Nechezol
Nechezol was a Romanian coffee substitute,[1] imposed on the market in the last years of communism in Romania.Coffee had virtually disappeared from Romanian stores in the 1980s (but was still available in Comturist hard-currency luxury shops and on the black market[2]), with the drastic limitation of imports intended to reduce Romania's external debt.Nechezol contained only one-fifth coffee, the balance typically consisting of barley, oats, chickpeas and chestnuts.Its pejorative nickname is derived from the verb a necheza (to neigh), alluding to the oats (usually fed to horses), with the chemical suffix -ol giving a pseudoscientific touch alluding to Elena Ceaușescu, "world-renowned scientist" and wife of dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu.[citation needed] Nechezol contained no caffeine.