In another thread Cludgie remarked on the Caro coffee often used in Germany and ofcourse that gets me thinking..

Here in Europe, mormons drink Caro (which is a coffee substitute made from ground up roots. Correct me if I'm wrong?) I know for a fact that it was used in HOlland during WW2 when coffee was in short supply. But in Germany it is a normal hot drink.

The dutch members used to travel to the Frankfurt Temple and stock up on Caro for drinking at home.
They also insist that they can drink herbal tea. Redbush or any other kinds of herbals teas, as long as they don't contain black tea leaves because they are supposed to be bad.

Now we all know the word of wisdom is a bunch of crap and entails nothing like what is actually written down...
But it makes me wonder if the mormons in the USA in particular, but also in other countries, also drink herbal tea or some sort of coffee substitute? Or is the only hot drink the hot chocolate?

I think it is extremely funny how members try to find excuses and ways around the church rules on the one hand, yet go completely ape over other non-issues...

* USA mo-mos drink Postum (a hot grain-based beverage) as a coffee substitute.

* Herb tea is fine, so long as it does not contain caffeine.

* Iced tea is a no-no.

* Iced coffee is a no-no, but coffee ice cream is fine.

* Some avoid all caffeinated beverages (my family did growing up), but there are a large number that do drink Pepsi, Coke, etc.

When I was growing up in the States, anything made from coffee berries, and anything made from the tea plant were what was verboten.

I've seen lots of Mormons in Utah and the surrounding states drink herbal tea. Some of them tried to justify it calling it an "infusion", but, it was still hot.

Even when I was a TBM it didn't make any sense to me.

That's certainly its name in French, but I've never encountered it in English.

Thank you so much! I have seen the word "tisane" before, but was never really sure what it was.

I have been trying to wean my diabetic (and deeply inactive TBM) DH off of Coca-Cola by preparing pitchers of various kinds of herbal teas. One that has been very successful is a spearmint concoction that we found in a tea store. It has no real tea in it, but it looks like tea and brews up like tea.

If I keep a pitcher of that in the refrigerator, he is more likely to stay off the Coke.

My TBM grandparents used to keep Postum around for whenever their kids were visiting. The rest of the time, they drank coffee.

During my mission in Ireland in the 1980s, they used to drink Caro I think, but there was another more popular coffee substitute that I think was called "barleycup." The members and missionaries in one area were all obsessed with it. They were make it whenever we visited. The thing is... I wasn't a coffee drinker until my 30s, so why would I need a coffee substitute? The flavor was a bit nutty, but I didn't mind it all that much. So, I didn't complain or anything when they served it. I just didn't see the point.

And what about "avoiding the appearance of evil"? The Mormons I grew up with used to say that like a mantra. None of it makes any sense.

"To avoid the very appearance of evil."
Basically it means that if a thing even resembles something that goes against Church doctrine, you reject it.
I wasn't in the LDS Church, but an offshoot group that lived along many of the same principles, and this was one of them.

For instance, let's say that you are watching a movie/TV show and it starts to show something taboo (sex, murder,etc.), you would immediately stop watching and never watch it again.
It is a useful tool for preventing people from questioning things. When I was growing up, my family was exceedingly pious/self-righteous. We were told to look away from anything that was considered "immoral" and that could be anything from people in bathing suits to the TV at the doctor's office.

People who never question anything are very easy to deceive and manipulate.

Excellent point!

It explains why no mormons I knew while growing up would exacerbate!!

I'm curious elderolddog, have you ever masticated? You know, in private or in public?

Hey, renowned scientists have determined that mastication is good for you! But the jury is still out on mutual mastication!

+elderolddog:
"Hey, renowned scientists have determined that mastication is good for you! But the jury is still out on mutual mastication!"

