To you grunts out there...MRE coffee...I feel your pain.

Grand Mal said:

Tried the beer?

Click to expand...

The best beer i ever drank was Moosehead.
Can't seen to find it down here.
Smooth.

I would like to point out that according to my wife she and many others downrange in Iraq would on a somewhat regular basis eat coffee grounds .....that is coffee is a caffeine delivery tool....you dont drink it for the taste.

There is a name for very strongly brewed then let to sit on a burner to get burnt and a condensed and thus better caffeine delivery tool, but I forget.

Hawkeye10 said:

I would like to point out that according to my wife she and many others downrange in Iraq would on a somewhat regular basis eat coffee grounds .....that is coffee is a caffeine delivery tool....you dont drink it for the taste.

There is a name for very strongly brewed then let to sit on a burner to get burnt and a condensed and thus better caffeine delivery tool, but I forget.

Click to expand...

As I read your post i was reminded of the scene in George of the Jungle where Brandon Frasier ate coffee ground directly and was all over NYC saying " java, java, java, java, java "

Please respectfully convey to your "downrange" wife, I am glad she made it back home.
I did not say in one piece, because everyone I knew that came back, left something back there.

PleasantValley said:

As I read your post i was reminded of the scene in George of the Jungle where Brandon Frasier ate coffee ground directly and was all over NYC saying " java, java, java, java, java "

Please respectfully convey to your "downrange" wife, I am glad she made it back home.
I did not say in one piece, because everyone I knew that came back, left something back there.

Click to expand...

I will.....she is 60% disability with PTSD so bad that she had to give up a SGM slot that she had well earned, and now she has crohns to go with it, likely service related as there has been a bunch but last I heard no one knows why......and you know she would have been fine with that if she thought that there was a decent reason to give up so much.

Given what has happened after we left she thinks that her nation let her down.

Hawkeye10 said:

I will.....she is 60% disability with PTSD so bad that she had to give up a SGM slot that she had well earned, and now she has crohns to go with it, likely service related as there has been a bunch but last I heard no one knows why......and you know she would have been fine with that if she thought that there was a decent reason to give up so much.

Given what has happened after we left she thinks that her nation let her down.

Click to expand...

If it means anything, you can tell her I believe it was just her government that let her down.
There is a spot at my table for you both anytime.
...and your money is no good if we are in a bar.
Sometimes a good face-down-in-the-gutter drunk can be very therapeutic.

The DAV is her best friend right now, besides you.

Grand Mal said:

Tried the beer?

Click to expand...

Yes......

140+ microbreweries within 50 miles of my house...

And Stone.

Fledermaus said:

Yes......

140+ microbreweries within 50 miles of my house...

And Stone.

Click to expand...

That's just something Canadians say, that American beer sucks, and hasn't been true for awhile. Back before the proliferation of good, local microbreweries, back when American beer was Bud or Coors or Pabst etc. we used to sneer at it, but now with all the good small-batch varieties I can't stand Molsons or Labatts anymore.

Grand Mal said:

That's just something Canadians say, that American beer sucks, and hasn't been true for awhile. Back before the proliferation of good, local microbreweries, back when American beer was Bud or Coors or Pabst etc. we used to sneer at it, but now with all the good small-batch varieties I can't stand Molsons or Labatts anymore.

Click to expand...

First real Brewery I visited (except the Kirin Plant in Japan) was actually in Vancouver Island... Somewhere near Comox. Went in with three co-workers. We each ordered a pint. I took Bitters, the others ales and a lager. The other three didn't like the taste of fresh beer. I did... I drank mine and finished theirs.... Good thing the workload was nil in the afternoon...

Wouldn't it be more efficient to just put some nodoz pills in the pack?

Fledermaus said:

First real Brewery I visited (except the Kirin Plant in Japan) was actually in Vancouver Island... Somewhere near Comox. Went in with three co-workers. We each ordered a pint. I took Bitters, the others ales and a lager. The other three didn't like the taste of fresh beer. I did... I drank mine and finished theirs.... Good thing the workload was nil in the afternoon...

Click to expand...

Haha...getting Americans drunk on Canadian beer used to be such good fun.... Used to be our alcohol content was a few points higher on average as well... I think you guys have grown up down there, now... I'd say our average is around 5.5% now...

