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Navy Coffee


Subdeacon Joe

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Navy coffee. 
Add creamer (powdered) 

Coffee turns gray. 
 

The fix?

Don’t add creamer. 
Besides, the creamer is actually three unpronounceable chemicals.
It’s bad for you. ;)

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Navy Coffee:

I served in the US Navy 1968 - 1970 on the USS Guadalcanal LPH - 7. As an Electrician’s Mate I often stood “Generator Watch” in the boiler room and engine room. Coffee made in these spaces always contained a percentage of bunker C fuel oil. This coffee was guaranteed to relieve lower digestive tract slowdown.

 

CJ

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As a Marine and yes Been on the Guadalcanal (Root 83)  The accommodations for Marines are not even 1 star :)  Coffee well military coffee in general stinks but at least you had coffee makers now its a filter pod thrown in Hot water .
 But that strong naw , but I am the one that opens 3-4 freeze dried coffee packs for MRE's dump them in mouth and a swig of water 

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Ah, coffee stories, albeit mine is Air Force. :P

 

Reminds me if my nights working communications with the crypto guys.

Graveyard shifts need lots of coffee, and finding the coffee pot still on the burner with all the water gone, you merely added more water to rehydrate the crusty leftovers, left to heat, and voila! Coffee to put enough hair on your chest to warrant a Neanderthal nickname! :lol:

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11 hours ago, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said:

Navy coffee. 
Add creamer (powdered) 

Coffee turns gray. 
 

The fix?

Don’t add creamer. 
Besides, the creamer is actually three unpronounceable chemicals.
It’s bad for you. ;)

My MIL used to make grey coffee! Didn't take long to remember to bring our own when we visited! Don't know what she did to it, but it wasn't powdered creamer!

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My dad's old Navy coffee cup.  It is big!  He said they would fill it up with hot coffee on cold nights on watch to keep their hands warm.  I just picked it up and it is heavier than I remembered.  Weighs over 1.5 pounds.

 

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DSC_0004.thumb.jpeg.c45886811c527984f71b03813084c410.jpeg

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13 hours ago, Cactus Jack Calder said:

Navy Coffee:

I served in the US Navy 1968 - 1970 on the USS Guadalcanal LPH - 7. As an Electrician’s Mate I often stood “Generator Watch” in the boiler room and engine room. Coffee made in these spaces always contained a percentage of bunker C fuel oil. This coffee was guaranteed to relieve lower digestive tract slowdown.

 

CJ

 

I was on the Kitty Hawk in the mid '80's.  The workcenter I worked in had a similar issue, but with jet fuel.  You could see the color sheen on top of the coffee.  I remember my first cup of coffee after we got off the boat, this stuff tastes funny :huh:.

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5 hours ago, Father Kit Cool Gun Garth said:

Ah, coffee stories, albeit mine is Air Force. :P

 

Reminds me if my nights working communications with the crypto guys.

Graveyard shifts need lots of coffee, and finding the coffee pot still on the burner with all the water gone, you merely added more water to rehydrate the crusty leftovers, left to heat, and voila! Coffee to put enough hair on your chest to warrant a Neanderthal nickname! :lol:

And I was one of the crypto guys….

 

Texas Lizard

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4 minutes ago, Texas Lizard said:

And I was one of the crypto guys….

 

Texas Lizard

Which assignment?

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I know you won't believe this, but my Uncle (Dad's brother) was a Navy Lt. in WWII and later CDR USNR.  He never drank coffee! My Dad, who was a CPT in the Army in WWII, retired as a LTC AUS Reserve, drank coffee, always black!  I was Air Force, but seldom drank or now drink coffee. Never acquired a taste for it, but would drink it in hunting camp in the mountains because the cook would boil it to within an inch of its life, which would kill any giardia that beavers might leave in the water! (Halazone tablets won't kill that stuff.)  

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Wasn't Navy coffee considered fresh if it was less than a week old?

 

I always maintained an enemy did not need to destroy us. Just steal the coffer pots and burn the paper and we would be toast.

 

PF

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1 hour ago, Phantom Falcon, SASS # 46139 said:

Wasn't Navy coffee considered fresh if it was less than a week old?

Navy Coffee Cont’d:

After 6 months in the rewind shop refurbishing 40 & 50 Hp motors, I made EM 3 (E4 rate). I was assigned to run the lighting shop. When I arrived I had 2 Firemen Electricians (E3) working for me. There was a coffee pot in the shop but at that time I only drank coffee for medicinal purposes, as stated above. The 2 Firemen said they only drank coffee from the Crews Mess, so I ignored the pot.
By regulation, once a month all portable electric equipment had to be ground tested. This included coffee pots. When I opened the shop pot I found old grounds left in the basket that had grown white fuzzy mold. I took it to a slop sink and scrubbed it out. The 2 Firemen didn’t want to use it so it sat clean and dry for a while.
Finally one of them decided to make a pot. I gave it a try and that was the worst brew I’d ever tasted. They thought the pot was ruined but I knew they just didn’t know how to make it right. So I cleaned it up and made a fresh pot. After that they wanted me to be the coffee chef for our shop. I said OK as long as they cleaned the pot afterwards. I was a real martinet about cleaning the pot and I continued to drink very little coffee ‘for medicinal purposes only’.

