Ditto bread (and coffee)

[Millie Webb]

Okay, maybe I missed it (haven't been checking back as often lately).
Hasn't anyone mentioned Ersatz Kaffee in this context?  I immediately
assumed that was what someone meant when they said "corn coffee".  German
for the Swedish "kaffesurrogater" given above.  I had never heard the
Swedish until just now, by the way.  But I honestly cannot remember the
first time I heard Ersatz Kaffee.  It was definitely before I lived in
Germany in high school.  And it was not a compliment to say something tasted
like Ersatz Kaffee, to put it mildly.  And no, my family's background is not
German at all (that we know of).  I did, however, grow up in a traditionally
German and Norwegian part of St Paul (now much more mixed -- to the point
that one cannot distinguish a list of names from that neighborhood from a
list of names from any other neighborhood or small town in North America, as
far as I can tell).  Anyway, even seeing the term "corn coffee" took me
back.  Ya'd think it'd been thirty years or something, eh?  Not nearly, but
still another life in a lot of ways.

And, btw, I bet Kellogg's (also Battle Creek, Michigan) would claim WK
Kellogg "invented" it as a product, but thought it tasted terrible, so they
did not mass produce it.  ;-)   Maybe not, but my Dad's from B.C., and I had
to say it.
----- Original Message -----
From: "A. Maberry" <maberry at U.WASHINGTON.EDU>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, August 28, 2002 11:13 AM
Subject: Re: Ditto bread (and coffee)


> Of course there's always "Postum", the grain-based coffee-like beverage.
> According to the website
> (http://www.kraftfoods.com/postcereals/heritage.html), invented by C.W.
> Post in 1895 in Battle Creek, Mich.
>
> allen
>
>
> On Wed, 28 Aug 2002, Beverly Flanigan wrote:
>
> > I recall my dad saying early Scandinavian immigrants to America often
used
> > grain-based coffee, esp. in winter when access to real coffee was more
> > difficult.  My Swedish immigrant grandfather had to drive a team of
horses
> > 40 or 50 miles to the nearest railroad station, where supplies came in.