The history of coffee-substitutes and cereal-beverages here in Europe goes back to the Middle Ages.

In these days the medical professions postulated that coffee is harmfulness and therefore they rec-ommended coffee-substitutes instead. Another reason was also that the dominating rule in the Middle Ages wanted to restrict the luxury consumption of coffee to their lower classes.
They also wanted to stop the cash drain that resulted by the import of coffee.

Sayings such as “coffee, tea and sweets will take away to the farmers their fields” illustrate that coffee, tea and sugar were classified as luxury and exotic goods by the folks myths.

In simple terms coffee was just too expensive and mainly reserved to the upper class. Therefore the common people had to resort to their local ingredients to produce a similar product.

In Germany Frederick the Great gave to the cereal beverages a special popularity by his prohibition of coffee for the common folks.

In France Napoleon declared the Continental Blockade and this brought coffee-substitutes to be rec-ognized all over. From that time may also come the German saying “Muckefuck” (translated from the French “mocca” and “faux” = false). In France this coffee-substitute was produced mainly from chicory and from that it may have its rather bad reputation as a cheap substitute for poor people.

Cereal-beverages are also known for its name as flower coffee. For this traditional name exist two different explanations:

1. One because the flowery pattern in the bottom of the cup is slightly shimmer through (more than in the real coffee-cup).
2. And the other explanation is that coffee-substitute is mainly produced from the chicory intybus, the plant with the bright and blue blossoms.

Now-days cereal-beverages are not only a caffeine-free alternative for people who poorly tolerate cof-fee but it is also very much appreciated by health-conscious consumers and for its positive effect on the body.

For its taste consumers don’t have any restrictions because thanks to the different recipes cereal-beverages are now available from fruity-mild to strong-bitter.

It should be also noted that the production-process of cereal-beverages have changed strongly during its long history and especially with the spray-drying method has approved again considerably.

Since then consumers have the choice not only from the filter-coffee-substitute that is known since centuries but from the practical and instant soluble cereal-beverages now-days.

The industrial extraction and spray-drying process has a significant advantage for its quality by comparison to the home-made filtering.