Nowadays I’m up to 2 cups a day, one for breakfast and one after supper. I only acquired the taste for a regular cup of coffee until after I was off active duty for several years.

 

CJ

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Howdy,

I sent Dunkin to a Ranger .

He said they loved it.

Sometimes the Dunkin folks added a bag no charge.

I always got whole bean for myself, Ranger got ground because

they didnt have a grinder and no one wanted to carry the extra weight.

Then a walk down the snack aisle filled the box.

Best

CR

 

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18 minutes ago, Chili Ron said:

Howdy,

I sent Dunkin to a Ranger .

He said they loved it.

Sometimes the Dunkin folks added a bag no charge.

I always got whole bean for myself, Ranger got ground because

they didnt have a grinder and no one wanted to carry the extra weight.

Then a walk down the snack aisle filled the box.

Best

CR

 

 

Dunkin and Seattle's Best were always good to us deployed . A group  put in a order to Starcrap  they refused it saying we dont support the war or anyone there .  Seattles Best got the order after it the returned the money after hearing story and doubled the order that they sent .  We always looked forward to certain FOB;s that had Green Beans Coffee 

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1 hour ago, PowerRiverCowboy said:

 

Dunkin and Seattle's Best were always good to us deployed . A group  put in a order to Starcrap  they refused it saying we dont support the war or anyone there .  Seattles Best got the order after it the returned the money after hearing story and doubled the order that they sent .  We always looked forward to certain FOB;s that had Green Beans Coffee 

**** Starbucks!

 

I have liked Seattle’s Best coffee for a while now. I started drinking their coffee in 2013. They just went up a few notches in my book. Thanks for letting us know. 

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3 minutes ago, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said:

**** Starbucks!

 

I have liked Seattle’s Best coffee for a while now. I started drinking their coffee in 2013. They just went up a few notches in my book. Thanks for letting us know. 


 

I fully agree and calling them coffee is  a big stretch.  Stationed in Hawaii I got spoiled ,  but do like the Cowboy Coffee out of Wyoming 

26E2DF90-C16D-475E-B0AA-D5429CB12677.jpeg

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Aboard my ship in the Navy we had lots of coffee. I had my own coffee mess in the aft Missile launcher. We had a lot of coffee because the port side reefer went down so we ate canned roast beef every day sometimes 3 times a day. Roast beef with that multi-colored sheen like an oil slick in murky water, but I digress. 
The Supply Officer thought storing lots of coffee would make up for us having canned beef daily. 
I took advantage of that and got 10-30 pounds a week. I would hoard it and trade for things with other ships that we needed like red lead, PD680, paint, etc…

Then one day I got called to the Combat Systems office to explain why I was taking so much coffee for a 3 man launcher crew. They were on to me. They thought I was doing bad things with black marketeers. I explained what I did and that was that. I kept right on trading coffee, no questions asked. 
Most ships didn’t have the amount of coffee we carried so it was a commodity in the Med and I exploited it. 
Good times. 

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Back in the nineties we took on a new man in our accounting department.  Dale was a freshly retired Navy chief.  And, as all chiefs, he enjoyed his coffee.  Also, true to tradition, his mug was never cleaned... and when he concocted a kettle of brew, it was for his enjoyment only - no one else would go near the stuff.

 

The times I glanced at his filled mug it not only had a distinctive oil slick sheen, but I'd swear it had small lumps of flotsam and jetsam bobbing to the surface.

 

Not surprisingly it had a distinctive... well... fragrance.  One could smell his mug approaching from down the hall well before ol' Dale hove into view.  My back was to the office door, but every time I'd smell his coffee entering the room I'd click a li'l icon on my computer screen and my speakers would sound off with the Navy Band playing Anchors Aweigh. 

 

Ol' Dale would march proudly to his desk and everyone else in the room would smile.

 

But I still shudder at the thought of that vile liquid....  :huh:

 

                     DWPXYCV7INDMHC3MBSMN6MLJAM.png

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19 hours ago, Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 said:

Back in the nineties we took on a new man in our accounting department.  Dale was a freshly retired Navy chief.  And, as all chiefs, he enjoyed his coffee.  Also, true to tradition, his mug was never cleaned... and when he concocted a kettle of brew, it was for his enjoyment only - no one else would go near the stuff.

 

The times I glanced at his filled mug it not only had a distinctive oil slick sheen, but I'd swear it had small lumps of flotsam and jetsam bobbing to the surface.

 

Not surprisingly it had a distinctive... well... fragrance.  One could smell his mug approaching from down the hall well before ol' Dale hove into view.  My back was to the office door, but every time I'd smell his coffee entering the room I'd click a li'l icon on my computer screen and my speakers would sound off with the Navy Band playing Anchors Aweigh. 

 

Ol' Dale would march proudly to his desk and everyone else in the room would smile.

