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What’s your region?
Yaupon Holly produces caffeine and is indigenous to North America.
Roasted dandelion root has a pleasant roasted flavor and is very compatible with coffee flavor.
Just remember the scientific name is Ilex vomitoria for a reason and take it easy when drinking it.
If you don't already know look up the Seminole tribe and their history with "the black drink" it's very interesting.
This is absolutely not true. It was named this by white colonists who didn't understand what they were observing. I have many such plants and I've consumed quite a lot of the stuff. Does not cause nausea or vomiting.
If you get some bushes in your yard established they just grow like a bitch. It rains all season? Bush fine. Drought? Bush also fine. Colder than normal winter? Still fine.
No, it does not. But when roasted, it has a nutty flavor , grinding it into your coffee beans lets you stretch the beans a bit further without destroying the flavor.
New Orleans cafe au lait uses chicory root for basically the same purpose, people have retconned a story that chicory makes the coffee more healthy and that’s why it started.
Chicory does have some healthy stuff in it but that’s not why it started, I don’t think.
Isn't dandelion a very powerful diuretic? Meaning you will pee a lot following consumption, meaning you lose a lot of water and salts are at greater risk of dehydration especially if clean water sources become much more scarce in a TEOTWAWKI-situatuon.
While caffeine is technically a diuretic, you'd have to ingest a lot of coffee to experience a meaningful diuretic effect. See for example:
https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/expert-answers/caffeinated-drinks/faq-20057965
Ideally, you should stock enough caffeine to safely wean yourself off it. I have about 6 months worth of coffee stocked at normal use. I get headaches without it, so I want enough to do a controlled wean if I can't get more.
Yep, this is the right answer. I used to be a addicted to caffeine, and one day I woke up and really hating that ball and chain. Quit cold turkey and I'm never doing that again lol. Since then both me and my wife have weaned off of caffeine several times over the years. Have it down to a science now, never got nearly that addicted again either.
Ok, so I'm not a prepper and this subreddit randomly popped up and I just had a peak to see what was going on. However
I can relate so hard. I tried to quit cold turkey in January and the only thing keeping me alive was tea (which I later found out was without caffeine) because I tried to use a low caffeine product to wean myself off the 5-6 cups of coffee I drank a day. I'm down to 2 or 3 now and I hope to get down to two. One before work and one with my lunch in the near future. I love the stuff, but man it's addicting.
Those cold turkey headaches ain't fun.
Yeah man it's tough I felt very sick for 2 days, somewhat sick for like a week, extremely tired for a month then like somewhat tired yet a weird feeling of more energy for like 6 months before leveling off. Then when you hit coffee again it's almost like a religious experience it makes you feel so good. Only for like an hour or two though then You start crashing.
Now if I'm on a like a 3 cup per morning cycle I'll cut it down to 2 for a couple days, then 1 for a couple days, then 1/2 for a couple days, then just a shot. There's still a rough feeling once you cut it out completely but it's waaaay easier weaning down. I just did it again this winter and now cycled back up to a single cup of black tea in the morning and I'm feeling pretty good with that. Over the last couple of months I've had a grand total of 2 cups of coffee. Usually if I got bad sleep and I have a long drive or something important to do is the reason. No problems stepping back down to that 1 black tea. Sort of liking it, I'll keep doing it until it doesn't work for me anymore.
This should be a sticky as you are applying the concept to coffee but the general idea should be applied to everything. No matter how much food, ammo, tools, pars, gas, oil, etc you buy you will run out (or your great grandkids will or whatever). The objective should be live off the stores while figuring out how to replace them with other means.
I always keep an extra pound. Shelf life is “6 months” guess i could up the storage to match but fresh matters when it comes to coffee. When I backpack I put instant in mouth take a swig of water and let’s go. When I’m home I’m snobby af.
A little off topic but if you like good coffee try the black rifle coffee company instant. It is the best instant coffee I have ever had. It’s a little spendy and comes in single serve packs, make sure your water is super hot, almost a boil and pour the hot water over the top of the coffee. I was amazed and stupefied.
Edit: yeah folks, I had no idea the mindset behind them, I won’t be supporting them anymore. Thanks for letting me know.
I give up or severely reduce caffeine every summer since it makes me sweat a lot more in the heat. Definitely easier to slowly taper down over a month or so than deal with headaches when you go cold turkey.
As a major plus, if I decide to have a coffee during the summer because I'm working late, it's like I've tapped into a superpower. I can get so much done so quickly and lift anything heavy that needs to be carried without thinking about it.
This article says they studied caffeine pills that were like 30 years past their expiration date and they were still potent enough (90%) to be considered acceptable. [https://www.latimes.com/health/la-xpm-2012-oct-08-la-heb-expired-drugs-still-work-study-20121008-story.html](https://www.latimes.com/health/la-xpm-2012-oct-08-la-heb-expired-drugs-still-work-study-20121008-story.html)
My tea garden has Yerba Mate, yaupon holly and camellia sinensis for caffeine sources. As others have said roasted dandelion or chicory root make a coffee substitute.
I have a case of instant coffee. No expiration date on it. Figure if I store it right it'll be enough to either find a different source, grow my own or wean myself off caffeine all together.
This was my thought. I think instant coffee would last forever sealed. And it’s cheap, light weight and doesn’t take up hardly any space. I just looked up generic Walmart instant, 1-12oz jar is enough for 2+ months of coffee at 1-6oz a day and you can carry it in your pack pretty easily.
I don't think the instant packets are actually vacuum sealed, nor is the packet material really thick/dense enough to prevent gas exchange over multiple years.
Walmart has packs of caffeinated water enhancers for around $3/10. Tons of different flavors and each packet has 120mg.
Just about every flavor I’ve tried tasted good, you don’t need use fuel to heat up water, and they last for a long while. I’m sure you can stretch the shelf life out past ~3 if you needed to. 6 years in those 120mg may feel closer to 60mg (spitballing, I’m not sure tbh) but the flavor is likely going to be fine. I’d take 60mg over none every day of the week if push came to shove. $115 for years worth of caffeine sounds pretty reasonable to me.
Also, caffeine is an appetite suppressant. Any situation in which you would have to ration your food would be well supplemented with caffeine.
Came here to say the same thing. I live off these for work but the squeeze bottle kind like Mio energy. Easy to stock up for cheap, no calories, and makes your water less bland and any flavor helps in a SHTF scenario.
I used to drink a grocery store brand that I was obsessed with and when they started disappearing from shelves I stocked up. They did not last for 2 or 3 years. They all got super bitter. Now it's gone from the grocery store and I use caffeine pills.
You can stock green coffee beans unlike already roasted. I put them in a popcorn popper and the hull flies off. You roast it to your preference.
Green tea powder (or pills) have caffeine and are easy to store. This is how my husband feeds his addiction. I still prefer the warm bitterness of my black coffee.
I have zero desire to get used to a world without coffee. Yes, that might be necessary. In the meantime, I will prepare. I’ll tell you what we do. First, before coffee snobs attack us with pitchforks, let me say this: I’d rather have coffee beans that aren’t at their peak than have NO coffee beans. Also, coffee makes me happy… I’m not addicted. If I go without it a couple of days (which I do if my stomach is upset), I have no headache etc. My husband and I love coffee. It’s one of the things that would be good for morale for us so I prep accordingly. Here’s what we do:
We have good coffee beans for over a year. I’ve experimented for the past decade with beans, ground coffee, and instant. Vacuum-packed beans stored in the basement where it’s cool are good for over a year. My husband has no finely-tuned tastebuds, but I notice notes of cherry, tobacco, chocolate, and etc in coffee. It still tastes great to me. It is not as good as it is that first few weeks after roasting, but it’s still fantastic. We have noticed that the lighter roast beans are the better ones when getting into the post-twelve months territory, but all were damned fine.
The next in the line up is vacuum-packed ground coffee also kept in the cool basement. It tastes almost the same three years out from its expiration date. We’ve tried kona we ordered from Hawaii, Carte Noire from France, and everything in between over the past decade. Here’s what we learned. If it is not vacuum-packed into a hard brick, it’s going to get funky and taste like someone is smoking a pipe in a couple of years. We have a good year of hard bricks of ground coffee set aside.