==Renowned scientists say that you must master your joystick like a fisherman masters bait.

~~~~iceman9090

In England they have a drink called Barley Cup that looks like instand coffee, rather nice in fact. All the LDs would drink this stuff, brought at health food stores.

CARO

A Report by
cludgie

Actually, this is just copy-and-paste Wikipedia stuff. You know, just like your college papers:

"Caro is a brand of caffeine-free roasted grain beverages. It is generally considered a coffee substitute. It is manufactured by Nestlé and was first introduced in West Germany in 1954. It is available throughout Europe as well as other markets including New Zealand and Australia. It is imported to the United States under the name Pero. The name "Caro" sounds like the French word "Carreau", which translates to "diamonds" in playing cards, as seen in the Caro logo (which is also used on Pero)."

Probably "Caro" was already taken by some other product name in the states, or was somehow confusing to the ever-confused Americans and, by association, the Canadians.

As for content, "Caro is made up of soluble solids of roasted barley, malted barley, chicory, and rye. It is most often available in health food shops, but can also be found in most (or some) major supermarkets."

Caro is the quintessential healthy barley drink mentioned in the 89 section of the so-called "Doctrine and Covenants." And beer, of course. Beer is healthy, too. Really. It is. And good. It's a little fattening, and a bit heady if you drink too much. But good. Great with Mexican food. You don't need this lecture, but I'm just sayin'.

I like Caro pretty well, but it will never-ever replace good ol' single-source Ethiopian or Tanzanian coffee. Mmm-mm. I need some now.

Red bush tea (rooibos) tea, or simply "bush tea," is a fairly good substitute for black tea because it has a similar flavor and does not cause the milk or cream to clot like so many herbal teas do. But again, who would rather drink some good Tetley? But bush tea does make very passable iced tea. You Brits should drink more iced tea, incidentally. I live in the US South, and you can't make it through a summer of cutting the lawn without gallons of iced "sweet tea." Of course, if I lived in the land of cold summers with horizontal rain and tiny fireplaces, I, too, might never consume iced tea.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/20/2014 10:33AM by cludgie.

Well thank you Cludgie! :-)
I was mistaken on the WW2 drink then. It must have been something else they used.

The Germans used something they called "Malzkaffee"--malted barley and maybe roasted chicory root--and I believe that Kneipp brand goes back at least that far. I could wiki that, too, but do not have the mental energy. But it was the same stuff, just not Caro brand. Actual coffee is referred to as "Bohnenkaffee," or "bean coffee." The older Germans told me that they would have killed somebody over a cup of Bohnenkaffee and a good cigarette toward the end of the war.

I've had red and green, and they're both great.

Probably to close to Karo corn syrup. A popular brand in the states.

Cludgie, thank you for the clarification on "sweet tea!" I lived in Louisiana for most of the decade of the 80s, and that's where I both learned about sweet tea, and became a Mormon.

I think I lasted for maybe 15 years before sliding into apostasy, and I signaled it to my TBM DH by ordering iced tea in a restaurant.

It could have been worse. When we were in a restaurant another time, we caught both the RS Pres and her husband, (whose title I now forget) drinking wine with their supper.

My TBM neighbor almost had a panic attack when I offered her green (which I told her up-front was decaffeinated) and herbal tea on one of her visits, and we are nowhere near the Morridor. She's also only in her late 20s, I think. So, I guess some are still avoiding the appearance of all evil.

Funny that, avoiding the appearance of evil..

A while ago, I was in a pub. Listening to my fav. Irish musician. And I got chatting with a couple who sat near me. We had seen eachother before at this musician's venues. So we got chatting as in: Hey nice to see you again, how are you...and the guy is sporting a tall pint glass in front of him... so fine, I didn't think nothing of it.
Untill, as they al do in the end, they casually told me they were mormons and would I be interested...

I looked at his pint glass filled with golden liquid and raised an eyebrow..

And he said, without missing a beat: "That is appeljuice! Mormons don't drink beer!" (Yes I did taste it. It was indeed apple juice)

That floored me!