Fledermaus said:

First real Brewery I visited (except the Kirin Plant in Japan) was actually in Vancouver Island... Somewhere near Comox. Went in with three co-workers. We each ordered a pint. I took Bitters, the others ales and a lager. The other three didn't like the taste of fresh beer. I did... I drank mine and finished theirs.... Good thing the workload was nil in the afternoon...

Click to expand...

Comox, huh. I can see it from here, nearly. From the park down the road, anyway. I've been through Comox dozens of times- when I go to the Big Island Comox is where the ferry lands, but I've never spent any time there. Sounds like I need to check out the brewery-tour opportunities. I think there's a winery or two in the Comox Valley, too.

PleasantValley said:

Being a squid, I had never had the "pleasure" of sampling MRE coffee until zero dark thirty today.

I was going through some stuff to take to a "swap or buy" with my outdoor camping group and discovered an MRE STAR packet i had squirreled away for the Zombie Apocalypse.

Pinto bean stew with ham. It was actually very good. The huge, devoid of salt crackers were not bad either, and the sugar cookies were so-so.
Then i tried the coffee. This stuff should be banned on humanitarian grounds.

I put 8oz of boiling water in a cup, put in the packet of coffee and it dissovled nicely. Then i put in the packet (only one) of sugar...no problem.
Then the "cream'....more accurately described as chalk dust from a 50's classroom. Almost none of it dissolved, but just floated on top in big and little chunks.

OK, I had come this far, so let's have a drink.

)*&*&^%$#%$%^&&)(*_)(*(*&^*^%$^#))()(*&*&%$

is an accurate description of what my mouth and taste buds were telling me.

Every coffee maker in the world should give you a lifetime card for free coffee anywhere you grunts may go in the world.
You have earned it.

Click to expand...

Ah, yes......the MRE coffee.

It has near mythical properties.....when mixed with water it will disinfect and seal a sucking chest wound, set off EPA HAZMAT alarms, patch holes in armored vehicles, kill cancer ( and the patient), acid etch glass, work as emergency coolant in Westinghouse nuclear reactors, give God explosive flatulence, seal driveways, work as an anesthetic on African Elephants, and an aphrodisiac for Tankers.

PleasantValley said:

Being a squid, I had never had the "pleasure" of sampling MRE coffee until zero dark thirty today.

I put 8oz of boiling water in a cup, put in the packet of coffee and it dissovled nicely. Then i put in the packet (only one) of sugar...no problem.
Then the "cream'....more accurately described as chalk dust from a 50's classroom. Almost none of it dissolved, but just floated on top in big and little chunks.

Every coffee maker in the world should give you a lifetime card for free coffee anywhere you grunts may go in the world.
You have earned it.

Click to expand...

Actually, coffee in MREs (like most other components) is made mostly by well known companies.

Including the coffee.



Now if you had it sitting around for many years, that is probably the problem. Unlike common belief, they do have a shelf life of around 5 years. Beyond that the quality does deteriorate. This is first seen in the items with fruit (applesauce, pears, etc), then the veggies start to "go bad". Now mind you they are still safe to eat, but they loose their color and anything solid (like pears) turns to mush.

Now in my storage locker, I have several cases of MREs that are over 10 years old. But this is true "survival food", only to be used in an extreme emergency. I broke one out last month (Chicken Breast), and it was still fine. I knew the cheese spread would not have been good (another item that suffers from long term storage), but the main part of the meal was fine. The M&Ms were a light brown powder with broken pieces of shell, but was also still fine otherwise.

And I must admit, the MRE handled storage much better than the civilian "Heater Meal" from 2009.



In that thing, the pancakes were hard rocks, the fruit topping smelled nasty, the bacon was dust, the raisins smelled like they had fermented, and the drink also smelled bad. The only thing that I felt safe to eat was the granola.

Grand Mal said:

Comox, huh. I can see it from here, nearly. From the park down the road, anyway. I've been through Comox dozens of times- when I go to the Big Island Comox is where the ferry lands, but I've never spent any time there. Sounds like I need to check out the brewery-tour opportunities. I think there's a winery or two in the Comox Valley, too.

Click to expand...

