Some people got hooked on the chickory. They still sell coffee with chickory in New Orleans coffeehouses, like Cafe du Monde. Personally, I think it tastes like pee.
The South turned to chicory because the Northern blockade cut off the coffee imports. Of the leading 4 chicory coffee companies that survive today, three are in Louisiana and one is in tidewater Virginia. But the U.S. chicory industry making the ingredient was destroyed by a Frenchman who set out to and did monopolize this narrow international market. He did so with assistance from young federal bureaucrats who, like so many of the young, decided to take the anti-American side. I know because one of them apologized to me later for it. I was one of the counsel trying to save the last American chicory company. Incidentally, chicory is used by makers of health food teas who believe that it has beneficial effects, although they are a small part of the market.
There’s a chicory/coffee blend I can buy (Eight O’Clock?) but
never have, I don’t take risks with coffee, I need it to get
me up and out.