Coffee: the Revolutionary Ration the Army took Viral
How the Army helped foster America's love story with coffee
Every soldier has a coffee story. A moment when, regardless of what was happening around you, a warm cup of joe quieted the world. For me, it was the last mission of a National Training Center (NTC) field exercise. After weeks of little sleep, my unit and I were exhausted and looking forward to the end of the exercise.
As we settled into our patrol base for the final time, I received word a journalist from one of the papers near our home base was going to cover my unit for the last mission. I was glad to host the reporter—I knew the soldiers would enjoy talking with someone from home and that it’d be nice for them to be featured in local media, but by the time we picked up the journalist and made our way back to formation, dawn was rapidly approaching.
Knowing that sleep was likely not much of an option, I pulled out my Jetboil coffee maker. Three minutes, one liter of water, a few grams of propane/isobutane fuel, and two pouches of Starbucks instant coffee later, magic. Sitting there, warm coffee in my hands, it did not matter that I was, at that point, more dirt than human. I could just take in the last of the night sky, the desert landscape, and the incredible soldiers spread around me.
The moment did not last long. The work of preparing for the last mission of NTC started early. But it’s a moment that stayed with me. A moment indelibly connected to coffee.
The Army and Coffee in America
My story is something of a microcosm for how the Army helped make coffee America’s beverage. Around 7 in 10 Americans drink coffee and we drink it more frequently than any other beverage except for water (and even here, sometimes coffee shows up as more regularly consumed.) Interestingly, even though coffee is the first or second most popular beverage in America, Americans are drinking less per capita than they did at the peak in 1946.)
I was reminded of the Army’s history with coffee by Independence Day festivities. The Revolutionary War was the first major catalyst for America’s shift to coffee. Starbucks, Dunkins, and every other American coffee company owes part of its success to the fact that Boston patriots chose to protest the British tax on tea with the Boston Tea Party in 1773. Thereafter, drinking coffee was seen as an act of patriotism.
It took the Army, however, to bring coffee to scale. In 1832, President Andrew Jackson made coffee an official part of the Army’s rations. Coffee imports more than tripled, from 12 million pounds per year to more than 38 million pounds per year, as a result. From that point, it was off to the races. Every major conflict then led to a massive surge in coffee consumption.
Source: DVIDS.
Today, there are over 72,000 coffee shops in the country. And according to Coffee Intelligence, there are more than 85 veteran-owned coffee businesses across the country. This likely significantly undercounts the true number as there are likely many smaller establishments that are less easily tracked.
The Army was not the only thing that stimulated Americans’ thirst for coffee, but it has been a major influence. So as we reach for an iced coffee this summer, let us also pause to cheers all the soldiers, past and present, who have helped put coffee within arms reach everywhere in America.
What’s your Army coffee story?
Got a coffee story? Share it in the comments or send it to dan@army250.us.
Additional Resources:
For more on the Army and coffee, you can check out these posts from We Are The Mighty and the Battlefield Trust.
To learn about the Army’s role in popularizing instant coffee, see this brief piece from the U.S. Army.
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