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Acorn Coffee Recipe

Acorn is the nut of the oak tree. Did you know that you can eat acorns and even make naturally caffeine-free acorn coffee ? You will be surprised by what a beautiful nutty and caramel flavour it has. You can use ready-made acorn meal sold as coffee substitute, or forage, roast and grind your own acorns. It does take a bit of time to prepare them, but it could be a fun activity to enjoy with your kids and family. Acorns are usually safe for tree-nut allergy sufferers, but please double-check if unsure.

Customer Rating:
5.0 (1 votes)

Posted by: michael
On:

Cuisine

British

Time

> 2 hrs

Skill Level

Newbie

Serves

2

Courses etc.

Detox
Healthy Drinks

You will need

IngredientAdd
2 tbsp acorn powder
2 1/2  mugfuls of water
pinch of salt More products
1 mugful of almond milk OR More products
1 mugful of rice milk

Awaiting stock

 		More products
2 tsps honey (if not vegan) OR

Awaiting stock

 		More products
vegan sweetener More products

Need help converting measurements? View our recipe measurement conversion tables here.

Method

  • Method for Acorn Coffee
  • In a small saucepan combine the acorn coffee powder, water and salt. Boil for 5 to 10 minutes, stir well and set aside.
  • The acorn powder will swell and create a thicker sediment on the bottom of the boiling pan but you will only need the infused liquid.
  • In a different saucepan, heat the almond or rice milk until hot, but not boiling.
  • Pour the infused acorn coffee / liquid into the mugs you prepared earlier (you should be able to fill each mug about half way).
  • Top up with the hot almond or rice milk.
  • Add one teaspoon of honey or other sweetener in each mug.
  • Note: You also can make a black acorn coffee without milk. Feel free to add more or less acorn powder per serving.
  • -------------------------------------------
  • Method for  acorn powder / flour / meal
  • Make sure you pick acorns under a White Oak (Quercus alba), not a Red Oak (Quercus rubra). The Red Oak has pointy leaves and the acorns will have a more bitter flavour because they contain more tannins.
  • Pick enough acorns to fill 4 cups or a 1 litre tub / container (or as much as you would like) of ripe, brown acorns. Note that the quantity of final product will be greatly reduced compared to the quantity of fresh acorns you start out with. You can definitely pick more, but a moderate quantity will be easier to process.
  • Inspect the acorns and discard the ones which have holes or big cracks in them.
  • Boil the whole acorns (still in their shells) for 30 minutes. This will make the shells a bit softer and easier to remove.
  • Shell and peel the acorns: Let the acorns cool down a bit. Cut them in half and take the acorn out. Discard if they are black or mouldy. After shelling, try to remove as much of the skin as possible, as this thin skin is very rich in tannins and will result in a bitter tasting acorn coffee.
  • Cut the acorns into smaller pieces or use a food processor to roughly process them.
  • Roast them in a dry cast iron pan or in a warm oven until they become dark and very dry.
  • Grind them in a coffee grinder. After this step you can return them back to the pan for roasting, if you think you would like a deeper roasted flavour.
  • Transfer the acorn coffee powder to an airtight container, where it will keep well for several weeks at room temperature.

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