The Best Chicory Coffee in 2026: Tested and Ranked
Chicory coffee has been around for 200 years — but which brands are actually worth buying? We tested Teeccino, Cafe du Monde, Leroux, Pero, and more.
Chicory coffee is one of those drinks that feels new to a lot of Americans and is, in fact, two centuries old. It was the workaround during the Continental Blockade of the early 1800s when coffee couldn’t reach Europe; it was the New Orleans fixture that survived the Civil War; and it’s the quiet secret behind Cafe du Monde’s café au lait.
Today it shows up in three forms: pure roasted chicory root (the Southern and French classic), chicory-forward herbal coffee blends (Teeccino, Pero), and coffee blends that include chicory as a partner (Cafe du Monde). They taste different, they cost different, and they’re not interchangeable.
“Best” is doing a lot of work in this headline. The best chicory coffee for someone nursing a morning espresso habit is very different from the best one for someone who just wants to cook beignets properly. We’ve split our picks by use case so you can skip to what you need.
What we’re looking for
Our criteria for this roundup:
- Taste. Is the chicory well-roasted — deep and slightly caramel — or ashy and flat?
- Caffeine-free integrity. Some “chicory blends” sneak in coffee. We flag that clearly.
- Ingredient transparency. Pure chicory? Chicory blend? What else is in there?
- Price per cup. Chicory is cheap agriculturally; the price spread between brands is mostly about format.
- Availability. Some of these you can find at any grocery store; some are mail-order.
One honest caveat up front: we’ve drunk chicory on and off for years, and the format matters more than most people realize. A drip-brewed chicory and a French-press chicory taste noticeably different. We brewed each pick according to the manufacturer’s instructions, but the best in-class can shift if you change your prep.
Our picks
Teeccino French Roast
Teeccino’s French Roast is a chicory-forward blend rather than pure chicory — the ingredient list is roasted chicory, carob, barley, dates, figs, and almonds. It’s the closest-to-coffee herbal roast we’ve tried, and that roundness is largely because the chicory isn’t doing the work alone. The carob adds body, the dates add a faint natural sweetness, and the barley gives it a familiar roasty backbone.
If you’re coming off regular coffee and want something that brews and tastes structurally similar, this is the easiest landing. You can pull it through a drip machine, a French press, or even an espresso portafilter (it won’t produce crema but it’ll produce a dark, bitter-sweet shot). The main caveat is obvious: it’s caffeine-free, so it’s not for someone chasing a full-caffeine replacement. It’s for someone who wants the morning cup without the afternoon crash.
Teeccino French Roast is widely available online and in natural-foods aisles at larger grocers.
Pros
- Closest-to-coffee flavor of anything caffeine-free we tested
- Works in any coffee setup (drip, French press, espresso)
- Contains prebiotic fiber from chicory and inulin
Cons
- Caffeine-free — won’t satisfy a caffeine habit
- Contains almonds (allergen) and barley (not gluten-free)
- Blend means you’re not getting “pure chicory” if that’s what you wanted
Ideal use: day-one coffee quitter who still wants a morning mug that feels like coffee.
Cafe du Monde Coffee and Chicory
Cafe du Monde is the most famous chicory product in the U.S., and it deserves the fame — but it’s important to be clear about what it is. This is a coffee and chicory blend, not pure chicory. It’s caffeinated. If you came here to avoid caffeine, skip this one.
For what it is, it’s exceptional. The chicory rounds out the coffee and gives the cup that classic New Orleans depth. For making café au lait with hot milk, it’s basically the reference standard. We’d argue this is the single best introduction to what chicory adds to coffee, full stop.
Pros
- Benchmark chicory flavor
- Cheap and widely available
- Essential for café au lait and beignets
Cons
- Contains caffeine — not a coffee alternative
- Coarse grind only in the classic can (fine-grind requires a separate SKU)
- The metal can isn’t recyclable in all municipalities
Ideal use: you still drink coffee and want the New Orleans café au lait experience.
Leroux Chicory
Leroux is the French workhorse — pure roasted chicory, nothing else, sold in a small red tin you can brew like instant coffee or drip. It’s the most traditional product on this list. Taste is intensely chicory: roasted, slightly bitter, with a natural caramel sweetness that comes from the inulin breaking down during roasting.
Because there’s nothing else in there — no carob, no barley, no dates — Leroux has a stronger, more single-note flavor than blends. Some people love that purity; others find it stark. We’d recommend trying it both as a standalone cup and cut 50/50 with hot milk before deciding.
Pros
- 100% pure chicory, nothing else
- Instant format, very fast to prep
- Inexpensive per serving
Cons
- More bitter and single-note than blends
- Instant format means less nuance than brewed
- Hardest to find in regular American grocery stores
Ideal use: traditionalist, or anyone who wants to cook with chicory as an ingredient.
Pero Instant Beverage
Pero is a European-style grain coffee — barley, chicory, and rye roasted together and ground to an instant powder. It sits squarely between Leroux and Teeccino in flavor: more complex than pure chicory, but grain-forward rather than chicory-forward. There’s a nuttiness and a mellow roast character that makes it easy to drink without milk.