 

But I still shudder at the thought of that vile liquid....  :huh:

 

                     DWPXYCV7INDMHC3MBSMN6MLJAM.png

I remember Dad coming home from work one time. Mom had washed his coffee thermos without him knowing about it before he filled it and left that morning. In his best chief's voice he informed her that that transgression would not happen again.

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At NAS Miramar in 1977 the aimd chief decided to establish a coffee watch where one E4 or below would spend a watch and the break room his duty there to keep the coffee urns filled.  One of our sailors AT3 Campbell by name said that he did not drink coffee so he should not have to stand that watch.  The leading Chief informed him that he would stand the watch and Campbell said I will do it but I do not drink coffee and I do not know how to make it.  Campbell's first day of coffee watch duty he sat in the break room until one of the 52 cup urns was emptied then he carefully cleaned the urn very thoroughly filled it with water and added two tablespoons of coffee to the basket. He then plugged it in and allowed the coffee to brew.  When a sailor drew the first cup of coffee from that urn he of course was unsatisfied with it and complained to the chief. The chief emptied the coffee pot refilled with water and filled the basket half full of coffee. He then told Campbell " this is how it's done. When that ear n was emptied Campbell refilled it with water and filled the basket the rest of the way with coffee not bothering to remove the old grounds.  This earn full of coffee also proved highly unsatisfactory.  Campbell never had to stand the coffee watch again but he ended up with every other crappy job that came up in the AIMD

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My father was Merchant Marine in the 1930s and then worked in a steam generating plant which ran 24X7. He would come home from the 4-12 shift and boil coffee in a percolator for a good while on a gas stove, cook eggs and bacon, finish several cups of coffee, then sleep to 8 am. Get up and reheat the remaining coffee, which resembled tar by that time. He loved his coffee.

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My first Navy Squadron was VF-171 Det Key West. My first assignment was day shift Duty Driver. Part of those duties involved ensuring that the wardroom coffee pot was fresh and ready by the 0800 AOM. The water used to make coffee came from a utility closet on the back side of the wardroom. To get there you went down the hall turned the corner turned another corner and eventually wound up at the janitors closet. In addition to the coffee I was also responsible for ensuring there was a pitcher of cold water and a pitcher of cold lemonade in the wardroom fridge. The second shift Duty Driver was responsible for emptying the coffee pot before the end of their shift at midnight. We didn't have a third shift Duty Driver.

 

I did this Monday thru Friday for a couple months but one day I called in sick so a temp DD was voluntold from the Day shift 1st Lt cleaning crew. As he was late getting to the duty office the Duty Officer told him to get the coffee brewing ASAP. So rather than take the time to carry the coffee pot to the sink he opened the fridge and proceeded to use the cold water in the pitcher to fill the pot. Problem is he grabbed the Lemonade pitcher instead of the water pitcher. Needless to say there were a bunch of very unhappy officers that morning.

When I was returned to duty two days later BM-1 Noonan informed me of what happened. After the AOM, my division officer went so far as to inform me that the next time I was going to be SIQ that I had to first ensure that my replacement was fully briefed BEFORE reporting to sick call. 

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On 3/13/2022 at 9:28 PM, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said:

**** Starbucks!

 

I have liked Seattle’s Best coffee for a while now. I started drinking their coffee in 2013. They just went up a few notches in my book. Thanks for letting us know. 

Some 25-30 years ago a buddy of mine who lives in Seattle sent me some of that. I worked in a hospital at the time with a bunch of coffee addicts. We brewed a pot of that, my tech and I both poured a cup of it........tried it........poured it down the sink. It was NASTY!!!! If that was Seattle's Best I'd hate to see their worst.

JHC :lol:

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7 minutes ago, Capt. James H. Callahan said:

Some 25-30 years ago a buddy of mine who lives in Seattle sent me some of that. I worked in a hospital at the time with a bunch of coffee addicts. We brewed a pot of that, my tech and I both poured a cup of it........tried it........poured it down the sink. It was NASTY!!!! If that was Seattle's Best I'd hate to see their worst.

JHC :lol:

:lol: You didn’t make it right! :lol:

 

Actually it depends on the roast. They have a breakfast blend that’s fantastic. They can keep their dark roast. Blechhh

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When my ship was in the Med in 82 the coffee on the mess deck was outstanding. We were pretty much floored by this turn of events. It turns out we had a new mess crank that was assigned coffee duty. For 3 months the mess deck coffee was fantastic then that mess crank went back to his regular duties. Mess duty is 3 months for E-3 and below in the Navy aboard ships at that time. 
Anyway, the day after that guy left mess duty the coffee turned to s*** again and there was nearly a riot on the mess deck. 
The Sr. Chief got it straightened out. 

 

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When I was in College, after any need cases, Athletes got a jobs in the cafeteria or the Student Union.  I had the good fortune to start in the cafeteria at the same time a Retired Army Senior NCO took over.  Can't recall his rank, but we hit it off and he taught me a great deal.  The Coffee had been pretty poor, but he explained and demonstrated how to maintain the big machines. A miracle!  Can't recall if he was there more than a semester or two, but the place was squared away and the food orders of magnitude better than it had been.  I think he and Admin got crossways, a pity!

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