Good tip. Never tried it before since I just choke the sludge down. BTW if I die before I am 40 you will know why. Either that or I will live to 95 because I got guts of steel.

Same as above post. Double tapped it!

So I just cracked open a brand new can of Maxwell House that expired in November of 2007. To be honest I can barely tell the difference between the Maxwell House 5 Year old and the Folgers unexpired. Either I have extremely low standards or the whole expiry thing is a total load of BS. Some sugar and cream and its off to yummyville.

I will leave a note for my wife to leave a message here if I die or become blind from the 5 years expired coffee.

Actually you are right. Expiry dates on many products are total bunk. I have had a number of different things that were many years beyond their expiry dates that were just fine. I read something on this not too long ago and the writer had contacted a number of food and drug companies who admitted that for many items the expiry dates meant nothing and the product would be good for many years past it. To a degree expiry dates on many products are just there to keep gov't departments happy.

There is no doubt that most things degrade over time.......... but you know I have a feeling that a 15 year old can of coffee, after the SHTF and we are back to chiseling on stone tablets, will taste just fine!!

My wife and I also grind our own beans every morning. Ahab........ where do you get your beans in bulk? Best we can do in the stores within a 3 hour drive is packages of around a kg. Would love to be able to get it in larger quantities than that as we generally only get to the big city once a year, twice at most. I have been unable to locate any bulk dealers.

don't know where you are located but I have a contact in Rockland, ontario that is excellent, they bring in the big bulks bags and roast their own beans, they used to do it as a home business but its grown to the point they now have a coffee shop, they might be able to give a helping hand if asked.. Joels Coffee is the name..

Thanks farmgal. All of the companies I have found so far, except one, are in the US and do not want to ship to Canada. The Canadian one is green beans in bulk. I will check that out. Appreciate the info.

If your doing the rough method of brewing, that is dump the prescibed amount of coffee into a boiling pot of water. After a minute take the coffee of the heat, and drop some cleaned egg shells in the coffee, this will help settle the grounds to the bottom. No shells, add cold water to brew. Cowboy coffee, Add horse shoe and boil, when the shoe floats...coffee is ready. The military cooks have this one recipie down to perfection. 😯

ranger2012...just make sure you have the dental floss handy to get the coffee grains out! We have spent many happy camping hours enjoying cowboy coffee, but now that we are old and set in our ways we make sure to have a grinder and filters available.... 😉

When all else fails, a bit of paper towel make a good filter.

When all else fails, a bit of paper towel make a good filter.

Yep, that works just fine.

As for the coffee grounds....... just adds to the texture and probably helps us make our daily allotment of fibre.

Never heard of the eggshell trick before, always just used a dash of cold water. Now I can see needing the dental floss for the egg shell. 😉

Just tried this old coffee strong and black. Tastes like what I would imagine is burnt wood. Some sugar took care of that. I never ever touched coffee before that didn't have some flavored creamer. Black and sugar isn't that bad.

Coffee, coffee, coffee. I have been following this thread with interest. At the same time trying not to post anything but I can't contain myself any longer. I have to confess if the SHTF I would soooooo miss my Keurig! It would be devastating almost incapacitating. A thought I barely dare contemplate. But wait we are preppers and there has to be a solution to this conundrum. So I started to stockpile K-cups. Lots of them. Lots of delicious flavors; Donut House, Amazonia, Lively Columbian and of course the ubiquitous House Blend. Yummy . No easy task I tell you. First those little devils are expensive, secondly trying to build up a supply of these scrumptious morsels is very difficult. It is somewhat like trying to store rum, very difficult indeed. Somehow you never seem to get ahead. Finally, after a supreme effort, I have a few months supply of K-cups. Before I could bask in the comfort of my accomplishment I started to have new fears. What if something "happened" to my Keurig? How could I repair it? What would I do? Well again in fine prepper style I tackled this problem. Why have one when you can own two? I waited for a sale, purchased a back up unit and after testing it I stashed it in my stores. Case closed!

Ahh! This is my last vice.

However - experience on many exercises were we had minimal rations, did teach me - "Your standards do drop." What you wouldn't give to your worst enemy now will be a treasured luxury tomorrow.

I however am stock piling my favourite blend blend - and like the movie 'Ice-Age' will defend it to the bitter end, like the character 'SCRAT'- the squirrel.

Coffee, coffee, coffee. I have been following this thread with interest. At the same time trying not to post anything but I can't contain myself any longer. I have to confess if the SHTF I would soooooo miss my Keurig! It would be devastating almost incapacitating. A thought I barely dare contemplate. But wait we are preppers and there has to be a solution to this conundrum. So I started to stockpile K-cups. Lots of them. Lots of delicious flavors; Donut House, Amazonia, Lively Columbian and of course the ubiquitous House Blend. Yummy . No easy task I tell you. First those little devils are expensive, secondly trying to build up a supply of these scrumptious morsels is very difficult. It is somewhat like trying to store rum, very difficult indeed. Somehow you never seem to get ahead. Finally, after a supreme effort, I have a few months supply of K-cups. Before I could bask in the comfort of my accomplishment I started to have new fears. What if something "happened" to my Keurig? How could I repair it? What would I do? Well again in fine prepper style I tackled this problem. Why have one when you can own two? I waited for a sale, purchased a back up unit and after testing it I stashed it in my stores. Case closed!

stupid question - can the K-cups be recycled?

There are four components in a K-cup. The plastic container is made from polypropylene #5 plastic. This is sealed with an aluminum foil lid. Inside there is a paper filter and within the filter the coffee grinds. So the short answer is no unless you separate them into their components.

If you take the few seconds it takes to separate them the coffee grinds go the compost and the aluminum foil lids can go into the recycling box. We have curb side pickup of recycling boxes and we do not have to sort the contents. Unfortunately we can only include #1 and #2 plastics at this time. So I am left with the container and the filter. I am passionate about recycling. I can honestly say that since I was given a machine as a present a couple of years not one k-cup has gone into the garbage.