Pero has been quietly on U.S. shelves for decades — often in the hot-cereal aisle rather than the coffee aisle, which is why you may never have noticed it. At its price point, it’s one of the best values in caffeine-free hot drinks.
Pros
- Genuinely pleasant, low-bitterness profile
- Very affordable per cup
- Instant format, easy travel
Cons
- Grain-forward rather than chicory-forward; if you specifically wanted chicory-heavy, look elsewhere
- Contains gluten (barley + rye)
- Instant only; no whole-ground option
Ideal use: daily-driver caffeine-free hot drink, especially at a budget.
Teeccino Dandelion Dark Roast
Teeccino’s Dandelion Dark Roast is a chicory-and-dandelion-root blend, and it’s the gluten-free option in Teeccino’s line — no barley. It’s a darker, slightly more herbal cup than French Roast, with a faint bitterness that reads (to us) as closer to espresso than drip.
The dandelion root is the signal ingredient. It’s traditionally used in European herbalism for digestive and liver support, though most of those claims rest on traditional use rather than rigorous trials. We wouldn’t buy it for the health claim alone — we’d buy it for the flavor and the gluten-free formulation.
Pros
- Gluten-free
- Deeper, more bitter profile suits people who like darker roasts
- Chicory + dandelion is a pleasant combination
Cons
- Still caffeine-free — not a caffeine replacement
- Dandelion flavor can read as medicinal to new drinkers
- Slightly more expensive than the French Roast
Ideal use: gluten-free households, or anyone who prefers a darker, more bitter herbal cup.
Worthy Mention: Whole Roasted Chicory Root (Bulk)
If you want to experiment, you can buy whole roasted chicory root from spice purveyors (Frontier Co-op, Mountain Rose Herbs, various Amazon sellers). Grind it yourself, brew it like French press coffee, and you’ll get a flavor several steps fresher than any packaged product. It’s more work and less consistent, but it’s the cheapest per cup and the most rewarding if you’re a nerd about it.
How we tested
We brewed each product daily for five to seven days in the format the manufacturer recommends. French press for Teeccino and whole-root chicory; drip for Cafe du Monde; instant prep for Leroux and Pero. Water was filtered through a single standard pitcher filter across all tests to keep the water chemistry constant.
We drank each cup once black and once with a splash of unsweetened oat milk, because chicory behaves very differently with dairy (it becomes rounder and less bitter) and that’s how a lot of real people drink it.
Two testers with divergent palates — one who grew up drinking strong espresso, one who grew up drinking black tea — ranked each cup on taste, body, and “would you drink this daily.” Where we disagreed, we say so.
What to know before you switch
If you’re moving to chicory because you’re quitting caffeine, a few things worth knowing:
- Chicory is genuinely caffeine-free. Unlike mushroom coffee, there’s no asterisk. That’s the main reason it works for people with reflux, anxiety, pregnancy considerations, or evening cravings.
- The inulin content is real but modest. Chicory is a meaningful source of prebiotic fiber, which can be a gut-health win — or, for some people, a source of initial bloating. Start with one cup a day and scale up.
- Withdrawal is still real. Chicory won’t cause caffeine withdrawal, but if you’re switching because you’re quitting caffeine, see how to quit caffeine without a headache and what to drink during caffeine withdrawal.
- Ritual preservation matters. The chicory cup should fill the same slot your coffee cup did — same mug, same window seat, same time. Substituting the chemistry is easier than substituting the rhythm.
More on the ingredient itself in our chicory reference page.
Frequently asked questions
Is chicory coffee actually coffee?
No. Chicory coffee is made from the roasted, ground root of the chicory plant (Cichorium intybus). It’s brewed like coffee and tastes similar — roasty, slightly bitter, with a natural sweetness — but contains zero caffeine.
Does chicory coffee have health benefits?
Chicory root is a rich source of inulin, a prebiotic fiber, which some research suggests supports gut health. It’s also caffeine-free, which is a benefit for anyone managing anxiety, reflux, or sleep issues. Keep expectations modest — it’s a pleasant drink with a few perks, not a supplement.
What's the difference between pure chicory and a blend like Teeccino?
Pure chicory (Leroux, Cafe du Monde’s chicory-only option) is more bitter and single-note. Blends like Teeccino and Pero mix chicory with carob, barley, or dates for a rounder, more coffee-like flavor.
Can I brew chicory in a regular coffee maker?
Yes. Ground chicory brews beautifully in drip, French press, and pour-over. Most blends work at a standard 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio. Cafe du Monde’s coffee-and-chicory blend is also espresso-friendly.
A note on transparency
Some of the outbound links on this site are affiliate links; our editorial picks are unaffected by that. We tested these products with the same grinder, the same water, and the same mug, and ranked them on what’s in the cup.
Reader conversation (2)
We read every response. Selected reader notes below.
Cafe du Monde’s chicory-coffee blend will always have my heart but for pure chicory root Teeccino French Roast is really solid. The addition of carob and dates rounds out what pure chicory can’t do on its own.
Pero for travel, Teeccino at home. That’s my solution.
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