Coffee to a sailor is the nectar of the gods. A Navy Sailor cannot function properly without coffee. Navy Sailors must retain a three to one ratio of coffee to blood to keep from going absolutely crazy.
There are
many ways to have coffee … Regular, Black, and Midwatch Brew. Regular is using
the prescribed amount in the coffee maker in accordance with the manufacturer’s instruction,
poured into a cup with sugar and cream.
Black is
done in the exact same method using no cream whatsoever, with sugar optional.
Now the
Midwatch Brew, use two to three times more coffee than the manufacturer’s
specifications and let it sit brewing for a minimum of two to four hours. This
coffee should be thick, bitter, and strong enough to wake the dead. Navy Sailors
coffee ration should be regulated to two to three pots per day. Over caffeinating
a Sailor may result in longer than normal work days, longer than normal sea
stories, and restlessness.
Coffee
was created by combining the tears of a Food Service Specialist, the shrieks of
a Yeoman, and the fear of green recruit seamen. Early Navy Sailors used these
ingredients to make a tasty stimulating drink. Boatswain Mitch Coffee was the
inventor of the drink in which it is named. Sailors from ancient Columbia
cultivated the first coffee beans in the mountains and later sold the
plantation to a Mr. Juan Valdez, so that Navy Sailors could focus on other
things like drinking it.
The more
you know …
Couldn't stand coffee. My functioning drink was alcohol
ReplyDeleteCoffee. I was raised on coffee. Not because of any service related aspect but coffee was simply cheaper than milk.
ReplyDeleteFYI, I preferred my coffee with cream and sugar. Sometimes the ship would run out of stated cream and sugar. What to do? After several try’s, I found that Apple jelly (sweetener) and a pat of butter (cream) would make a suitable substitute of course had to keep stirring. Melted butter tended to float. Wonder why the ship never seemed to run out of Apple jelly and butter pats.
Army coffee was the same. There was what you got in the mess hall and what we made in the field. Whatever you didn't finish was saved to use as engine degreaser..
ReplyDeleteCoffee we had was just the opposite as it was what was made from leftover degreaser.
DeleteAccording to my mother I started drinking coffee at age 3. Lots of milk and sugar but it kept me from stealing hers. On the ship it was black with sugar and now it is cream and sugar but still drinking a pot a day.
ReplyDeleteNever drank it, four years in Navy, 25 law enforcement in US Border Patrol and INS Investigations.
ReplyDeleteOn the SAC we had scissors chained to Mid Rats coffee urn, Quick Draw McGraw!
ReplyDelete