I was deployed to Comox (Circa 1980s) when serving in the USMC. Two weeks living on Goose Spit. Billeting was crap, but enjoyed every minute I was off work.

And we got in bit of trouble with the local military police. Our Intelligence Chief was doing simulated "Russian" infiltration on our squadron. On of our guys saw the "Russians" and alerted the rest of the squadron that we were "under attack". Unfortunately the local military police were monitoring the same frequency and suddenly the whole base was on alert, at around 1 AM. All hell broke lose as our "Russians" had bits of Russian uniforms on, faces blackened and were carrying rubber AK47s.... It is a miracle no one was shot that night.

It was AWESOME.... :lol:

OlNate said:

Haha...getting Americans drunk on Canadian beer used to be such good fun.... Used to be our alcohol content was a few points higher on average as well... I think you guys have grown up down there, now... I'd say our average is around 5.5% now...

Click to expand...

Yeah, the US was under a 3.2 in a lot of places. A left-over from Prohibition. Some states anything over 3.2 must be bought in special stores. Even today.

Now a beer with under 5.0 is often called a "session" beer (AKA weak enough to drink a lot of)

The brewery we frequent has two beers under 5.0 out of about a dozen on tap.

Oozlefinch said:

Actually, coffee in MREs (like most other components) is made mostly by well known companies.

Including the coffee.

Now if you had it sitting around for many years, that is probably the problem. Unlike common belief, they do have a shelf life of around 5 years. Beyond that the quality does deteriorate. This is first seen in the items with fruit (applesauce, pears, etc), then the veggies start to "go bad". Now mind you they are still safe to eat, but they loose their color and anything solid (like pears) turns to mush.

Now in my storage locker, I have several cases of MREs that are over 10 years old. But this is true "survival food", only to be used in an extreme emergency. I broke one out last month (Chicken Breast), and it was still fine. I knew the cheese spread would not have been good (another item that suffers from long term storage), but the main part of the meal was fine. The M&Ms were a light brown powder with broken pieces of shell, but was also still fine otherwise.

And I must admit, the MRE handled storage much better than the civilian "Heater Meal" from 2009.

In that thing, the pancakes were hard rocks, the fruit topping smelled nasty, the bacon was dust, the raisins smelled like they had fermented, and the drink also smelled bad. The only thing that I felt safe to eat was the granola.

Click to expand...

I wonder how many survivalists are going to find out what you learned the hard way.
Few I know actually eat their food.
They just feel safe looking at the boxes.

"fermented raisins"? Sounds like stage 1 of some good Raisin Jack.

PleasantValley said:

I wonder how many survivalists are going to find out what you learned the hard way.
Few I know actually eat their food.
They just feel safe looking at the boxes.

"fermented raisins"? Sounds like stage 1 of some good Raisin Jack.

Click to expand...

Most survivalists are mentally damaged nutcases. They have been preparing for decades for something that will never happen.

I myself do consider myself a prepper. And I have been for over 30 years. Not because I believe a Civil War or WWIII is coming or any of the movie kind of nonsense. Most of my adult life I have lived in Earthquake Country or Hurricane Country. So for me having roughly 1 month of supplies on hand at all times simply makes good sense.

But I also do not actually "store" them, I use it as well. I simply have large amounts of various things in the pantry and freezer, which if needed can carry my family and I for a month or more.

Most "survivalists" I actually consider to have a paranoia based mental illness. Since where I live the 2 big threats now are earthquakes and dam failure, my plan for anything other than earthquake is actually hooking up the travel trailer and getting the hell out of California. Travel up to the Owyhee or Cascades and survive on the fringe of wilderness until things look like they stabilize. Hunkering down to me is absolute insanity.

I was a right wing conservative when I was a kid, and I used to badger my mom into buying me C-rations so I could eat them while camping out with a tent in the backyard.

Tuna was just plain old canned tuna in water. Same with chicken. Peanut butter was awful. Crackers were tasteless. The brownies were too dry. I liked the pound cake the best- that would fill you up. Hated the peaches (I didnt like canned fruit back then). And I would rip open the sugar and cream packets and down them. Threw away the coffee packet and used the matches to burn the cat while chewing the gum. Fun times. lol

I never tried the MREs so I dont know how good they are.

