On a hot summer day everything seems to pause, and you just want something cool. Chicory iced coffee is the answer, and it beats plain cold brew once you nail the ratio. Blend about three parts coffee to one part roasted chicory root, steep it in cold water overnight, and you get a smoother, naturally less bitter concentrate that costs almost nothing. All you need is a mason jar. Pour it over ice, cut it with milk or water, and you have a drink that tastes like a New Orleans cafe made it.
Last updated: 2026-07-24
Chicory Iced Coffee
Ingredients
Method
- Prepare the Coffee Concentrate: In a large jar, mix equal parts of coffee grounds and chicory. Add 2 cups of cool, filtered water.
- Steep: Cover the jar and let it steep at room temperature or in the refrigerator for about 12 hours.
- Strain: After steeping, strain the mixture through a fine mesh sieve or coffee filter into a clean jar to get your chicory coffee concentrate.
- Serve: Fill a glass with ice cubes, pour the chicory coffee concentrate over the ice, and add water, milk, or sweetener to taste. Stir well.
- Enjoy! Your Chicory iced coffee is ready to drink!
Notes
What does chicory actually do to iced coffee?
Chicory adds earthy depth and body while taking the sharp edge off coffee's bitterness. The roasted root of the chicory plant has no caffeine, so it stretches your coffee and softens it at the same time. That is why it caught on: you use less coffee and the cup still tastes full.
The flavor reads as woody and slightly sweet, almost like toasted caramel with a whisper of dark chocolate. It also thickens the mouthfeel, giving cold brew a rounder, creamier body without any dairy. Over ice, where watering-down usually flattens a coffee, chicory holds the drink together.
That richer body is why the ratio matters so much. Too much chicory and the earthy note turns muddy and medicinal. Too little and you might as well skip it. Get the balance right and it tastes deliberate, not diluted.
Getting the chicory-to-coffee ratio right
Start at three parts coffee to one part chicory for a concentrate, then adjust. That keeps the coffee in charge while chicory smooths and deepens it. For classic New Orleans intensity, push toward two parts coffee to one part chicory. Any heavier and you lose the coffee entirely.
The ratio also shifts depending on whether you make concentrate or a ready-to-drink batch:
- Concentrate (my pick): roughly 1 part total grounds to 4 parts cold water. Strong, and you dilute it in the glass.
- Ready-to-drink: closer to 1 part grounds to 8 parts water, the standard cold brew ratio, so you can pour it straight over ice.
Concentrate wins for me because it stores better and lets you dial in each glass. Weigh your grounds with a cheap kitchen scale instead of scooping. Chicory and coffee have different densities, so a tablespoon of each is not the same amount, and scoops throw your ratio off.
Making chicory cold brew concentrate
The method is the same forgiving cold brew you already know. Grind your coffee coarse, roughly the size of raw sugar. A fine grind turns the brew muddy and clogs your filter, and chicory is already fine and silty, so you want everything else chunky.
Combine your coffee and chicory blend with cold, filtered water in a jar. Stir, cap it, and let it steep overnight, roughly half a day. Leave it on the counter at room temperature or park it in the fridge; the fridge just runs an hour or two slower. Longer steeping means stronger, not smoother, so taste it in the morning and decide.
Strain it twice. First through a mesh strainer to catch the grounds, then through a paper coffee filter or a clean kitchen towel to catch the chicory silt. That second pass is the difference between a clean cup and a gritty one. For more technique, my overnight cold brew methods walk through the same steps for plain coffee.
Turning your concentrate into an iced chicory latte
For an iced chicory latte, fill a glass with ice, pour in your concentrate about halfway, then top with cold milk. Roughly equal parts concentrate and milk is my starting point. Want it stronger? Tip toward more concentrate. Want it gentler and creamier? Add more milk.
The milk you choose changes everything:
- Whole milk: classic, rounds out chicory's earthiness.
- Oat milk: my favorite here; its natural sweetness plays beautifully with the toasted-caramel note.
- Sweetened condensed milk: the Vietnamese-style move, thick and dessert-sweet, so skip any other sweetener.
- Unsweetened almond: thinner and nuttier, best if you want the chicory up front.
Stir once and taste before you reach for sugar. Chicory brings its own faint sweetness, so you usually need less than you think. A pinch of cinnamon or a splash of vanilla suits the earthy base far better than a heavy flavored syrup.
