Military Coffee And Food

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Never drank coffee until I was camping out for adult training at BSA. So cold in the morning, I needed hot drink. After that any coffee was a good coffee.

 

[Elric]

Army coffee wasn't much better. But on the positive side, my bar for "bad" coffee got so low that I can enjoy even the cheapest convenience store coffee now.

The instant coffee in MREs was bad, but if you mixed it with the cocoa powder, sugar, and some water, you had a great caffeinated icing to spread on the crackers.

But thanks to MREs, I'll never be able to enjoy corned beef hash ever again.

Meal, Resistant to Evacuation. I remember them well.

 

[alaskanpiper]

Meal, Resistant to Evacuation. I remember them well.

I thought it stood for Meals Rejected by Ethiopians

 

[puff_not_snuff]

Some food and beverage is ecstasy, and other is horrible, but it seems coffee in all its forms has the greatest range of good to bad, perhaps because it is so general. There is some tea that is not good, but not compared to really bad coffee. Conversely, an exquisite cup of coffee is just that.

Tea is more like white wine, and coffee red in this respect.

 

[Elric]

I thought it stood for Meals Rejected by Ethiopians

Both are very accurate, LOL!

 

[pappymac]

I thought it stood for Meals Rejected by Ethiopians

I've heard that one quite often while working a joint military exercise with the Marines at Camp LeJeune.

 

[pappymac]

Probably the worst coffee I ever regularly drank was Navy coffee and especially shipboard coffee. The Navy brags about having the best food in the U.S. military services. Although I can't say the food was James Beard competitive, I was a young guy with a large appetite and found the dining more than acceptable, with dependably large breakfasts if requested. Even aboard ship where everything started out from the "reefer," refrigerator/freezer. However, the coffee was dependably the worst. I made it from time to time. It was often hours (and hours) old, probably cut with material other than coffee, cheap beans stored poorly and somewhat stale, and always watery and weak tasting despite the acidic hook. You could taste the metallic sour afterglow of a thousand pots. However, coffee was the drug of choice for the midnight to eight watch, zero to eight hundred military time. I weighed so little when I got out, that when I gained ten pounds, it was not noticeable. Four years on my feet or waiting to be summoned to the next watch.

You know the difference between a fairy tale and a sea story? A fairy tale begins with "Once Upon a Time..." A sea story begins with a variation of "This is a no sh$#@er".

Honest to God truth here. In 1973 while aboard an old icebreaker (it had been commissioned in 1944 and was so bad, the government gave it to Russia. The Russians decided it was bad and gave it back to the U.S. Navy around 1958. The Navy said "We don't want it." and gave it to the Coast Guard. But I digress.).

We got about a dozen new E-2s aboard and one of them was a previous E-5 who had a problem with discipline and alcohol. Anyway, he showed up hung-over one day and was put to work on the mess deck and told to clean out the three 2.5 gallon coffee pots. The Master-at-Arms caught him wiping out the inside of the coffee pot with a rag dipped in diesel.

Most of us thought it improved the coffee. As for bug juice, the deckies used it when they had to holystone the teak deck.

On a more serious note, the military services now have culinary schools that rival some of the big name private culinary schools for quality. Of course, the ones who benefit from this are usually the Admiral and Generals. I believe the White House Mess is still run by the Navy.

 

[Elric]

Back in the 80's I had the opportunity to lunch at the George Air Force Base mess while heading to a rotation at the National Training Center (Death Valley in August - fun!). Their food was amazing compared the the swill the army chow hall was serving at the time.

As an aside, each table had signs to put on your tray "Please do not clear. I've gone back for more". They announced over the loudspeaker: "Army personnel, please do not attempt to bus your trays. They will be picked up for you". To quote the Monty Python skit; "Luxury".

 

[Bowie]

Back in the 80's I had the opportunity to lunch at the George Air Force Base mess while heading to a rotation at the National Training Center (Death Valley in August - fun!). Their food was amazing compared the the swill the army chow hall was serving at the time.

As an aside, each table had signs to put on your tray "Please do not clear. I've gone back for more". They announced over the loudspeaker: "Army personnel, please do not attempt to bus your trays. They will be picked up for you". To quote the Monty Python skit; "Luxury".

Dang, that would’ve made NTC a lot more memorable. The only good culinary memory I have from NTC is the tasty Choco Tacos from the ice cream truck roaming back in staging.

 

[Old School 3319]

Army coffee wasn't much better. But on the positive side, my bar for "bad" coffee got so low that I can enjoy even the cheapest convenience store coffee now.

The instant coffee in MREs was bad, but if you mixed it with the cocoa powder, sugar, and some water, you had a great caffeinated icing to spread on the crackers.

But thanks to MREs, I'll never be able to enjoy corned beef hash ever again.

I too remember the mixture you talk about we called it Ranger Pudding

 

[anantaandroscoggin]

My first ship, the Lightship Columbia WLV-604, my first skipper aboard would only allow the cooks to buy WW2-surplus canned coffee. When the next skipper came aboard, we had great cheer from the ship's coffee urn with MUCH more recently grown-and-canned coffee being brewed.

On my last ship, the Hamilton, I spent a couple of months filling in as Mess Deck Master at Arms, and I can testify that when underway we made fresh urns at breakfast, morning coffee break, lunch, afternoon coffee break, and evening meal. There were two urns, and it took 3/4-can of grounds (can't remember if they were 1 or 2 pound cans) to make a potful. I think the quartermasters kept a small pot in the chartroom for the night-watch standers.

Having been to a few Navy bases for some school or other, I can report that at one of them I got the dubious pleasure of overhearing quite a few complaints that the prime rib that was on the steam tables to be served was literally green and inedible!

 

[tbradsim1]

Worst meal I didn’t eat was in the jungle, monkey on a stick, it looked like a baby with little fingers, ate grubs and bugs. Proving Cajuns won’t eat anything.

 

[anotherbob]

Some food and beverage is ecstasy, and other is horrible, but it seems coffee in all its forms has the greatest range of good to bad, perhaps because it is so general. There is some tea that is not good, but not compared to really bad coffee. Conversely, an exquisite cup of coffee is just that.

you've just been lucky. I've had some undrinkable terrible teas that must have been grown on lucifers back side.

 

[anotherbob]

Never drank coffee until I was camping out for adult training at BSA. So cold in the morning, I needed hot drink. After that any coffee was a good coffee.

camping especially active camping (such as hiking) is really the best seasoning out there if you ask me. I will never forget how good a plain can of tuna fish tasted.