Was just looking At an old thread about where did the Germans get their tobacco during World War II.
Being a non tobacco user but a coffee drinker-
Where did they get their coffee?

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They drank something called ersatz kaffe, which literally translates as imitation coffee. From what I hear it was pretty bad.

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Minimize the variables

Early on, I'd say they drank a LOT of French coffee, that was probably still on the boil when the positions were over run...

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NULLI SECUNDUS

They also made coffee somehow--out of tree bark. Same thing with gun lubricant too.

In Norway they roasted peas and grinded it, it was used as a substitute for coffe, they say i tasted horrible

some people had their own tobacco plant in the livingroom, it was just like birthday and Christmas at the same time when the tobacco leafes was dry and ready for use

Hmmmmm, that reminds me--I havent had a Pot Pie lately.They have Peas in them. I havent had any for several months now....

My grandfather had rabbits during the war, the germans wanted to buy one each week for the saturday meal, he was affraid to get in trouble if he denied so he sold them a rabbit, but he had a large familly and needed the meat to feed them, so he came up with a plan.....the germans bought rabbit every friday for a long time....but one day the soldier said....he wanted meat.....aber nix mjau mjau hed had sold them old cat`s for several week`s ..

Ersatz Kaffee with a southern accent was also widely used in the Confederacy when the real thing was unobtainable. Some of it was made with acorns leached in water, dried, and roasted. Supposed to have been only a fair approximation of real coffee.

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Oh well, what the hell.

Meat was rare in Scotland during the war.My mothers family had a farm,so once in a blue moon they would have old mutton.Her brothers would place nets over rabbit holes and send a ferret down one opening to chase them out.Her aunt had a small hotel nearby that was close to a stream.Somehow she would come up with trout and salmon to sell to GIs

Speaking of southern coffee - back in my puppy dog days, I used to do long distance nonstop driving.
Stopped late one night over on the Texas Louisiana border. I think I was actually still in Texas.
Told the waitress one cup of coffee please.
She says do you want Texas coffee or Louisiana coffee?
I say what's the difference?
She replied, actually there's quite a bit of difference.
After we both laughed for a while, I had the Louisiana coffee.
It Was of course a chicory blend.

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I love chicory coffee, and my late brother did too. I looked far and wide to find some locally before he died, but couldn't. It used to be sold at Kroger stores here.

Sorry, back to thread subject.

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Oh well, what the hell.

They probably got their coffee and cigarettes off the bodies of murdered G.I.'s, Russians, African Germans, Jews, American Nisei (Japanese American soldiers), and anybody else that had the bad luck to get captured by the SS, IMO.

At the supermarket.

The Europeans didn't have as much of a taste for coffee as Americans, rather being more tea drinkers. However, when the stocks of coffee ran out in Germany after the start of the war, they replenished their supplies of coffee, cocoa, and tea when they invaded the Netherlands. When that ran out, they went back to Ersatz coffee.

Possibly a blend of chicory? French coffee is redolent of chicory, from my days in Paris.

Kaaskop49
Shield #5103

Couldn't they import through neutral countries? And they were allies of the Japanese, who captured the Netherlands East Indies, now Indonesia, a coffee growing region. Some called coffee "Java" after that from there.

Euros do drink a lot of coffee. That's why we have brands like Gevallia (sp?), from Sweden.

But my only current Swedish correspondent, apart from Q-Ball here, prefers tea. She buys Twining's brand, sold loose there by weight. But she says that coffee is popular with others.

ADDED: Probably Allied naval efforts precluded most shipping between the East Indies and Germany.

Norwegians drink more coffee than tea...the englishmen are tea drinkers

Where does Norway get coffee?

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One of the Louisiana brands used to be sold here. Dark-roasted coffee well-laced with chicory. My brother learned to love the combination when he was stationed at an inter-service communications base in Eritrea, which was then part of Ethiopia. (He was a Navy radioman.) He said the smell of chicory coffee in the morning was intoxicating.

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Oh well, what the hell.

Strictly speaking, "ersatz" means replacement, or substitute . During WWI the British spread the word it meant shoddy, artifical and bogus.
I read an account by a German officer, a lieutenent colonel, he mentions dining in an upscale restaurant and being approached by a well dressed older lady who asked if she could have the remains of his cigarettes, she explained that tobacco was very tightly rationed-and often unobtainable-for civilians. he says she then produced a little silver scoop and matching container.
In a nearby store that sells European products I have seen chicory based beverages, probably mane people acquired a taste for the "ersatz" products.