Should you buy a pre-made blend or build your own?
Buy a can to learn the flavor, then build your own blend once you know what you like. Both routes work, and the honest tradeoff is convenience versus control.
| Option | Best for | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| Café Du Monde Coffee with Chicory | The New Orleans benchmark and the most reliable start for concentrate | Fixed ratio, leans strong and dark |
| Community Coffee Café Special Blend | A milder chicory ratio that suits iced lattes | Less punch straight over ice |
| Loose roasted chicory root + your own dark roast | Full control of the ratio, no markup | You have to source and measure it yourself |
Café Du Monde is the one I reach for first. It is cheap, strong, and consistent, and it is the flavor most people mean when they say chicory coffee. The Community blend runs a touch milder, which suits milk drinks better than black cold brew.
Once you know the taste, buy loose roasted chicory root and add it to a good dark roast. That is the real upgrade. You control the exact ratio, dial it up or down by the batch, and skip the premium on the pre-blended cans.
A short history rooted in New Orleans
Chicory coffee is a thrift trick that became a tradition. By the 1840s New Orleans was the second largest coffee importer in the United States, and when wartime blockades made beans scarce, locals stretched their coffee with roasted chicory root. The habit stuck long after the shortage ended.
France drove the taste for it first. French chicory exports jumped from about 1.25 million pounds in 1835 to upwards of 16 million pounds by 1860, and French settlers carried the preference to Louisiana. The same concentrate people drank hot eventually got poured over ice against the New Orleans heat, and iced chicory coffee became a summer staple.
How many calories does chicory iced coffee have?
A plain glass is nearly calorie-free, because both coffee and chicory bring almost nothing on their own. Black concentrate over ice is essentially a zero-calorie drink. The calories live entirely in what you add.
Here is the rough picture, lightest to heaviest:
- Black over ice: basically nothing.
- Splash of whole milk: a modest bump, still a light drink.
- Iced chicory latte with whole milk: more, depending on how much you pour.
- Sweetened condensed milk version: the calorie bomb, since it is both cream and sugar.
If you are watching calories, chicory is a smart base. Its natural body means you can skip sugar and cut back on milk without the drink tasting thin. The sweetened condensed milk route is a treat you pour on lazy weekends.
Storing and stretching your concentrate
Concentrate keeps its best flavor for about a week, and stays drinkable up to two, if you store it undiluted in a sealed jar. Diluted cold brew goes flat and watery much faster, so always cut it in the glass rather than in the jar. Keep it in the coldest part of the fridge, away from the door where the temperature swings.
If you taste sourness or a papery, cardboard note, it is past its prime. Toss it and brew fresh; a batch takes only a few minutes of hands-on work. Made too much? Freeze the extra in an ice cube tray. Chicory coffee cubes chill your next glass without watering it down, and nothing goes to waste.
Batch-brewing on a Sunday is the most efficient way to drink chicory iced coffee all week. One jar covers several mornings, and each glass takes only a pour and a stir.
FAQ
Is chicory iced coffee caffeine-free?
Only if you leave out the coffee. Roasted chicory root has no caffeine, but most recipes blend it with real coffee, so a standard cup still has some. For a caffeine-free drink, brew chicory root on its own; my guide to caffeine-free chicory brew at home covers that route.
Can I make it hot-brewed instead of cold?
Yes. Brew a strong batch hot, let it cool, and pour it over ice. It is faster than cold brew but tastes sharper and more bitter, because heat pulls more out of the grounds. Cold brew stays smoother, which is the whole point with chicory.
What grind size works best?
Coarse, about the texture of raw sugar. Chicory is naturally fine and silty, so keeping the coffee coarse stops the mix from turning gritty and hard to strain. A fine grind also over-extracts and turns the earthy note bitter.
Where do I buy roasted chicory root?
Look in the coffee aisle for pre-blended cans, or check bulk-spice and health-food shops for loose roasted chicory root. Buy it already roasted and ground for cold brew. Raw chicory root needs roasting first and is not worth the extra step for most people.
Can I use a French press for this?
Yes, and it is a good shortcut. Steep your coarse blend in the press, then plunge slowly. You will still want to run it through a paper filter afterward, since the metal mesh lets chicory silt slip into the cup.
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