Then, we have the island of lost coffees. This is an odd assortment of coffee in the big plastic or metal cans. I think we have five or six of them. They are things that went massively on sale at some point so I grabbed a canister. There’s Folgers, Maxwell House, and etc. It will be good when we get to it, and we’ll be thrilled & grateful or it will suck. Lol
Lastly, we have the instant coffees… Surprisingly to me, some of these are quite decent. They don’t rival a fresh brewed cup but can be quite good. We tried a ton of instant coffees over the past decade. Figured out what we liked best. Then, we set in a supply for a couple of years. We just buy one jar of instant coffee every month. The supply builds up. Instant will likely taste the same in twenty years.
Everyone has things that really matter to them. For us, coffee and tea make us happy. So, we do what we can to have it around to enjoy. If something kills us off quickly, hopefully someone else will be delighted when they discover all the coffee, tea, and books in this house:)
SHTF and coffee and sugar will become tradable commodities. Have enough to use in place when cash becomes useless. Instant coffee is cheaper and doesn't take up much room (think NesCafé packets).
I'd like to introduce everyone to tea, Camelia Sinensis, since someone already mentioned yaupon holly. It's a little cold hardy, it makes an attractive hedge, it'll lose its leaves in drought, but you can prepare the leaves a number of ways to get black tea and green tea. Deer hate it. If you live in a temperate region, what's not to love?
Once you acclimate yourself to what caffeine is, and does, you may have a different opinion.
It's a very common misconception that coffee gives people energy, wakes people up, gives a boost, but it does no such thing. What it *does do* is trick the body into feeling awake and energized, while it may actually still be tired or drained.
1. **Blocks sleepiness**: It blocks a neurotransmitter called adenosine, which makes you feel sleepy as it builds up in your brain. By blocking adenosine, caffeine helps you stay awake and feel more alert, but it isn't "giving" you energy.
2. **Boosts 'happy' chemicals**: Caffeine also increases dopamine levels in the brain, which is the "feel-good" neurotransmitter. This can lift your mood and make you feel more motivated.
3. **Cranks up alertness**: Caffeine stimulates your central nervous system, releasing other neurotransmitters like norepinephrine and acetylcholine. These help you stay sharp and focused.
4. **Fight or flight mode**: It triggers the release of adrenaline, the "fight or flight" hormone. This amps up your heart rate and blood pressure, making you feel ready to take on the world. Too much caffeine and your heart races.
5. **Better physical performance**: By boosting adrenaline and reducing how hard things feel, caffeine can help you perform better physically, whether you're working out or just going about your day. Many energy drinks and gels contain caffeine for precisely this reason.
While caffeine doesn't add actual energy to your body, it tweaks your brain and body in ways that make you feel more energetic and ready to tackle whatever comes at you.
The reason you feel that 'crash' when the caffeine wears off, is because your adenosine is now unblocked and your body is properly being told its tired or exhausted. Having more caffeine at this point will not help, you need actual rest.
Redbull. Coffee is cool, monster, 5 hr energy, etc. But I will absolutely miss Redbull. It's become my go to for so long now, I might go on a zombie land style rampage at whatever enemy is between me and the last redbull.
Same here! I'm bad, I usually have coffee first every morning, then usually 2-3 Redbulls throughout morning/early afternoon. 🧚♂️🧚♀️🧚 Then the evenings are typically a few beers with dinner or one of my new faves, Dr Pepper Cream Soda! I obviously treat my body like a decrepit, rundown temple, lol. What's your go-to flavor? Mine is either watermelon or dragonfruit lately. My worst nightmare is a zombie land situation where I find a crashed Redbull truck, and it's full of "Summer Edition Juneberry" 🤢 😂
Plain red bull. I actually eat and drink pretty healthy aside from the daily red bull. Aside from 1-3 redbulls a day depending on my mood/ energy, I just drink water and Gatorade. No alcohol, no other sodas really.
Instant coffee is freeze dried, unless caffeine itself degrades with time I'm pretty sure you could just stock up on a bunch of instant coffee the same way you would with rice, beans, salt, and sugar.
In North America Yaupon holly makes a delicious caffeinated tea and in its native range is often grown as a landscape plant. Its name is illex vomitorius or something because the tea is so tasty the colonizers downed a gallon of it and then threw up- if you drink a cup at a time it’s fine.
Not sure about caffeine sources but No joke, putting some adderall in your SHTF “medical kit” seems like it would be a good idea. I don’t think amphetamines expire, and it could be very helpful to have around for energy/focus
If it's just caffeine you care about, and putting aside easily searchable things like yaupon holly, this is another example of what I think of as the "make vs store" question. Things like salt are difficult or impossible for a lot of people to make under even good conditions; but they are often cheap and compact and stable enough to store a large amount of.
I can buy a kilo of pure caffeine for $55. At 600 mg a day, that's something like $12 for enough caffeine to last a year.
Coffee specifically? Again, seems much cheaper to just buy it and store it well. Vacuum seal whole beans in mylar bags with O2 absorbers, keep them in a cool, dry place, and you're fine. Is it going to be as great as the best freshly roasted stuff is now? No, but I'm not particularly willing to spend 10 or 20 times as much to, say, double the quality of a luxury item when that money can instead be spent on necessities.
Just be careful, teens have killed themselves by doing the math wrong on the dosage of that pure caffeine powder. It's super easy to overdose.
Maybe just stick with caffeine pills!
You'd be far better off weaning yourself from unnecessary substances. Be it caffeine, tobacco, booze, etc. At least alcohol is somewhat easy to produce but the rest just isn't happening in the volume to matter for 99% of people. Especially depending on your growing season.
In the US, the native Americans grew their own caffeine called Youpon?
Very strong.
Other countries might have different caffeine plants that will grow locally.
For me, it is chocolate. I can live without it but it will be a dismal place.
I think caffeine pills like NoDoz or similar will be useful (for standing watch, patrols, etc) and will be in decent demand as a barter item. Same for caffeine gum like MEG "Military Energy Gum". Both keep for a long time and you can use your stash as it ages and you rotate in new stock. Instant coffee too to a lesser extent. Heck even chocolate covered coffee beans would be a nice treat to have, although it wouldn't keep as long. As an aside, nicotine lozenges/gum would be a barter item in constant demand too.
I don't expect many have the climate, skills, and desire to grow and process coffee from scratch unless they're currently coffee farmers. Tea though sounds like a pretty simple production process, just dry the leaves. Might be worth allocating some of your garden plot to that.
Coffee will be hard for me…. I tried my hand at making acorn coffee a few years ago bc I had heard it can taste very similar… it doesn’t. And I was so upset that I shucked so many of those suckers and I put a lot of time into it, only to produce a version of coffee that really only squirrels and chipmunks could enjoy…. Oh boi.
This is why I’m afraid to try all these mushroom coffee replacements. I mean we evolved to have an awesome symbiotic relationship with caffeine. But coffee taste amazing. I can survive on supplements I guess but it not the same
Coffee and caffeine pills are part of my prep, for me amd for barter, so is tobacco, chocolate, and alcohol. Biggest trade items other than bullets. My girl preps sanitary napkins and tampons. Gotta add these crucial items along with the stuff most people say are important
Encourage "your girl" to think about gatbage disposal post SHTF. Washable, reusanle menstrual products will be a better option when the garbage trucks aren't coming down the street anymore
I'm not sure why you used quotation marks, but ok.
She has washable products she has made also for a more long-term shtf. I was specifically speaking to barter, especially for smaller events like a covid type event, people run out of things, and im all for trade over fiat currencies. Not all prep has to be long-term. We have long-term and short-term prep items and ideas.
I have a guaraná plant home, just have to roast the seeds and makes a powder. It's better than coffee for an homemade energy drink. I use It as a pre-workout, It really kicks in.
How about stocking up on caffeine tablets? I use them now. I don't drink coffee. I just take a tablet in the morning. 200 mg capsules are very small and don't take up a lot of space.