Especially when I later chatted with my friend the musician, who knew that couple quite well, and I said: "did you know they are mormons?" And he said: "No way! He drinks beer!!"
It took me quite a bit of convincing that the bloke was actually drinking apple juice from a beer glass!


Strange folks those mormons...

Becca Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Funny that, avoiding the appearance of evil..
>
> A while ago, I was in a pub. Listening to my fav.
> Irish musician. And I got chatting with a couple
> who sat near me. We had seen eachother before at
> this musician's venues. So we got chatting as in:
> Hey nice to see you again, how are you...and the
> guy is sporting a tall pint glass in front of
> him... so fine, I didn't think nothing of it.
> Untill, as they al do in the end, they casually
> told me they were mormons and would I be
> interested...
>
> I looked at his pint glass filled with golden
> liquid and raised an eyebrow..
>
> And he said, without missing a beat: "That is
> appeljuice! Mormons don't drink beer!" (Yes I did
> taste it. It was indeed apple juice)
>
> That floored me!
> Especially when I later chatted with my friend the
> musician, who knew that couple quite well, and I
> said: "did you know they are mormons?" And he
> said: "No way! He drinks beer!!"
> It took me quite a bit of convincing that the
> bloke was actually drinking apple juice from a
> beer glass!
>
>
> Strange folks those mormons...

That's funny! Great story.

My dear, departed neurotic mother-in-law would not drink things from a cup, for fear that "people" (who she apparently believed were in her garden and peering in through the windows, I guess) would think she MIGHT be drinking coffee. Some people are infected really badly with this madness. Her own DD, incidentally (my DW), does drink decaf tea and sometimes even decaf coffee. This whole Mormon hot drink thing is madness.

"coffee and tea substitutes"

I can think of two: Jack and Daniels

The irony with Postum is they quit producing after slumping sales and links shown between the beverage and cancer. I used to love to add a spoon of Postum to hot chocolate to give it a dark flavor and was sad when it was no longer sold. Then I left the church and developed a love of coffee after my gastroenterologist put me on a two cup/day prescription. Following the Word of Wisdom was putting me at risk for cancer, disobeying it is decreasing that same risk.

When I was a grad student in physics at the UofU, the lounge had a coffee/hot water maker for staff use. The year after I started a twit from BYU began grad school. On his mug he wrote in big letters COCOA. Those of us doing LDS at the time were embarrassed by it. One undergrad pulled him aside to inform him that at the U, nobody gave a sh!t what one drinks. His reply was "I'm avoiding even the very appearance of evil."

In Brazil they substitute a wheat tea called Cevada. Or at least they did in the 80s.

Postum is still available at select Macey's grocery stores in Utah and Idaho. It costs about $12 a can.

Pero is a popular roasted grain beverage that also tastes like coffee, only more nutty and less bitter.

Where I live, Mormons refuse to drink any beverages made with tea or coffee. Some of them drink herbal teas, quoting some GA who said that "coffee and tea are what is meant by hot drinks" in the WoW. One former co-worker's bishop threatened to yank her recommend if she continued to drink green or white teas (two of the healthiest beverages on the planet). Others stay away from herbal teas because they don't want to accidentally ingest something containing actual tea or because drinking a cup of steaming liquid with a teabag in it would create an appearance of evil.

Other Mormons I know will swill coffee energy drinks with abandon but wouldn't be caught dead with a cup of "real" coffee in their shaky little hands.

Many Morridor Mormons also avoid any food items made with any kind of tea or coffee, including ice cream, sweets, baked goods, etc. One current co-worker recently refused to eat cupcakes with chai-flavored frosting (that someone else had brought to share) because the WoW says she "can't" have it.
Another refuses to eat coffee cake because she is sure it contains coffee -- but even if it doesn't, the name alone would get her into trouble.

Another fad is Crio: a hot drink made with roasted cocoa beans. It's very expensive. I've seen other people drink "steamers," which are flavored hot milk beverages.

I've noticed that Mormons do indeed observe each other very carefully to try to figure out who is drinking what. They will shoot dirty looks at total strangers who appear to be (or actually are) drinking coffee or tea.

