Coffee, Tea and Powdered Drinks

By Joseph Parish

Storing coffee, tea or powdered drinks for emergency situations has certain merits associated with it. In the past we have stored up great amounts of these products to be used not only in our own consumption but also as an item to provide bartering power after an infrastructure collapse.

Having previously owned several coffee shops I am aware that the best way to store coffee is as whole beans. The beans remain fresher for a longer period of time then its ground cousin because the oils that provide the taste in the coffee are contained in the beans and not released until roasted and ground. I have several sizes of grinders and always grind up my own coffee as I need it. As for sealing the coffee containers, I have found that it really wasn’t necessary. Possibly you may wish to try dry sealing packages of coffee or even freezing it. You would just have to experiment in the different way in small amounts to see how the results are.

In addition to the regular tea that I have in the pantry, I store a lot of different herbal teas, some of which are beneficial for a healthy body while others simply taste good. My bulk teas as well as the regular tea bag versions are kept in air tight glass containers in order to preserve the flavors. I leave the commercial herbal teas that I purchased in boxes in the same box which they originally came in until they are used up. Surprisingly, although I have a large collection of boxed herbal teas I have found that over time they lose very little flavor.

A hint that I become aware of last year was when canning your fresh fruit always add extra syrup so that it can be employed as a flavoring for your teas. If you are lucky enough to be blessed with a few fruit trees then you could can a bit of plain fruit juice without the fruit. After you have made the juice you could always use the pulp in making fruit butters. My wife makes butters from just about everything from pumpkin to bananas. 

If you can manage to grow your own herbs you may even consider growing such things as Lemon Grass. This is an excellent addition to teas to enhance the flavors as well as being a vital ingredient in many Oriental recipes. It can be dried and stored on a pantry shelf until it is needed.

I have on hand a good selection of powdered drinks such as kool-aid, Tang and powdered milk. One hint that I would offer on these types of drinks is that once you open a container be sure to finish it up in a reasonable amount of time otherwise the content will start to become hard. So as you can see there are advantages to storing up on coffee, tea and powdered drinks.

Copyright @2010 Joseph Parish

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