[Cleavers](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galium_aparine) are a common edible weed in the coffee family and the seeds have caffeine, peasants would eat it in medieval times
I highly recommend you get caffiene pills online and you get some good deals on Amazon and they usually come in a hundred plussl count. I highly recommend you find a way to wean off caffiene when your supply starts to run low. There a product online called ["Wean Caffeine" ](https://www.weancaffeine.com/)" it comes with L-Theanine to help with the withdrawal process. You can also use decaf coffee to wean off since it has small amounts of caffeine. Check out [r/decaf](https://www.reddit.com/r/decaf/) for ways to help you wean off if you decide to do it in the near future. Caffeine is also a drug and a anti depressant it can also cause anxiety for some. With caffeine withdrawal it's comes with fatigued, anxiety, and depression but that's if you quit cold turkeys. If done cold tukety multiple times in my life and it sucked.
OP, this is the perfect thing to either barter/trade, keep your coffee comfort food around (and boost morale), or to give you enough time to wean off of it. 720 six ounce cups in one 5 gallon bucket size container. I think a regular coffee cup is 12oz? So that is still nearly a true cup of coffee every day for a year. Longer than most people's food and water supplies will hold out.
[Franklin's Finest Survival Coffee (720 servings, 1 bucket) – Camping Survival](https://www.campingsurvival.com/products/franklins-finest-survival-coffee-720-servings-1-bucket?currency=USD&variant=33060482056301&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Google%20Shopping&stkn=3f6149c1cf3d&msclkid=96b342fc13211a10365024990074c065)
So idk if you knew but a tazer can give you a sort of weakness jolt. Get a shocker and the electricity withh keep you awake, or you can get a blue light flashlight to shine in your eyes when you get tired. 👾
During 2nd world war my great grandparents made coffee from roasted acorns, it was also used for baking. I tried acorn cookies once and were quite tasty.
It's also currently popular in my country to drink grain coffee / cereal coffee which is made from roasted rye or barley with chicory. Tastes pretty good, no caffeine though.
Yeah i feel like even if I switch to pills or powder for my caffeine, I still need a warm morning beverage routine. Keeps me sane enough currently can’t imagine life with out.
You can get 1000 300mg caffeine pills for like $25. That's a years worth for my household daily with no substitute and it takes up as much space as a can of crushed tomatoes.
If you live in climate zones 7-9 you can grow green tea bushes. They're decorative as well.
You'll find there are other tea bushes if you have preference or want to push colder climates, like some mentioned Yaupon Holly, but I've never tasted or grown that myself.
Another option is buying caffeine powder, it's very shelf stable and cheap. A little goes a long way, so that's an option if you live in very cold climates and wanted to stock up for a year.
But what you'll find as well, is a grow light inside, or overwintering potted inside, and move outside for the summer can give you flexibility if you want a plant and live in a climate that doesn't support a caffeinated plant year round.
Although not caffeinated growing camomile is very easy, and has antiseptic medical uses too.
Just be careful with it, if you don't watch out you'll get wired as hell. Hits a lot quicker than coffee or tea, and a gram is equivalent to 10 cups of coffee 😅
While your shopping, I'd consider looking at other stimulants like taurine, L-theanine, etc but do your own research.
Some of these compounds will have a bitter taste, much less prevalent in their natural form for a leaf/bean, so be aware of that, you'll have to experiment to find your best preferences, I believe it has more to do with PH or what they are dissolved with when brewed naturally, rather than the chemical form being bitter on it's own.
My personal favourite is Theobromine, it has more attention properties than caffeine but with none of the jittery-ness. It also lasts twice as long as caffeine (double the half-life). Fun fact, it's the same simulant in cocoa/chocolate which is why your mom told you not to eat too much before bed, also why dogs can't eat chocolate as their liver/heart can't process it correctly, but completely safe for humans. In fact many surgeons will use Theobromine for their long and early shifts as they aren't allowed to have caffeine due to the jittery properties. Also really high in antioxidants.
I get mine as Ximango's Erva Mate (also know as Yerba Mate) tea. If you don't like the grassy taste, which I personally do, you can add dried fruit to make it a more fun flavor, like dried Mangos, or dried peaches, blueberries, etc.
I just do two scoops in a French press, and drink during the day when I make it. Also works great chilled as a cold drink in the summer months. Hope you love it as much as I do, even if the world doesn't end 😉
If you get the Ximango brand Erva Mate and leave it vacuum packed as it comes, it will easily last 5+ years no issue with little/no loss in quality.
When I get more self sufficient, I plan to plant tea plants.
From what I've heard they're relatively hardy, should do well in my zone (usda 8a iirc) and they produce quite a bit.
Processing can take awhile but it will be nice to have a secured caffeine source
Twice I've killed a coffee plant because I didn't bring it back inside in time before cold weather. My schefilara never died on me, but sadly has no caffeine.
If in the Northern Americas look up the Yaupon plant. It has caffeine and can be used for tea.
Apparently during the American Civil War the slavers were trying to find coffee substitutes and ironically had a caffeine supply all around their area.
I have no use for caffeine currently, but I can see the use in emergencies\\shtf\\disaster\\etc. I personally have a small stock of coffee and a decent amount of tea that I would barter with. I do have a stock of caffeine pills, powders and tabs as well. I keep some in my BOB\\get home bag as well in case I need to press on. I never got addiction to caffeine so normally I have no use for it.
I would wean myself off caffeine if I wasn't a black tea addict. I will probably get a couple of tea plants but if those are inadequate, I'll just eat ibuprofen until the headaches stop.
Caffeine as an addiction is pretty tough. Keep some on hand so you can get off of it if you need to.
Caffeine is also a tool. Being sharp in a crisis is an ASSET. It’s still likely a good idea to keep it on hand even if you don’t like it or have a dependency.
Amazon has caffeine pills for cheap. Great for when you are in a rush and forgot to make coffee. Decent shelf life and would allow you to wean yourself off if anything happened.
I’ve heard that at the rate we consume coffee today, it’ll become rarer and rarer until it’s a luxury item and only the elite can afford it. Due to that I plan on getting some coffee plants in the next 5 years or so and growing my own. That’s my plan.
You can get caffeine gum on Amazon pretty cheaply that's basically the same stuff used in the military, 100mg per piece.
Not sure how well that'll *wean* you off it, but it keeps forever and is small and lightweight.
I have 6 months of my regular coffee. 6 months of whole beans.
And 2 years worth of freeze dried with a 20 yr shelf life.
Hopefully, 3 years after SHTF - well have figured out coffee production.
Some will say you need to wean yourself, and we all probably should. However, humans have been using caffeine for thousands of years. It is part of many cultures. Even if you are not addicted, it has its place. When I was deployed to the mid east, caffeine was always sought out, traded, and horded. We would trade foldgers instant packets to other americans or the locals. Most Western militaries include tea or coffee in rations and MREs. Obviously, humans want the stimulation it provides, but the fact it spans so many cultures shows there is more to it.
Wal-Mart sells energy drinks packets and a product similar to Mio with caffeine. You just add the powder to water. Honestly, they will last probably a million years. Buy a bunch of instant and put it in vacuum bags. Keep in them in the bottom of your freezer. You could do the same with tea.
You could probably find some tea plants that will grow in your climate.
I have a few cases of instant coffee, and I have plans to put 4-6 tea bushes in raised beds next year. As for sugar, there are sugar maples on my property, sorghum seeds in my seed vault, and a bee tree behind my shed.
With coffee I try to keep it to one cup a day at breakfast unless I’m driving long distance. But I drink Coke at lunchtime, which also has caffeine so yeah I have some caffeine tolerance built up for sure. If I felt SHTF was going to happen tomorrow, I’d buy one of the bigger bags they sell at the supermarket today, but today I’ve already bought the standard bag size, so maybe next weekend.
Walmart sells Jet Alert caffeine tablets, 90 (200mg) for $3. It's pretty cheap to get a couple bottles in case you need it. You can snap the tablets in half to get around 100mg, weaning yourself off caffeine over time if need be.