PleasantValley said:

Being a squid, I had never had the "pleasure" of sampling MRE coffee until zero dark thirty today.

I was going through some stuff to take to a "swap or buy" with my outdoor camping group and discovered an MRE STAR packet i had squirreled away for the Zombie Apocalypse.

Pinto bean stew with ham. It was actually very good. The huge, devoid of salt crackers were not bad either, and the sugar cookies were so-so.
Then i tried the coffee. This stuff should be banned on humanitarian grounds.

I put 8oz of boiling water in a cup, put in the packet of coffee and it dissovled nicely. Then i put in the packet (only one) of sugar...no problem.
Then the "cream'....more accurately described as chalk dust from a 50's classroom. Almost none of it dissolved, but just floated on top in big and little chunks.

OK, I had come this far, so let's have a drink.

)*&*&^%$#%$%^&&)(*_)(*(*&^*^%$^#))()(*&*&%$

is an accurate description of what my mouth and taste buds were telling me.

Every coffee maker in the world should give you a lifetime card for free coffee anywhere you grunts may go in the world.
You have earned it.

Click to expand...

I would have to say that coffee was about the only thing I did not mess with in the MRE. Usually did not have the means of heating up the water out in the field.

Oozlefinch said:

Most survivalists are mentally damaged nutcases. They have been preparing for decades for something that will never happen.

I myself do consider myself a prepper. And I have been for over 30 years. Not because I believe a Civil War or WWIII is coming or any of the movie kind of nonsense. Most of my adult life I have lived in Earthquake Country or Hurricane Country. So for me having roughly 1 month of supplies on hand at all times simply makes good sense.

But I also do not actually "store" them, I use it as well. I simply have large amounts of various things in the pantry and freezer, which if needed can carry my family and I for a month or more.

Most "survivalists" I actually consider to have a paranoia based mental illness. Since where I live the 2 big threats now are earthquakes and dam failure, my plan for anything other than earthquake is actually hooking up the travel trailer and getting the hell out of California. Travel up to the Owyhee or Cascades and survive on the fringe of wilderness until things look like they stabilize. Hunkering down to me is absolute insanity.

Click to expand...

Another trait i noticed about their mentality is they are all 100% all lone wolves.
That in itself is a recipe for disaster.
Where humans existed and prospered is where they banded together and helped each other out.

I have not been a survivalist as long as you, but I have been around long enough to see the bad side of the philosophy.
For you and I, prepping for some short-term issue just makes sense.
Food, medicine, MRE coffee packs for the caffeine rush, ect.

Not an endless string of shootouts where you never seem to get hit or even wounded.
Down here on the Texas gulf coast, i already lived through a major disaster, and went to my property up in the woods north of here.
Kinda like the plan you have.
it worked.

PleasantValley said:

Being a squid, I had never had the "pleasure" of sampling MRE coffee until zero dark thirty today.

I was going through some stuff to take to a "swap or buy" with my outdoor camping group and discovered an MRE STAR packet i had squirreled away for the Zombie Apocalypse.

Pinto bean stew with ham. It was actually very good. The huge, devoid of salt crackers were not bad either, and the sugar cookies were so-so.
Then i tried the coffee. This stuff should be banned on humanitarian grounds.

I put 8oz of boiling water in a cup, put in the packet of coffee and it dissovled nicely. Then i put in the packet (only one) of sugar...no problem.
Then the "cream'....more accurately described as chalk dust from a 50's classroom. Almost none of it dissolved, but just floated on top in big and little chunks.

OK, I had come this far, so let's have a drink.

)*&*&^%$#%$%^&&)(*_)(*(*&^*^%$^#))()(*&*&%$

is an accurate description of what my mouth and taste buds were telling me.

Every coffee maker in the world should give you a lifetime card for free coffee anywhere you grunts may go in the world.
You have earned it.

Click to expand...

