I am from the south (and still there) and from my experience MOST scratch chocolate cake recipes I have seen have coffee in them...
I was suprised at how non-coffee my cake tasted and my recipe called for a cup!! This is assuming that you think it might taste like coffee....maybe you just dont want to make a pot....in that case I am sure you can substitute something....bailey's irish cream is alway good!! 
My favorite chocolate cake recipe calls for a 1/2 cup of strong coffee and I always use it. Coffee enhances the flavor of chocolate rather well. In all the years there has only been one person who could taste the coffee, but they loved it! I use 1/2 c. of coffee and add some powdered espresso to it.......yum!
if you dont want teh caffeine then you couold use defaf but if you dont want the coffee for one reason or another jsut substitute another liquid that is similar. Liquor seems to always work, or you could do coffee creamer too to add a little flavour
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