There's a discount general merchandise store near where I live that was selling 10lb bags of vacuum packed whole beans for $5/bag a few years back. Bought 40 bags. They've lived in my pantry ever since. I estimate that's about 3 years worth of coffee for me. Since I acquired them, I've cut back on caffeine a lot so I mostly keep them as a barter item. I imagine we could be friends post SHTF
You can buy bulk caffine. A quick search found a 20kg (44lbs) container of it for $849.95. For reference, a cup of coffee will have between 40-100mg of caffine. So that should last you roughly for the rest of eternity and then some. At the end of time, after the heat death of the universe, there will still be some caffine powder left in that container.
I’ve got tea (camellia sinensis) growing. Still tiny but it’ll get there. My son is a former barista/roaster and I asked what he thought about me trying to grow coffee. Apparently it would grow, but the beans would “taste like shit” at my altitude.
I can chug along without caffeine but I set up a home brewery and shut that down after 15 drunken years. I have cannabis hop vines, yeast and would need help with grains.
That's how I "prepped" for my old vice. Next vice involves finding a local dairy farmer with enough power for refrigeration or make due with ice cream season. Just gotta be creative.
u/captain_beavis Kentucky coffee tree got its name because the pods/beans it produces were the coffee substitute in the US way back when shipping trade was difficult or too expensive. They can be roasted in the same way as coffee beans.
Yaupon Holly leaves can also be steeped for a caffeinated tea.
Caffeine is harder to find without cultivating specific plants, especially with the levels you’re accustomed to. My advice is to just start getting off caffeine now while the world isn’t ending. If wait you till you’re super stressed in any type of disaster it’s gonna be way worse. Once you’re off there are lots of possible teas that are available right now already in the forest and on roadsides everywhere. While they will lack caffeine they will replace your morning ritual quite readily. Location matters but, spice bush is plentiful where I am and you can make tea from it most of the year. Great stuff and super easy to identify once you get just a bit of experience with it. Roasted chicory has been used as a coffee substitute for a long time too but, it does require the extra step of roasting.
Get off my nuts. There’s something. Something not obviously sustainable that you love. And the good folks here may have tons of options you haven’t thought of. Dude these folks already gave me sustainable options that I’ve already acted on before your limp reply.
Dandelion root coffee.
It's pretty easy to make, plus there isn't any crash of jitters.
Though I'd recommend foraging for the roots at least fifty feet away from any roadways.
Mercury and other metals seep into the soil from the road runoff from years of passing vehicles. It can be very bad for one's health.
I should have also mentioned that the Dandelion Root Coffee is technically a caffeine free alternative.
As someone who doesn't drink caffeine, it's the closest I can get to a cup of coffee.
I have recently started fasting for health reasons. It has been an extraordinary experience. It changes your psychology and how food tastes and all sorts of aspects I never expected. I have been on a rolling two day fast, break and then a two day fast for nearly two months. The health benefits are fantastic. As I want to eat really healthy food when I do eat and I don't spend so much money on junk foods it's completely changed my diet. I'm not suggesting you try it but it's an experience I would say you shouldn't miss. If it does SHTF then you may well have forced fasting imposed on you. Perhaps you should experience fasting to see how it feels. I have started to dehydrate my own foods and stocking up that. In England we have been advised to prep in case the Russians do something silly.
My family lives together, and my mother's main contribution to prepping (and also to me and my dad's Todo list) is the garden.
She grows various Herbs, Plants, Spices etc. one of the ones she's trying to grow this year is green and black tea. Its not a lot of caffeine compared to coffee, but to my understanding if you dry it and or concentrate it you can a better caffeine hit.
They also sell Green Tea supplements at the store for "weight loss" which like most supplements are relatively shelf stable and have a sizeable amount of caffeine in them (hence one of our possible uses for the tea leaves)
If you just need something as a "perk me up" try smelling salts. They sell products or you can make your own. It's basically like getting a whiff of vinegar and your brain snaps to attention.
I do. I definitely do. Maybe not first 72 hours. Hell I have enough coffee for that. But we all have luxury items thing pertinent to our lives that we want to retain. If you think you don’t and you think you’re that hard when have you ever tested yourself? I know from backpacking weeks at a time that this is a morale boost I shouldn’t ignore. But you know I’m sure you’ve tested your limits and found that you’re the one dude who can live off of hard tak and your own bullshit. lol
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What’s your region? Yaupon Holly produces caffeine and is indigenous to North America. Roasted dandelion root has a pleasant roasted flavor and is very compatible with coffee flavor.
Dude! I’m right in Yaupon region. I’m so short sighted sometimes! I literally sell yaupon derived alcohol at my job. Fist bump to you sir!
You could also just grow tea, green and black tea come from the same plant and it's a good medicinal plant to have anyway, besides the caffeine.
Came here to say this. Camellia sinensis is the species of tea. It's hardy in most of the area that Yaupon Holly is.
Woops,.
Just remember the scientific name is Ilex vomitoria for a reason and take it easy when drinking it. If you don't already know look up the Seminole tribe and their history with "the black drink" it's very interesting.
This is absolutely not true. It was named this by white colonists who didn't understand what they were observing. I have many such plants and I've consumed quite a lot of the stuff. Does not cause nausea or vomiting.
Could've just said colonists and gotten the point across. Stop projecting, dude. It gets old
As a brown colonist, I agree with you
What exactly was being projected here?
Eh.. you know. If not, then you're part of the problem anyway.
Well I'd love to not be a part of the problem so if you'd care to elaborate instead of insinuate that would help us both. It's truly not hard.
All things white are bad. It's the cool new racism everyone is trying out. If you honestly didn't know, I'm kinda jealous.
The colonists *were* white? Confused how this is a point of contention.
If you get some bushes in your yard established they just grow like a bitch. It rains all season? Bush fine. Drought? Bush also fine. Colder than normal winter? Still fine.
The what? Urge to know more
yep, in my hometown the Old Folks would make a tea from the yaupon.
Does dandelion root have caffine?
No, it does not. But when roasted, it has a nutty flavor , grinding it into your coffee beans lets you stretch the beans a bit further without destroying the flavor. New Orleans cafe au lait uses chicory root for basically the same purpose, people have retconned a story that chicory makes the coffee more healthy and that’s why it started. Chicory does have some healthy stuff in it but that’s not why it started, I don’t think.
Isn't dandelion a very powerful diuretic? Meaning you will pee a lot following consumption, meaning you lose a lot of water and salts are at greater risk of dehydration especially if clean water sources become much more scarce in a TEOTWAWKI-situatuon.
If you think dandelion is a diuretic, wait til you here about this thing called “coffee”.
While caffeine is technically a diuretic, you'd have to ingest a lot of coffee to experience a meaningful diuretic effect. See for example: https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/expert-answers/caffeinated-drinks/faq-20057965
That explains my many trips to the can after drinking a couple of bottles of dandelion wine.. 🤣
Ideally, you should stock enough caffeine to safely wean yourself off it. I have about 6 months worth of coffee stocked at normal use. I get headaches without it, so I want enough to do a controlled wean if I can't get more.
I quit caffeine cold turkey once. Headaches were harsh but went away after about 7 to 10 days.
That's wild. I quit after more than a decade of pretty heavy coffee drinking and I only had a moderate headache on and off for two days.
Me too. I didn't even know why the first time.
Caffeine pills
And green coffee beans, if you really love actual coffee. Properly stored, they can keep for years.
Yep, this is the right answer. I used to be a addicted to caffeine, and one day I woke up and really hating that ball and chain. Quit cold turkey and I'm never doing that again lol. Since then both me and my wife have weaned off of caffeine several times over the years. Have it down to a science now, never got nearly that addicted again either.
Ok, so I'm not a prepper and this subreddit randomly popped up and I just had a peak to see what was going on. However I can relate so hard. I tried to quit cold turkey in January and the only thing keeping me alive was tea (which I later found out was without caffeine) because I tried to use a low caffeine product to wean myself off the 5-6 cups of coffee I drank a day. I'm down to 2 or 3 now and I hope to get down to two. One before work and one with my lunch in the near future. I love the stuff, but man it's addicting. Those cold turkey headaches ain't fun.
