Chicory, or SUCCORY (Cichorium), a genus of Compositæ (sub-order Ligulifloræ), with few species, all herbaceous perennials, with spreading branches and milky juice, natives of Europe and West Asia.
The Common Chicory or Succory (C. Intybus) is wild in England and most parts of Europe, growing in way-sides, borders of fields, &c. It has a long carrot-like root, externally of a dirty or brownish yellow colour, and white within. The stem rises 1 to 3 feet, the leaves resembling those of the dandelion; the flower-heads are sessile, axillary, large (1 to inch), and beautiful, generally blue, more rarely pink or white. Chicory is pretty extensively cultivated, both in England and on the continent of Europe, as also in California, for its roots, while its herbage is good food for cattle. The blanched leaves are sometimes used as a salad, and are readily procured in winter by placing the roots in a box with a little earth in a cellar. To this genus belongs also the Endive (q.v.).
Chicory has been used as a substitute for coffee, or to mix with coffee, for at least a century. The roots are pulled up, washed, cut into small pieces, and dried on a kiln, which leaves a shrivelled mass not more than one-fourth the weight of the original root. It is then roasted in heated iron cylinders, which are kept revolving as in coffee-roasting, during which it loses 25 to 30 per cent. of its weight, and evolves at the same time a disagreeable odour, resembling burned gingerbread. An improvement to the chicory during roasting is the addition of 2 lb. of lard or butter for every cwt. of chicory, which communicates to it much of the lustre and general appearance of coffee. It is then hand-picked, to remove chips of wood, stones, &c., and is reduced to powder, and sold separately as chicory powder, or is added to ordinary ground-coffee, and is sold as a mixture. Chicory contains a good deal of sugar, but otherwise does not serve to supply the animal economy with any useful ingredient. It gives off a deep brown colour to water when an infusion is made, and hence its main use in coffee. Some people dislike the taste of chicory, and when largely used, it has a tendency to produce diarrhoea; but many people prefer to use coffee mixed with chicory owing partly to the taste it communicates, but mainly to the appearance of strength which it gives to the coffee. See ADULTERATION.