Pariprashnena — Q&A Archive

Are you thinking of Postum?

Celestial Seasonings makes a caffeine-free tea out of roasted barley called Roastaroma that has a robust, coffee taste to it.

You can also make herbal coffee substitutes out of dandelion roots or acorns. I used to have the recipes, but Ive misplaced them. You can probably find them online.

"Sankirtana" story. When I was a bhakta we used to sell Postum as coffee and big oatmeal cookies at rest stops. People would think they were going to wake up when they bought this "coffee" but the combination of cookies and coffee would really put them to sleep. We even had truckers complain to us that the coffee would make them drowsy.
But this was all "transcendental". Even when one of the rest stops had a sign that said "Pregnant women should not drink this water or people with heart conditions, etc." I was told to just use that water to make the "coffee" with by my Van leader, now a guru.
One day a lady came back after buying a cup of "coffee" and said very convincingly to me, "This is not coffee. I dont know what it is but I know it is not coffee.". I had to tell her the standard lie that yes, it really was coffee. Another time a boy wanted some cookies and I told him I would only sell him the cookies if he chanted Hare Krishna first. A few minutes later his very angry father came back with the boy and shouted "Did you tell him he had to chant Hare Krishna in order for you to sell him a pack of cookies?". I was afraid he was going to hit me so I said no.
We also used to steal tomatoes off the trucks loaded up with them for our offerings because it was all transcendental back then. That was before bumper sticker sankirtana.

Chicory

they make a syrup out of it and you make a hot drink with milk (soy of course) and it is reminiscent of coffee taste but has no coffee or caffeine in it

is that the stuff

related to coffee stuff, in case somebody thinks red bull is inoffensive:
http://www.vedanews.com/story.php?title=Death_By_Red_Bull