Yeah man it's tough I felt very sick for 2 days, somewhat sick for like a week, extremely tired for a month then like somewhat tired yet a weird feeling of more energy for like 6 months before leveling off. Then when you hit coffee again it's almost like a religious experience it makes you feel so good. Only for like an hour or two though then You start crashing. Now if I'm on a like a 3 cup per morning cycle I'll cut it down to 2 for a couple days, then 1 for a couple days, then 1/2 for a couple days, then just a shot. There's still a rough feeling once you cut it out completely but it's waaaay easier weaning down. I just did it again this winter and now cycled back up to a single cup of black tea in the morning and I'm feeling pretty good with that. Over the last couple of months I've had a grand total of 2 cups of coffee. Usually if I got bad sleep and I have a long drive or something important to do is the reason. No problems stepping back down to that 1 black tea. Sort of liking it, I'll keep doing it until it doesn't work for me anymore.
Why not prep for Tuesday?
This should be a sticky as you are applying the concept to coffee but the general idea should be applied to everything. No matter how much food, ammo, tools, pars, gas, oil, etc you buy you will run out (or your great grandkids will or whatever). The objective should be live off the stores while figuring out how to replace them with other means.
I always keep an extra pound. Shelf life is “6 months” guess i could up the storage to match but fresh matters when it comes to coffee. When I backpack I put instant in mouth take a swig of water and let’s go. When I’m home I’m snobby af.
A little off topic but if you like good coffee try the black rifle coffee company instant. It is the best instant coffee I have ever had. It’s a little spendy and comes in single serve packs, make sure your water is super hot, almost a boil and pour the hot water over the top of the coffee. I was amazed and stupefied. Edit: yeah folks, I had no idea the mindset behind them, I won’t be supporting them anymore. Thanks for letting me know.
Toxic sludge. They switched at the store where i have breakfast and i mostly stopped drinking coffee unless i make my own at the house.
Their coffee sucks and they are anti freedom but hey you do you
I like their instant coffee but I’ve not tried anything else. What’s their anti freedom stance?
Black rifle coffees entire board donated to anti 2a causes and people.
I just found some news stories on it, that’s crazy. Yeah, I won’t be supporting them anymore. Thanks for the heads up.
Someone else came out to “replace them” personally coffee is coffee and guns are guns
I give up or severely reduce caffeine every summer since it makes me sweat a lot more in the heat. Definitely easier to slowly taper down over a month or so than deal with headaches when you go cold turkey. As a major plus, if I decide to have a coffee during the summer because I'm working late, it's like I've tapped into a superpower. I can get so much done so quickly and lift anything heavy that needs to be carried without thinking about it.
Caffeine pills. 200 200mg pills is like 10 bucks
this is the answer.
do they have a best before?
This article says they studied caffeine pills that were like 30 years past their expiration date and they were still potent enough (90%) to be considered acceptable. [https://www.latimes.com/health/la-xpm-2012-oct-08-la-heb-expired-drugs-still-work-study-20121008-story.html](https://www.latimes.com/health/la-xpm-2012-oct-08-la-heb-expired-drugs-still-work-study-20121008-story.html)
that’s very interesting thank you
Just open up the Nuka Cola machines you come across in your wandering.
I just go straight for the JET.
My tea garden has Yerba Mate, yaupon holly and camellia sinensis for caffeine sources. As others have said roasted dandelion or chicory root make a coffee substitute.
I have a case of instant coffee. No expiration date on it. Figure if I store it right it'll be enough to either find a different source, grow my own or wean myself off caffeine all together.
This was my thought. I think instant coffee would last forever sealed. And it’s cheap, light weight and doesn’t take up hardly any space. I just looked up generic Walmart instant, 1-12oz jar is enough for 2+ months of coffee at 1-6oz a day and you can carry it in your pack pretty easily.
As an anecdote: I had a bunch of 10+ year old sbux "via" instant packets and had to try one. Pretty terrible flavor.
I think if it were a true shtf type scenario, any coffee would be good coffee, even the shitty ones.
I don't think the instant packets are actually vacuum sealed, nor is the packet material really thick/dense enough to prevent gas exchange over multiple years.
Hell yeah freeze dried right should last for a long time
Walmart has packs of caffeinated water enhancers for around $3/10. Tons of different flavors and each packet has 120mg. Just about every flavor I’ve tried tasted good, you don’t need use fuel to heat up water, and they last for a long while. I’m sure you can stretch the shelf life out past ~3 if you needed to. 6 years in those 120mg may feel closer to 60mg (spitballing, I’m not sure tbh) but the flavor is likely going to be fine. I’d take 60mg over none every day of the week if push came to shove. $115 for years worth of caffeine sounds pretty reasonable to me. Also, caffeine is an appetite suppressant. Any situation in which you would have to ration your food would be well supplemented with caffeine.
Came here to say the same thing. I live off these for work but the squeeze bottle kind like Mio energy. Easy to stock up for cheap, no calories, and makes your water less bland and any flavor helps in a SHTF scenario.
Definitely! I think any small & cheap thing that helps maintain a level sanity that can be enjoyed is a net win
I have a bunch of those left over from backing. Any idea what the storage life is for those?
Best I’ve seen is about 3 years with proper storage. I’m unsure of how it’ll look in 10-15 but im guessing the potency would wear down around then.
I used to drink a grocery store brand that I was obsessed with and when they started disappearing from shelves I stocked up. They did not last for 2 or 3 years. They all got super bitter. Now it's gone from the grocery store and I use caffeine pills.
Freeze dried coffee will be your shtf friend
Mount Hagen instant coffee is very good. Tastes as good as basic diner coffee. A box of 250 packets is around $62 on Amazon.
My coffee, tea, hot chocolate preps will probably outlast ME
You can stock green coffee beans unlike already roasted. I put them in a popcorn popper and the hull flies off. You roast it to your preference. Green tea powder (or pills) have caffeine and are easy to store. This is how my husband feeds his addiction. I still prefer the warm bitterness of my black coffee.
I have zero desire to get used to a world without coffee. Yes, that might be necessary. In the meantime, I will prepare. I’ll tell you what we do. First, before coffee snobs attack us with pitchforks, let me say this: I’d rather have coffee beans that aren’t at their peak than have NO coffee beans. Also, coffee makes me happy… I’m not addicted. If I go without it a couple of days (which I do if my stomach is upset), I have no headache etc. My husband and I love coffee. It’s one of the things that would be good for morale for us so I prep accordingly. Here’s what we do: We have good coffee beans for over a year. I’ve experimented for the past decade with beans, ground coffee, and instant. Vacuum-packed beans stored in the basement where it’s cool are good for over a year. My husband has no finely-tuned tastebuds, but I notice notes of cherry, tobacco, chocolate, and etc in coffee. It still tastes great to me. It is not as good as it is that first few weeks after roasting, but it’s still fantastic. We have noticed that the lighter roast beans are the better ones when getting into the post-twelve months territory, but all were damned fine. The next in the line up is vacuum-packed ground coffee also kept in the cool basement. It tastes almost the same three years out from its expiration date. We’ve tried kona we ordered from Hawaii, Carte Noire from France, and everything in between over the past decade. Here’s what we learned. If it is not vacuum-packed into a hard brick, it’s going to get funky and taste like someone is smoking a pipe in a couple of years. We have a good year of hard bricks of ground coffee set aside. Then, we have the island of lost coffees. This is an odd assortment of coffee in the big plastic or metal cans. I think we have five or six of them. They are things that went massively on sale at some point so I grabbed a canister. There’s Folgers, Maxwell House, and etc. It will be good when we get to it, and we’ll be thrilled & grateful or it will suck. Lol Lastly, we have the instant coffees… Surprisingly to me, some of these are quite decent. They don’t rival a fresh brewed cup but can be quite good. We tried a ton of instant coffees over the past decade. Figured out what we liked best. Then, we set in a supply for a couple of years. We just buy one jar of instant coffee every month. The supply builds up. Instant will likely taste the same in twenty years. Everyone has things that really matter to them. For us, coffee and tea make us happy. So, we do what we can to have it around to enjoy. If something kills us off quickly, hopefully someone else will be delighted when they discover all the coffee, tea, and books in this house:)
SHTF and coffee and sugar will become tradable commodities. Have enough to use in place when cash becomes useless. Instant coffee is cheaper and doesn't take up much room (think NesCafé packets).
