Aunt Anzie’s Chicory and Coffee Cake and Murray State University

Luzianne Coffee with Chicory

Aunt Anzie’s Chicory and “Coffee Cake” and Murray State University

Mary Hopkins was singing Those Were The Days My Friend at 06:00 hours on Monday, September 2, 1968, in room 404 White Hall at Murray State University. I got dressed and ran two miles in a light misty rain before showering and heading to the cafeteria in the basement of the old Student Union Building across from the Fine Arts Building.

I was clearing tables that morning, my first of many campus jobs, and I and my suitemates had access to breakfast thanks to my supervisor’s generosity. Miss Sally was my supervisor and she would always let us hang out after I served my 2-hour duty and drink coffee and have a late breakfast.

I have never been that much of a breakfast fan; however, the cooks there were pretty good so I recall loading up with biscuits and gravy and a couple of eggs and some sausage. I poured myself a big cup of coffee, I have always been a caffeine kind of guy.

My first taste led to an unusual reaction my roommates would later say. The coffee was tasteless and weak to me. I honestly thought that someone had not properly made the coffee that morning and went to Miss Sally to let her know.

Miss Sally was a quintessential lady of Southern charm and essence and an excellent cook. She poured herself a cup and declared the coffee was just fine. I was perplexed and confused.

Since I was 5-years old my Aunt Anzie had me drinking “her coffee.”

She was, as I have mentioned a Native American by heritage, and always had a day-old Cathead’s biscuit, soaked in her coffee and sprinkled with sugar ready for me each morning that she kept me. She called it “morning coffee cake” and I thought I was a grownup each time I sat at her table. She always served it on Currier-Ives blue plates with a cup and saucer. Her silverware, which was heavy and tarnished, had been handed down to her from a family member. Aunt Anzie was a “sipper” of her coffee always pouring it into the saucer and blowing on it to cool it.

On the next trip home I joined her for morning coffee cake and told her of my first experience of having coffee at school. She appeared embarrassed and immediately apologized. She always called me honey, “Honey, she said I should have told you this years ago but my coffee is mostly chicory.”

Chicory, according to Wikipedia is a somewhat woody, perennial herbaceous plant usually with bright blue flowers, rarely white or pink. Many varieties are cultivated for salad leaves, chicons (blanched buds), or for roots (var. sativum), which are baked, ground, and used as a coffee substitute and additive.

Aunt Anzie grew her chicory and ground it up and added a little Maxwell House coffee. She grew up poor and this was a way of having a favorite beverage and making it last as long as possible. Her coffee was dark and thick and required lots of fresh cream and sugar. I used to joke you could stand a spoon up in it.

I reassured her that there was no reason to be embarrassed that I just always appreciated her coffee and “cake” and always would. We had a good laugh and she gave me one of her great Aunt hugs!

My mother, who also grew up poor was not into chicory, she would make a pot of coffee in the morning and just add a tablespoon of coffee throughout the day. Her coffee was never strong enough for me although I would always politely drink it.

One of my great joys over the years has been finding and using Luzianne Coffee, a New Orleans coffee with a mixture of chicory. I am pleased my friend Mike at IGA locally carries it for us.

The Luzianne name is steeped in Southern heritage. Luzianne began life in 1902, when William B. Reily, who owned a wholesale grocery business, moved from Monroe, Louisiana to New Orleans. In New Orleans, he changed his emphasis to coffee and tea.

By 1932, the Luzianne brand was established throughout the Southeast, as was its reputation for selling the region’s finest coffee and tea. Today, Luzianne is still revered as the gold standard of Southern refreshment. (http://www.luzianne.com/luzianne_heritage#sthash.wDogPMiK.dpuf)

There was always a joke around any office I have worked in that we “should just give him his personal coffee pot.” And, much to my pleasure, at each duty station, I ever held my staff would do just that. I have always made extremely strong coffee and few people can handle my brew whether it has chicory or not.

One of my favorite memories is sitting at Café Dumont in New Orleans one evening in the 1980s with Bob and Marcia Maxwell and enjoying a cup of French Quarter coffee with a heavy dose of chicory and fresh beignets, which are commonly known in New Orleans as a breakfast served with powdered sugar on top.

“My dream is to have a house on the beach, even just a little shack somewhere so I can wake up, have coffee, look at dolphins, be quiet and breathe the air.”- Christina Applegate

February 23, 2015