I woke up to an absolute void of sound; so quiet that the dogs hopped out of bed, ear cocked as if to say, “Dad! What’s up!”
All the little lights in the room, from her alarm clock to the faint glow of a powerstrip behind the TV, were dark. The little noises that make up the sounds that let you know you are home? Gone too.
“Crap!” I said to my wife, “The power is out.”
We were in a robust Pacific Northwest winter storm ferried in on the Banana Express; high winds, warm temps, and a ton of rain. Our power would be out for 14 hours and what it slammed home for us was an ultimate truth about how prepared we were for a major disaster in many different ways.
I am a Washington State Guardsman as well as a professional writer. I’m trained to help citizens prepare for disasters and to help keep people, property, and ways of life safe when the shit hits the fan. I was ready for the big one; months of food set aside, plenty of water, shelter, heat, and everything else that factors into being prepared. But I had forgotten the strategic, immediate importance of one big thing: Coffee.
Pretty much everyone has some kind of caffeinated beverage in their pantry, be it coffee or tea. Our morning fix is a good cup of French or Italian roast in a drip coffee maker. Life does not start until after the first cup.
On this fateful morning we bundled up in pajamas and I broke out the emergency food heating kit, which is a single burner propane stove, a 6 cup stainless steel pot, and a French Press which we like much better than a camp stove percolator or pour-over.
I filled the pot, set it on the stove, and went for the coffee. Surprise. The coffee we had in plenty, but it was in bean form. Normally we grind our beans every morning but with no power, my options were suddenly very limited. I had to laugh at a Black Rifle Coffee online ad I once saw where some guy in the wild pours beans in his sock and beats them with a rock. I was suddenly that desperate.
My wife, being the practical one, remembered that we had an old bag of ground coffee in the pantry. We used it and it was beyond terrible. If it had been the end of the world it still would have been terrible. Next time you read that ground coffee has a short shelf life, believe it.
We finally gave into suburban weakness, drove until we found a drive-through coffee place that had power, and moaned into our sleaved, steaming black Americanos while we hot-washed our mini-disaster experience. There was a lot we had learned in a short period about staying in coffee in an emergency.
First learning: while we were good to go on water heating solutions, we failed on the coffee front. If I had ground the beans the night before I could have scooped them out of the percolator and we would have had a good day of coffee.
Second learning: in addition to a method of heating water, I needed a manual way to grind beans. I discussed this with some of my fellow soldiers. Their first thought was that I could have used a mortar and pestle to grind beans, which it turns out we had. I also could have gone the rock/sock method with household things we had lying around like cheesecloth and a hammer or meat tenderizer hammer. But the best solution would have been a manual coffee grinder which is easily available in online stores.
Third learning: Coffee has a shelf life and it’s not as long as you think. Here is what I learned about coffee shelf life:
Ground coffee in the pantry: 6 weeks
Ground coffee in the fridge: 2 months
Ground coffee in the freezer: 6 months
Whole bean roasted coffee pantry: 2 months
Whole bean roasted coffee fridge: 6 months
Whole bean roasted coffee freezer: 1 year
With the addition of a manual coffee grinder and my water heating setup, as long as I had a bag of coffee beans in the house, I was immediately prepared for at least one week of emergency coffee making. But what about longer-term disasters?
It turns out the only coffee format that will survive long-term storage is instant. And compared to bean our ground coffee, for me instant coffee is so bad that I almost prefer green, black, or yerba matte tea, all of which store very well in airtight containers or sealed tea bags.
I taste-tested a bunch of instant coffees and pretty much hated all of them except an instant espresso that was pretty tasty when hot and loaded with sugar.
Now in addition to supplies that will keep me at least two weeks ready, I have a small tote with a butane stove, some butane canisters, a pot, a French press, and a manual coffee grinder. There is also a jar of instant espresso and a jar of sugar, for really just in case.
If the world is going to end, it can only end better with a good cup of coffee.
-John