In an emergency I simply will not be able to function without coffee. But I was surprised to learn that many people don’t know how quickly coffee loses its flavor.
Ground coffee starts to flatten out almost immediately upon being exposed to oxygen. Typically you can expect it to hold its flavor for a few days, maybe two or three weeks at the most. After that it will still resemble “coffee” but the flavor will be significantly weakened. Storing it in mylar with an O2 absorber may help somewhat, but the flavor breakdown is already underway by the time you seal the bag.
Roasted coffee beans will last roughly a year stored at room temperature, away from direct sunlight. Storing them in mylar (with that O2 absorber) should stretch this out somewhat. I’m going to fill and seal two small bags out of my next purchase, and test them at the 3 and 5 year marks.
I see people recommending green (unroasted) beans for long-term storage, but there are two problems there. Roasting isn’t an exact science; you’ll want to make sure you’re a seasoned roaster before you ruin your stash. And when you do roast, that wonderful smell will be travel far and wide. In a SHTF situation, that’s a powerful motivator for someone to come pay you a visit.
I’m saying this as a coffee snob who hates instant coffee: instant coffee is the best way to go for long-term storage. There are special “prepper” brands of instant coffee out there but the truth is as long as the container is sealed, it’s going to hold its flavor for many years. Go to your local supermarket and buy a few jars of whatever floats your boat, write the purchase date on them, and tuck them away in the back of your pantry. At the minimum they’ll be good for many years, probably at least a decade.
You may have to come to the realisation that if there is a true SHTF situation your days of being a coffee snob may be over. Five years post SHTF, finding a sealed tin of nescafe blend43 could well be the happiest thing to happen that month…
Not something, I realise, you want to happen but when the SHTF…many choices are taken out of your hands.
Long term, if you are not somewhere where you can actually grow and process coffee, you will eventually run out of pre-SHTF supplies and that will be that.
In SHTF, eventually everything is going to run out. I don’t care weather you have one year of coffee or ten. Unfortunately too many people see preparedness as an all or nothing game. You’re either ready to ride out WW3 in your 3500 square food bunker 50 feet underground, or you’re not prepared at all.
That mentality is detrimental towards prepping for the things that are actually far more likely to occur: job loss, financial ruin, illness, house fire, supply chain disruption, nearby chemical leak, utility loss, traveling cross country to take care of a critical family member at 3 AM, things like that.
Having that much instant coffee on hand means I have more than enough to weather any short-term disruption, and plenty of time to break any caffeine addiction.
ETA: I love that someone disagrees with me that job loss or illness are more likely than WW3.