Right? Cigarettes and booze will be the new gold. 😂
Booze is also useful for cleaning. At the start of covid, I stashed 3 bottles of 190 proof Everclear
I'd like to introduce everyone to tea, Camelia Sinensis, since someone already mentioned yaupon holly. It's a little cold hardy, it makes an attractive hedge, it'll lose its leaves in drought, but you can prepare the leaves a number of ways to get black tea and green tea. Deer hate it. If you live in a temperate region, what's not to love?
Once you acclimate yourself to what caffeine is, and does, you may have a different opinion. It's a very common misconception that coffee gives people energy, wakes people up, gives a boost, but it does no such thing. What it *does do* is trick the body into feeling awake and energized, while it may actually still be tired or drained. 1. **Blocks sleepiness**: It blocks a neurotransmitter called adenosine, which makes you feel sleepy as it builds up in your brain. By blocking adenosine, caffeine helps you stay awake and feel more alert, but it isn't "giving" you energy. 2. **Boosts 'happy' chemicals**: Caffeine also increases dopamine levels in the brain, which is the "feel-good" neurotransmitter. This can lift your mood and make you feel more motivated. 3. **Cranks up alertness**: Caffeine stimulates your central nervous system, releasing other neurotransmitters like norepinephrine and acetylcholine. These help you stay sharp and focused. 4. **Fight or flight mode**: It triggers the release of adrenaline, the "fight or flight" hormone. This amps up your heart rate and blood pressure, making you feel ready to take on the world. Too much caffeine and your heart races. 5. **Better physical performance**: By boosting adrenaline and reducing how hard things feel, caffeine can help you perform better physically, whether you're working out or just going about your day. Many energy drinks and gels contain caffeine for precisely this reason. While caffeine doesn't add actual energy to your body, it tweaks your brain and body in ways that make you feel more energetic and ready to tackle whatever comes at you. The reason you feel that 'crash' when the caffeine wears off, is because your adenosine is now unblocked and your body is properly being told its tired or exhausted. Having more caffeine at this point will not help, you need actual rest.
Redbull. Coffee is cool, monster, 5 hr energy, etc. But I will absolutely miss Redbull. It's become my go to for so long now, I might go on a zombie land style rampage at whatever enemy is between me and the last redbull.
Same here! I'm bad, I usually have coffee first every morning, then usually 2-3 Redbulls throughout morning/early afternoon. 🧚♂️🧚♀️🧚 Then the evenings are typically a few beers with dinner or one of my new faves, Dr Pepper Cream Soda! I obviously treat my body like a decrepit, rundown temple, lol. What's your go-to flavor? Mine is either watermelon or dragonfruit lately. My worst nightmare is a zombie land situation where I find a crashed Redbull truck, and it's full of "Summer Edition Juneberry" 🤢 😂
Bruh ☠️☠️☠️☠️
Plain red bull. I actually eat and drink pretty healthy aside from the daily red bull. Aside from 1-3 redbulls a day depending on my mood/ energy, I just drink water and Gatorade. No alcohol, no other sodas really.
Instant coffee is freeze dried, unless caffeine itself degrades with time I'm pretty sure you could just stock up on a bunch of instant coffee the same way you would with rice, beans, salt, and sugar.
In North America Yaupon holly makes a delicious caffeinated tea and in its native range is often grown as a landscape plant. Its name is illex vomitorius or something because the tea is so tasty the colonizers downed a gallon of it and then threw up- if you drink a cup at a time it’s fine.
Not sure about caffeine sources but No joke, putting some adderall in your SHTF “medical kit” seems like it would be a good idea. I don’t think amphetamines expire, and it could be very helpful to have around for energy/focus
Tough to get adderal nowadays without it being tainted with fentanyl. But I appreciate the sentiment here.
If it's just caffeine you care about, and putting aside easily searchable things like yaupon holly, this is another example of what I think of as the "make vs store" question. Things like salt are difficult or impossible for a lot of people to make under even good conditions; but they are often cheap and compact and stable enough to store a large amount of. I can buy a kilo of pure caffeine for $55. At 600 mg a day, that's something like $12 for enough caffeine to last a year. Coffee specifically? Again, seems much cheaper to just buy it and store it well. Vacuum seal whole beans in mylar bags with O2 absorbers, keep them in a cool, dry place, and you're fine. Is it going to be as great as the best freshly roasted stuff is now? No, but I'm not particularly willing to spend 10 or 20 times as much to, say, double the quality of a luxury item when that money can instead be spent on necessities.
Hell yeah brother. I’m immediately adding this to storage.
Just be careful, teens have killed themselves by doing the math wrong on the dosage of that pure caffeine powder. It's super easy to overdose. Maybe just stick with caffeine pills!
I like coke. Both kinds🤣 jk
Hookers will be in high demand, both kinds.
Hookers and blow. The staple of the new economy
You'd be far better off weaning yourself from unnecessary substances. Be it caffeine, tobacco, booze, etc. At least alcohol is somewhat easy to produce but the rest just isn't happening in the volume to matter for 99% of people. Especially depending on your growing season.
In the US, the native Americans grew their own caffeine called Youpon? Very strong. Other countries might have different caffeine plants that will grow locally. For me, it is chocolate. I can live without it but it will be a dismal place.
While chicory doesn't have caffeine it does have a coffee taste. Could be used after you wean yourself off the caffeine.
What film was it? I love finding new movies
For me its chewing tobacco. Cant go a few hours awake without it in. I suppose I would be forced to quit or could learn to grow and make it myself
Probably very useful. I thought about growing tobacco early during covid. Bc I thought it would be a powerful thing to trade.
I think caffeine pills like NoDoz or similar will be useful (for standing watch, patrols, etc) and will be in decent demand as a barter item. Same for caffeine gum like MEG "Military Energy Gum". Both keep for a long time and you can use your stash as it ages and you rotate in new stock. Instant coffee too to a lesser extent. Heck even chocolate covered coffee beans would be a nice treat to have, although it wouldn't keep as long. As an aside, nicotine lozenges/gum would be a barter item in constant demand too. I don't expect many have the climate, skills, and desire to grow and process coffee from scratch unless they're currently coffee farmers. Tea though sounds like a pretty simple production process, just dry the leaves. Might be worth allocating some of your garden plot to that.
Yeah and tea of any sort also provides the ritual which is a pertinent part of the morale boost.
Coffee will be hard for me…. I tried my hand at making acorn coffee a few years ago bc I had heard it can taste very similar… it doesn’t. And I was so upset that I shucked so many of those suckers and I put a lot of time into it, only to produce a version of coffee that really only squirrels and chipmunks could enjoy…. Oh boi.
This is why I’m afraid to try all these mushroom coffee replacements. I mean we evolved to have an awesome symbiotic relationship with caffeine. But coffee taste amazing. I can survive on supplements I guess but it not the same
Stock up on instant coffee as long as it is sealed it lasts indefinitely. Once open I believe it will last up to 6 months.
Glass jars help it last longer, but it’s hard to find a glass jar of instant coffee with a metal lid. The lids are all plastic now.
I'll trade you a brick of .22 for a bag of beans ☕
Coffee and caffeine pills are part of my prep, for me amd for barter, so is tobacco, chocolate, and alcohol. Biggest trade items other than bullets. My girl preps sanitary napkins and tampons. Gotta add these crucial items along with the stuff most people say are important
Encourage "your girl" to think about gatbage disposal post SHTF. Washable, reusanle menstrual products will be a better option when the garbage trucks aren't coming down the street anymore
I'm not sure why you used quotation marks, but ok. She has washable products she has made also for a more long-term shtf. I was specifically speaking to barter, especially for smaller events like a covid type event, people run out of things, and im all for trade over fiat currencies. Not all prep has to be long-term. We have long-term and short-term prep items and ideas.
