[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Segoria

[Howard Krushel]

During the Great Depression, the Mennonites in Southern Manitoba drank a
coffee substitute, made from ground and roasted cereal(barley?)which in Low
German was known as PRIPS; would there have been a high German equivalent to
the word Prips?
Howard Krushel 

Yes, Zichorie indeed. In Eastprussia in the late 1930s and early 1940s,
Zichorie (coffee)
was the staple drink, and yes, it came in a round package. When brewed it
was black and looked like coffee.    
Of course the taste was quite different, when brewed too strong it would get
quite bitter. There was another lower grade (Ersatz) brew. Barley grain
roasted in a pan, then ground up and used for making a (coffee?) The taste
was quite remote from the real coffee taste. It also had a name which
unfortunately I don't remember.