proponents were proclaiming it as the best thing since ... well, coffee. There were even scammers, who took advantage of Florida's remoteness and exotic appeal, calling okra seeds "Florida coffee seeds" and selling it for the astounding price of $2 a pound to people who wanted to grow their own.

One old farmer's magazine published Okra Seeds A Substitute For Coffee - We find in the papers* a letter signed J. F. Callen, addressed to H. L. Ellsworth, declaring that the seeds of Garden Okra, when roasted and used as coffee cannot be distinguished therefrom, and many who have tried it pronounce it equal to the best 'Java.' The beverage is perfectly healthy, and as the seed is easily raised, he thinks it "destined at no distant day, to expel from our markets one of the most extensive articles of import."

We know how well expelling coffee from our markets worked. Okra seeds were revived as a coffee substitute during the Civil War, when coffee was scarce and expensive in the South because of the blockade by the North. As soon as the blockade was lifted, coffee took its customary place on the table.

In the interest of science I sacrificed a half-cup of seeds and an hour of my time to roast and brew some caffeine-free coffee substitute. The resulting concoction was drinkable, but there was no chance of my mistaking it for the best Java. With a bit of practice, you could make a brown, mellow-tasting, beverage. Although it was definitely better than Postum, I agree with most of the writers from the 1840s. The best place for okra seeds is inside the unripe pods, cooked as a vegetable.

Roasting and brewing okra seeds could be an interesting activity for a Civil War history class or for the gung-ho Civil War role-playing group.

Recipe for Okra Seed Coffee Substitute:

1/2 cup ripe okra seeds (makes about 6 cups of coffee)

1. Put a heavy skillet on medium heat for about 10 minutes to pre-heat.
2. Dump the seeds into the skillet and stir them frequently or shake the skillet.
   The seeds will go from dark green-black to light gray, then start turning brown
3. Keep stirring at least until the seeds start popping open - about 10 minutes. You can roast them longer, but cover the skillet or they will pop all over the kitchen.
   (this would be a good place to use an old-fashioned popcorn pan)
4. Remove the seeds from the skillet and let them cool.
5. Grind the seeds in something (I used a coffee grinder) until they look like coffee. They are brittle and grind faster than real coffee.
6. Brew.
7. Drink.

*Instead of the Internet, blogging, commenting and tweeting, our ancestors used a primitive store-and-forward technology called "small town newspapers." Editors subscribed to many papers and routinely reprinted anything they thought their own readers would find interesting. Much like the Web of today, no one paid attention to copyright.

Source: Ohio Cultivator, vol. 1 No. 1, Columbus, Ohio, January 1, 1845