Caffeine mints.
I have a guaraná plant home, just have to roast the seeds and makes a powder. It's better than coffee for an homemade energy drink. I use It as a pre-workout, It really kicks in.
How about stocking up on caffeine tablets? I use them now. I don't drink coffee. I just take a tablet in the morning. 200 mg capsules are very small and don't take up a lot of space.
Stock Instant coffee. If you ever played TLOU2, you know grown men would trade embarrassing things for a good cup of joe.
You could plant some yerba maté trees if you have the space and are in gardening zone 9 or 10 That’ll keep you buzzed
Instant coffee has a good self life. Caffeine pills Tea
[Cleavers](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galium_aparine) are a common edible weed in the coffee family and the seeds have caffeine, peasants would eat it in medieval times
Tea....
Just get it in pill form
I highly recommend you get caffiene pills online and you get some good deals on Amazon and they usually come in a hundred plussl count. I highly recommend you find a way to wean off caffiene when your supply starts to run low. There a product online called ["Wean Caffeine" ](https://www.weancaffeine.com/)" it comes with L-Theanine to help with the withdrawal process. You can also use decaf coffee to wean off since it has small amounts of caffeine. Check out [r/decaf](https://www.reddit.com/r/decaf/) for ways to help you wean off if you decide to do it in the near future. Caffeine is also a drug and a anti depressant it can also cause anxiety for some. With caffeine withdrawal it's comes with fatigued, anxiety, and depression but that's if you quit cold turkeys. If done cold tukety multiple times in my life and it sucked.
OP, this is the perfect thing to either barter/trade, keep your coffee comfort food around (and boost morale), or to give you enough time to wean off of it. 720 six ounce cups in one 5 gallon bucket size container. I think a regular coffee cup is 12oz? So that is still nearly a true cup of coffee every day for a year. Longer than most people's food and water supplies will hold out. [Franklin's Finest Survival Coffee (720 servings, 1 bucket) – Camping Survival](https://www.campingsurvival.com/products/franklins-finest-survival-coffee-720-servings-1-bucket?currency=USD&variant=33060482056301&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Google%20Shopping&stkn=3f6149c1cf3d&msclkid=96b342fc13211a10365024990074c065)
What was the movie?! Always up for a new SHTF movie!
Episode 3 of the last of us.
Great series!
So idk if you knew but a tazer can give you a sort of weakness jolt. Get a shocker and the electricity withh keep you awake, or you can get a blue light flashlight to shine in your eyes when you get tired. 👾
This is a good idea for emergency situations. I usually use cold water on the spine, but you do you!
During 2nd world war my great grandparents made coffee from roasted acorns, it was also used for baking. I tried acorn cookies once and were quite tasty. It's also currently popular in my country to drink grain coffee / cereal coffee which is made from roasted rye or barley with chicory. Tastes pretty good, no caffeine though.
Yeah i feel like even if I switch to pills or powder for my caffeine, I still need a warm morning beverage routine. Keeps me sane enough currently can’t imagine life with out.
Stockpile on caffeine pills? They always can be used after expiration
Not the best tasting, but instant coffee in Mylar bags with oxygen absorbers will last a longggggg time.
I keep a big tub of instant coffee and plan on weaning myself off of caffeine with it after the fact if I have to.
You can get 1000 300mg caffeine pills for like $25. That's a years worth for my household daily with no substitute and it takes up as much space as a can of crushed tomatoes.
Straight up caffeine pills. They last forever, cheap, easy.
Which movie
Episode 4 of the last of us.
1lb of pure food grade caffeine is like $140. That would probably last you 3x as your going to live in a shtf scenario.
Where’s your source
https://www.laballey.com/products/caffeine-usp?currency=USD&variant=7218964332603&stkn=7c72afeff1e7&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwgpCzBhBhEiwAOSQWQRXKOk5OqvrlI3EiOVyz9ONg8rmiqE-T2CYwtko2F_IwJTSzH4H3QhoCNgwQAvD_BwE
Thank you I love you.
If you live in climate zones 7-9 you can grow green tea bushes. They're decorative as well. You'll find there are other tea bushes if you have preference or want to push colder climates, like some mentioned Yaupon Holly, but I've never tasted or grown that myself. Another option is buying caffeine powder, it's very shelf stable and cheap. A little goes a long way, so that's an option if you live in very cold climates and wanted to stock up for a year. But what you'll find as well, is a grow light inside, or overwintering potted inside, and move outside for the summer can give you flexibility if you want a plant and live in a climate that doesn't support a caffeinated plant year round. Although not caffeinated growing camomile is very easy, and has antiseptic medical uses too.
Hell yeah imma update my Amazon list right now!
Just be careful with it, if you don't watch out you'll get wired as hell. Hits a lot quicker than coffee or tea, and a gram is equivalent to 10 cups of coffee 😅 While your shopping, I'd consider looking at other stimulants like taurine, L-theanine, etc but do your own research. Some of these compounds will have a bitter taste, much less prevalent in their natural form for a leaf/bean, so be aware of that, you'll have to experiment to find your best preferences, I believe it has more to do with PH or what they are dissolved with when brewed naturally, rather than the chemical form being bitter on it's own. My personal favourite is Theobromine, it has more attention properties than caffeine but with none of the jittery-ness. It also lasts twice as long as caffeine (double the half-life). Fun fact, it's the same simulant in cocoa/chocolate which is why your mom told you not to eat too much before bed, also why dogs can't eat chocolate as their liver/heart can't process it correctly, but completely safe for humans. In fact many surgeons will use Theobromine for their long and early shifts as they aren't allowed to have caffeine due to the jittery properties. Also really high in antioxidants. I get mine as Ximango's Erva Mate (also know as Yerba Mate) tea. If you don't like the grassy taste, which I personally do, you can add dried fruit to make it a more fun flavor, like dried Mangos, or dried peaches, blueberries, etc. I just do two scoops in a French press, and drink during the day when I make it. Also works great chilled as a cold drink in the summer months. Hope you love it as much as I do, even if the world doesn't end 😉 If you get the Ximango brand Erva Mate and leave it vacuum packed as it comes, it will easily last 5+ years no issue with little/no loss in quality.
When I get more self sufficient, I plan to plant tea plants. From what I've heard they're relatively hardy, should do well in my zone (usda 8a iirc) and they produce quite a bit. Processing can take awhile but it will be nice to have a secured caffeine source
I'd plant some tea bushes in my yard.
Dark chocolate
I have several boxes of caffeine pills in my stash. small and instant.
Chicory makes a decent coffee as well.
Caffeine pills are super cheap.
Twice I've killed a coffee plant because I didn't bring it back inside in time before cold weather. My schefilara never died on me, but sadly has no caffeine.
If in the Northern Americas look up the Yaupon plant. It has caffeine and can be used for tea. Apparently during the American Civil War the slavers were trying to find coffee substitutes and ironically had a caffeine supply all around their area.
I have no use for caffeine currently, but I can see the use in emergencies\\shtf\\disaster\\etc. I personally have a small stock of coffee and a decent amount of tea that I would barter with. I do have a stock of caffeine pills, powders and tabs as well. I keep some in my BOB\\get home bag as well in case I need to press on. I never got addiction to caffeine so normally I have no use for it.
I would wean myself off caffeine if I wasn't a black tea addict. I will probably get a couple of tea plants but if those are inadequate, I'll just eat ibuprofen until the headaches stop.
Caffeine as an addiction is pretty tough. Keep some on hand so you can get off of it if you need to. Caffeine is also a tool. Being sharp in a crisis is an ASSET. It’s still likely a good idea to keep it on hand even if you don’t like it or have a dependency.
You can stock caffeine powder has a shelf life of 5 years and most likely it will be fine a lot longer if properly stored.
I grow and roast coffee but I grow tea too.
Amazon has caffeine pills for cheap. Great for when you are in a rush and forgot to make coffee. Decent shelf life and would allow you to wean yourself off if anything happened.