It's all quite amusing to me.

For some reason, this thread makes me think of straining at gnats and swallowing camels.

I love Paul Toscano.

icedtea Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Many Morridor Mormons also avoid any food items
> made with any kind of tea or coffee, including ice
> cream, sweets, baked goods, etc. One current
> co-worker recently refused to eat cupcakes with
> chai-flavored frosting (that someone else had
> brought to share) because the WoW says she "can't"
> have it.
> Another refuses to eat coffee cake because she is
> sure it contains coffee -- but even if it doesn't,
> the name alone would get her into trouble.

When I was growing up, of course my mother did most of the cooking and baking for our family of ten. But my father did bake infrequently: the weekly pancakes or waffles after church meetings on Sundays and, once every few months on a Saturday morning, "coffee" cake!

Only...it wasn't "coffee" cake, because "coffee" cake is evil and dirty and clearly a temptation from Lucifer himself. "Coffee" cake is a gateway drug to actual coffee and thence to full-on apostasy.

What was a good, fourth-generation Mormon with limited baking skills to do? Well, my father simply called it "breakfast" cake instead. Problem solved! We loved having "breakfast" cake, in all its pure, wholesome, cinnamon goodness. Plus, cake for breakfast is just the right amount of Mormon-style subversion so one can feel scandalous without breaking any of the Almighty's precious laws.

Not until I was in college would I discover that what I had called "breakfast" cake my entire life was, to my great amazement, "coffee" cake. Thus began my journey into Outer Darkness.

I am so grateful that I left the church because now I feel no guilt about coffee. I tend to have a slow system, if you know what I mean, and coffee gets stuff moving. I'm so much more comfortable now that I drink coffee but my kids still look at me weird because they aren't used to mom drinking. Just wait until the day their dad finally goes back to drinking beer. He wants to but he's having a hard time getting over the guilt.

This was written a long time ago when Mormon's could still laugh at themselves ... the center of the plot is a mormon who gets caught drinking coffee and says it's really a special family recipe for postum called "coffee near"

I think yerba mate is generally accepted in SA

The blog of an office elder in Chile included a photo of a large pile of instant mate envelopes with the comment, "The amount of matte we drink. Each packet makes a liter" He talks about how little sleep they get--it seems they might as well be drinking coffee, lol.

I think the reason "the brethren" never banned it is I think they don't even understand what it is. Since it's not "coffee or tea" as they understand it.

In the mid-70's the FP sent a SM letter around saying that de-caf coffee is OK!

I doubt that many here remember / or aware of this, but it's 100% true....

Down the Memory Hole, forsure Good Buddie :)

In England where i grew up, the fave drink of Mormons (especially those who had converted and were tea and coffee drinkers) was a drink called "barleycup". Looked lie instant coffee, made the same way pour boiling water on it add sugar and milk. In fact its a rather nice drink.

Missionaries used to carry little tins of it with them, to give out to those they were teaching.

Still available at health food stores there.

My mom was a convert..drank coffee pre Mormon..Postum after getting dunked..but we always had coffee for non Mormon family and friends

Tea = a hot drink made by infusing the dried crushed leaves of the tea plant in boiling water.
the name is also atached to like infusions made from the leaves of other plants
So for example "Brigham tea" although it is an infusion is not created from "India Tea"



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/24/2020 04:06PM by thedesertrat1.

This is way old. Where'd you find it?

Anyway, the church did us a huge disfavor by not publicizing more the fact that Spencer W. Kimball was okay with members drinking caffeine-free coffee. When I was Mormon, I would gladly have drunk gallons of caffeine-free coffee.

And I think that the whole word of wisdom thing is an exercise in applied mind control

The Mormon God clearly discourages critical thinking or in other words intelligence as it is the root of all evil.

By this definition, Mormons seem very intent on avoiding the appearance of all evil.

It most certainly is not avoiding the appearance of being racist, oppressive to woman/treating them like cattle, homophobic, greed and power driven and overall otherwise a $100B ponzi scheme.