Ersatzkaffee, mostly barley, malt, chicory and rye. Believe it or not, growing up in Germany in the 60s, in families of very moderate means like ours, "Bohnenkaffee" (literally coffee from coffee beans) was STILL reserved for Sundays and holidays, and during the week my parents drank "Mucke****" (no, the second part of that word is NOT related to what you're thinking, although the spelling is identical, which is apparently why the forum edits it automatically!), which is what we called it then; "Ersatzkaffee" reminded people too much of the war.

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Well, Turkey grew tobacco and Africa coffee and some tea. Tough getting it there, but possible.

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James L. "Jim" Rhiner

Hitler's kaput, want some real coffee, ya?

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Stay safe people!

My dad and I used to drink French Market coffee all the time. We bought it at Safeway stores.

Amazon.com: coffee french market

French Market Coffee is widely available at supermarkets and Asian groceries.

Ever drink Postum? I believe it's a roasted grain product. Not a close match for coffee, but not half bad. I used to drink it as a kid. As I recall, in WWII a lot of people used it as a substitute; but I can't swear to that, despite the fact that I was there.

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Oh well, what the hell.

Norway imported 10 kilos per citizen in 2010, over 40 000 metric tonnes, Norway is ranked nr 2 in the world of coffedrinkers, we get our coffee mainly from Brazil, i`m not a coffedrinker......i drink maybe 10-12 cup`s a year

Tobacco is grown through much of Europe.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

This is true, although the Northern European countries like Germany, due to the climate, were always huge importers.

By the end of the war and right after, good tobacco had become so valuable in Germany that it was more valuable than money and served as sort of an alternative currency.
I would suspect there were quite a few babies born in the years after 1945 in the US-occupied zone as a result of some good American cigarettes changing hands .....

when I got to Germany in 1970 coffee was one of the four items that was rationed. the others being cigarettes , gas and booze

My father was the youngest of 12 and went through the German Occupation. Captured and escaped twice I have learned. But that's another story.

Family rumor I heard as a little kid was that an older brother, Uncle John, had a pantload of coffee on hand when the Germans overran Holland. Uncle John was quite well off at the end of the war.

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~ From the Land of Lobstah ~

I think your memory fails you there, at least as far as the Germans were concerned. The last food restrictions left over from the post-war years were lifted in West Germany in May 1950, and the "Wirtschaftswunder" (economic miracle) had started to hum along, and by then there wasn't anything you couldn't get if you had the money. By 1970 we were actually sneaking coffee into packages to our poor relations stuck in the Communist East, who barely ever saw the stuff. And booze was one thing even the Communists never rationed, or they would have had a lot more rebellions on their hands.

The Allies must have captured tons of that ersatz German coffee and gave it to us GIs during the Vietnam war. As a line in the old marching tune goes: "they say that in the army, the coffee's mighty fine but it looks like muddy water and tastes like turpentine."

Army coffee was positively awful.

One of my aunts that had emigrated just before the war broke out had a taste for it (I doubt that she could afford coffee back then) and preferred it for the rest of her life.

Close.. it's GEVALIA
And i usually lett my kidneys filter at least a liter of the stuff each day

The way I read I in a WW II songbook: "It's good for cuts and bruises and tastes like iodine."

Ground up seal skins
As far as coffee goes I like dark roast with chicory brewed black as the devils heart. I mix it 2-1 with scalded whole milk. No sugar.
Puts lead in yer pencil I guarantee!!!

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It was rationed to military personnel because it was so much cheaper than what could be bought in German stores, the military didn't want GI's selling the stuff (coffee, booze, cigarettes) at a profit.

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Minimize the variables

Remember, much of South America (esp. Argentina) were German sympathizers. Coffee and tobacco were available, if you had connections and Reichmarks.

I German that's: Supermarkt--I always wondered why they left out an "E"???

To me, most teas taste like coffee--and I think Twinings is the best. I drink copious amounts of English Breakfast, Irish Breakfast and Earl Grey. I cant stand Bigelow--not enough taste for me...

NEIN Herr Ringo! Das E wurde hinzugefügt AMERIKANER!!

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~ From the Land of Lobstah ~

Dandelion root can be roasted and used for coffee, though I do not know if this was done during WW2.

Some of the best tobacco in the world used to be grown around Sarajevo. I am old enough to have had some from before the Balkan wars cut off the supply and then after the war it wasn't the same.

Western Prisoners, who were largely treated according the Geneva convention, received regular Red Cross parcels containing cigarettes (American were preferred to British), coffee etc. These could be sold or traded to guards, though most Americans were in Luftwaffe custody since downed airmen were the major source of prisoners for most of the war. SS units were no more likely to shoot prisoners than regular German Army units, and perhaps slightly less likely than American units. (The Germans knew they were losing.)

Aha. I was kind of wondering whether the previous poster might have meant it that way. Thanks.

I did the thread a while back about my buddy who was a guest of the Luftwaffe down in Bavaria.
They did get the Red Cross packages.

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