Beyond the Nineteenth-Century Coffee Substitutes: Final Comments and a Potential Future

This chapter alters perspective to comment on coffee substitution history in Sweden after 1900 and reflects on future sustainability questions associated with the production and consumption of coffee, as well as the growing interest in sustainable alternatives to traditional coffee today. In this way, the chapter effectively integrates global and local viewpoints, and presents some future scenarios. Precedingly, there is the debate on coffee substitutes in the nineteenth century from an intersectional perspective, asking if substitutes were game changers, summarizing manufacturing patterns, and a short overview of developments in the twentieth century and into our current era. Issues of coffee regulation and coffee substitution during the First and the Second World Wars are discussed along with the neglect of the coffee substitutes since then. Finally, some questions are raised about modern coffee production and consumption, as well as using coffee substitutes for a more sustainable future.