I think it has been mentioned before, use the coffee like dip, heck I have seen mre coffee and copenhagen mixed to try and get both the morning nic fix and caffiene fix. However I only noticed one other person mentioning drinking it cold, believe it or not it is more tolerable cold than hot, and even cold it would never win a taste test. However keep in mind coffee even at dfacs is not great by civilian standards, however you end up falling into the love it or hate it class. Some mornings we walked a quuarter mile to the dfac before going to work, some days I had to walk over a mile to the motor pools to start work then walk two miles to the dfac for breakfast. ]

The coffee served there was often super black and almost like syrup and I drank it black usually. It would not win any taste awards but if you want caffiene in the morning, it was your fix and plenty of it. Some combat arms guys who floated in and out of the camp were often times only getting mre's for a week at a time before getting hot meals, many of them i saw bring sterno stoves, esbit etc as well as percolators or french presses with fresh coffee sent from home, probably not fresh by the time it arrived but surely better than mre coffee. The other oddball was sometimes they would use canteen cups on exhaust manifolds to make cowboy coffee, which is grounds and water boiled or atleast heated to near boiling, followed by pouring cold water on it, causing the grounds to sink to the bottom allowing you to pour it into another cup with almost no grounds.

PleasantValley said:

If it means anything, you can tell her I believe it was just her government that let her down.
There is a spot at my table for you both anytime.
...and your money is no good if we are in a bar.
Sometimes a good face-down-in-the-gutter drunk can be very therapeutic.

The DAV is her best friend right now, besides you.

Click to expand...

DAV are good guys but her best friend is a reputable VA disability law firm.
They only get paid if she gets a boost in her rating so they have a lot of incentive.

If she has never appealed her rating, it might be time to do so with a lawyer.
Can she walk?

PoS said:

I was a right wing conservative when I was a kid, and I used to badger my mom into buying me C-rations so I could eat them while camping out with a tent in the backyard.

Tuna was just plain old canned tuna in water. Same with chicken. Peanut butter was awful. Crackers were tasteless. The brownies were too dry. I liked the pound cake the best- that would fill you up. Hated the peaches (I didnt like canned fruit back then). And I would rip open the sugar and cream packets and down them. Threw away the coffee packet and used the matches to burn the cat while chewing the gum. Fun times. lol

I never tried the MREs so I dont know how good they are.

Click to expand...

I just have to know...what did Kitty ever do to you?
Do you still hate cats?

Me, love both dogs and cats very much but for some reason I communicate with cats a little better.
I can have a ton of fun with the dog and do things that they even think are funny but I've never been able to train one properly.
Both our cats on the other hand, are very affectionate and I've trained the both of them to play-fight with their claws retracted, and they're even friendly with strangers.

Checkerboard Strangler said:

I just have to know...what did Kitty ever do to you?
Do you still hate cats?

Me, love both dogs and cats very much but for some reason I communicate with cats a little better.
I can have a ton of fun with the dog and do things that they even think are funny but I've never been able to train one properly.
Both our cats on the other hand, are very affectionate and I've trained the both of them to play-fight with their claws retracted, and they're even friendly with strangers.

Click to expand...

LOL easy, buddy. I was a kid back then, and I did a lot of stupid things.

PleasantValley said:

Being a squid, I had never had the "pleasure" of sampling MRE coffee until zero dark thirty today.

I was going through some stuff to take to a "swap or buy" with my outdoor camping group and discovered an MRE STAR packet i had squirreled away for the Zombie Apocalypse.

Pinto bean stew with ham. It was actually very good. The huge, devoid of salt crackers were not bad either, and the sugar cookies were so-so.
Then i tried the coffee. This stuff should be banned on humanitarian grounds.

I put 8oz of boiling water in a cup, put in the packet of coffee and it dissovled nicely. Then i put in the packet (only one) of sugar...no problem.
Then the "cream'....more accurately described as chalk dust from a 50's classroom. Almost none of it dissolved, but just floated on top in big and little chunks.

OK, I had come this far, so let's have a drink.

)*&*&^%$#%$%^&&)(*_)(*(*&^*^%$^#))()(*&*&%$

is an accurate description of what my mouth and taste buds were telling me.

Every coffee maker in the world should give you a lifetime card for free coffee anywhere you grunts may go in the world.
You have earned it.

Click to expand...

See, after my old man quit flying he had to do Forward Air Control playing in the mud with the Army, he didn't like it. He brought us home some MRE once, that experience more than anything, told me... "Join the Navy". And I did, because who wants to go to war without a hot shower, a warm bed and well cooked meals. So uncivilized.