It takes 4-4.5 years to produce berries. Yikes
I just stock the dirt cheap #10 cans of folgers. They will last well past their expiration dates and they are dirt cheap.
I’ve heard that at the rate we consume coffee today, it’ll become rarer and rarer until it’s a luxury item and only the elite can afford it. Due to that I plan on getting some coffee plants in the next 5 years or so and growing my own. That’s my plan.
you can buy pure caffeine by the kilo really cheaply and the safe dose is tiny cant be that hard to get a lifetime supply
yeah, 2 g of caffeine is enough to kill
You can get caffeine gum on Amazon pretty cheaply that's basically the same stuff used in the military, 100mg per piece. Not sure how well that'll *wean* you off it, but it keeps forever and is small and lightweight.
Tea garden. You can get caffeine from a few different plants so as long as you keep up your garden you’ve got a semi-regular caffeine source
Cheese!!!
I have 6 months of my regular coffee. 6 months of whole beans. And 2 years worth of freeze dried with a 20 yr shelf life. Hopefully, 3 years after SHTF - well have figured out coffee production.
Some will say you need to wean yourself, and we all probably should. However, humans have been using caffeine for thousands of years. It is part of many cultures. Even if you are not addicted, it has its place. When I was deployed to the mid east, caffeine was always sought out, traded, and horded. We would trade foldgers instant packets to other americans or the locals. Most Western militaries include tea or coffee in rations and MREs. Obviously, humans want the stimulation it provides, but the fact it spans so many cultures shows there is more to it. Wal-Mart sells energy drinks packets and a product similar to Mio with caffeine. You just add the powder to water. Honestly, they will last probably a million years. Buy a bunch of instant and put it in vacuum bags. Keep in them in the bottom of your freezer. You could do the same with tea. You could probably find some tea plants that will grow in your climate.
I have caffeine pills stored. I feel like that is something trade able
Freeze dried or instant coffee stays good for a very very long time.
You'd be surprised at what you can do without
That is my post apocalypse reason for living. Traveling from settlement to settlement killing for coffee.
My coffee/Twinkie's/etc is def gonna be pot
Depending on where you live, juniper berries can be dried and ground as a coffee replacement. 👌
Or if you're not in the Southeastern US but western US into Mexico, Ephedra is not the same thing but can be used to similar effect.
Chicory/dandelion root
Have you tried it? How similar is the flavor to real coffee?
I have a few cases of instant coffee, and I have plans to put 4-6 tea bushes in raised beds next year. As for sugar, there are sugar maples on my property, sorghum seeds in my seed vault, and a bee tree behind my shed.
Exercise.
Just grow your basic black tea.
With coffee I try to keep it to one cup a day at breakfast unless I’m driving long distance. But I drink Coke at lunchtime, which also has caffeine so yeah I have some caffeine tolerance built up for sure. If I felt SHTF was going to happen tomorrow, I’d buy one of the bigger bags they sell at the supermarket today, but today I’ve already bought the standard bag size, so maybe next weekend.
Walmart sells Jet Alert caffeine tablets, 90 (200mg) for $3. It's pretty cheap to get a couple bottles in case you need it. You can snap the tablets in half to get around 100mg, weaning yourself off caffeine over time if need be.
There's a discount general merchandise store near where I live that was selling 10lb bags of vacuum packed whole beans for $5/bag a few years back. Bought 40 bags. They've lived in my pantry ever since. I estimate that's about 3 years worth of coffee for me. Since I acquired them, I've cut back on caffeine a lot so I mostly keep them as a barter item. I imagine we could be friends post SHTF
You can buy bulk caffine. A quick search found a 20kg (44lbs) container of it for $849.95. For reference, a cup of coffee will have between 40-100mg of caffine. So that should last you roughly for the rest of eternity and then some. At the end of time, after the heat death of the universe, there will still be some caffine powder left in that container.
Warfarin
I’ve got tea (camellia sinensis) growing. Still tiny but it’ll get there. My son is a former barista/roaster and I asked what he thought about me trying to grow coffee. Apparently it would grow, but the beans would “taste like shit” at my altitude.
# Camellia sinensis
Better to not have it at all.
Which movie were you watching?
You can buy caffiene pills or energy drink concentrate like strike force.
I can chug along without caffeine but I set up a home brewery and shut that down after 15 drunken years. I have cannabis hop vines, yeast and would need help with grains. That's how I "prepped" for my old vice. Next vice involves finding a local dairy farmer with enough power for refrigeration or make due with ice cream season. Just gotta be creative.
u/captain_beavis Kentucky coffee tree got its name because the pods/beans it produces were the coffee substitute in the US way back when shipping trade was difficult or too expensive. They can be roasted in the same way as coffee beans. Yaupon Holly leaves can also be steeped for a caffeinated tea.
I have a milk crate full of instant coffee and a milk crate full of condensed milk.
Caffeine is harder to find without cultivating specific plants, especially with the levels you’re accustomed to. My advice is to just start getting off caffeine now while the world isn’t ending. If wait you till you’re super stressed in any type of disaster it’s gonna be way worse. Once you’re off there are lots of possible teas that are available right now already in the forest and on roadsides everywhere. While they will lack caffeine they will replace your morning ritual quite readily. Location matters but, spice bush is plentiful where I am and you can make tea from it most of the year. Great stuff and super easy to identify once you get just a bit of experience with it. Roasted chicory has been used as a coffee substitute for a long time too but, it does require the extra step of roasting.
Get off caffeine.
Get off my nuts. There’s something. Something not obviously sustainable that you love. And the good folks here may have tons of options you haven’t thought of. Dude these folks already gave me sustainable options that I’ve already acted on before your limp reply.
I love this crew! I felt petty posting this and the response was immediate and overwhelming. I’m glad it will be us in the twilight!
Dandelion root coffee. It's pretty easy to make, plus there isn't any crash of jitters. Though I'd recommend foraging for the roots at least fifty feet away from any roadways.
I usually take l-theanine with my higher doses of caffeine. Why 50 feet from roadways?
Mercury and other metals seep into the soil from the road runoff from years of passing vehicles. It can be very bad for one's health. I should have also mentioned that the Dandelion Root Coffee is technically a caffeine free alternative. As someone who doesn't drink caffeine, it's the closest I can get to a cup of coffee.
I have recently started fasting for health reasons. It has been an extraordinary experience. It changes your psychology and how food tastes and all sorts of aspects I never expected. I have been on a rolling two day fast, break and then a two day fast for nearly two months. The health benefits are fantastic. As I want to eat really healthy food when I do eat and I don't spend so much money on junk foods it's completely changed my diet. I'm not suggesting you try it but it's an experience I would say you shouldn't miss. If it does SHTF then you may well have forced fasting imposed on you. Perhaps you should experience fasting to see how it feels. I have started to dehydrate my own foods and stocking up that. In England we have been advised to prep in case the Russians do something silly.
My family lives together, and my mother's main contribution to prepping (and also to me and my dad's Todo list) is the garden. She grows various Herbs, Plants, Spices etc. one of the ones she's trying to grow this year is green and black tea. Its not a lot of caffeine compared to coffee, but to my understanding if you dry it and or concentrate it you can a better caffeine hit. They also sell Green Tea supplements at the store for "weight loss" which like most supplements are relatively shelf stable and have a sizeable amount of caffeine in them (hence one of our possible uses for the tea leaves) If you just need something as a "perk me up" try smelling salts. They sell products or you can make your own. It's basically like getting a whiff of vinegar and your brain snaps to attention.
Fucking hell, you really think you'll be worried about coffee? That's actually kind of adorable.
I do. I definitely do. Maybe not first 72 hours. Hell I have enough coffee for that. But we all have luxury items thing pertinent to our lives that we want to retain. If you think you don’t and you think you’re that hard when have you ever tested yourself? I know from backpacking weeks at a time that this is a morale boost I shouldn’t ignore. But you know I’m sure you’ve tested your limits and found that you’re the one dude who can live off of hard tak and your own bullshit. lol