• Welcome to the new COTI server. We've moved the Citizens to a new server. Please let us know in the COTI Website issue forum if you find any problems.
  • We, the systems administration staff, apologize for this unexpected outage of the boards. We have resolved the root cause of the problem and there should be no further disruptions.

How Important Is Coffee?

How important is Coffee?

  • Total voters
    211
I found the following information on coffee in a DoD analysis in coffee roasting and purchases. STAFF REPORT ON COFFEE ROASTING OPERATIONS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE 1 OCTOBER 1952. It can be found on the Combined Arms Research Library Digital Library website.

The relative importance of coffee in the military ration is comparable to its importance to the civilian diet. The United States consumes two-thirds of the world's coffee production. Consumption of coffee in the United States increased from 3,288,177 bags per year, or 28 per cent of the world production in 1882, to 20,300,000 bags per year, or 66 per cent of world production in 1951,
Click to expand...

I am not sure what the current US consumption is as a fraction of the World production.

Coffee is a major item of the military ration which cannot be successfully substituted for any extended period. It is the only major item of the ration that is not indigenous to the United States. The military departments, from September 1950 through August 1951, purchased 193,665,000 pounds of green coffee. This represents purchases approximating 100-million dollars, or about 7 per cent of the average annual United States imports of green coffee for the past 3 years. Of this amount, approximately $67,000,000 was spent by the Army, $32,000,000 by the Navy, and $3,000,000 by the Marine Corps. The Army also purchased during 1951 approximately $10,000,000 of soluble coffee for use in combat and emergency type rations. Not included in the above figures are the purchases of brand-named coffees in 1-pound vacuum-packed cans or of soluble coffees for resale to authorized patrons of military Commissary Stores. During 1951, the military services consumed an average of 8,500,000 pounds of roasted coffee monthly.
Click to expand...

Emphasis added. At the time, the Army was also buying the coffee for the Air Force, which is why that branch is not mentioned. By "soluble" coffee, what is meant is "instant" coffee.

Seventy per cent of the green coffees used by the military services is "Santos 4," a Brazilian coffee exported from the Port of Santos, Brazil, from which it gets its name. This coffee is shipped in 132pound bags. The "4" represents the grade or type which ranges from "2" to "8". Type "2" is a high grade coffee, and each type is successively lower in quality, with type "8" the lowest grade acceptable. In general, the number of imperfections such as black beans, broken beans, stones, sticks, pods, determines the type. The remaining 30 per cent of the green coffee used by the military services is "Medellin," "Manizales," or "Girardot," all of which are grouped under the generic name "Colombians," so called as this is the country in which these types of coffee are grown. This coffee is shipped in 154-pound bags. Colombian coffee in the green bean commands a price on the market of about 4 1/2 cents a pound more than Santos "4's."

The 70/30 blend of these coffees is standard among the military services. It produces a "good" coffee comparable to the blends sold by the leading Chain Stores in the United States.
Click to expand...

I would have to see if this is still the current mix. I do like Columbian coffee better than Brazil, although some very good coffee comes from Kenya, close to Hawaiian Kona and Jamaican Blue Mountain in quality and taste.
 
Doesn't answer TR's question about world consumption, but Harvard has some interesting facts... http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/multimedia-article/facts/ ...

And US wasn't in the top 10 in kg per capita per annum... in the 1980's.
http://www.coffeeresearch.org/market/consumption.htm (source dubious) but it is close enough to say that, given the smaller sizes of the higher rate nations, the US is probably in the top five total purchasers.

Edit: found another link pair more on point. http://www.ico.org/prices/po-production.pdf & http://www.ico.org/prices/m4-imports.pdf
Total 2015 production 144,752 thousand bags at 60kg each.
US 2015 Imports 6,754 thousand bags.
US production falls into the Other category - a small part of the 60 thousand bags in the "other" category

So the US consumed some 4.67% of the world production in 2015.
 
Death Wish Coffee

I drink Death Wish Coffee and its lil brother, Valhalla Java Odinforce Blend, both from Death Wish Coffee Company. It boasts that its coffee is the most caffinated and strongest coffee in the world.

Just important as blood pressure to this Anchor-rat. I put in a request for some as soon as I was ensconced on the rescue ship and escaped from Ghoeknael Sector. At TL 15, I expect there will be a Vargr equivalent coffee on Serue (Knoellighz 1221).

On location, this is the Pakkrat for Net -7 News.
 
aramis said:
Doesn't answer TR's question about world consumption, but Harvard has some interesting facts... http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/multimedia-article/facts/ ...

And US wasn't in the top 10 in kg per capita per annum... in the 1980's.
http://www.coffeeresearch.org/market/consumption.htm (source dubious) but it is close enough to say that, given the smaller sizes of the higher rate nations, the US is probably in the top five total purchasers.

Edit: found another link pair more on point. http://www.ico.org/prices/po-production.pdf & http://www.ico.org/prices/m4-imports.pdf
Total 2015 production 144,752 thousand bags at 60kg each.
US 2015 Imports 6,754 thousand bags.
US production falls into the Other category - a small part of the 60 thousand bags in the "other" category

So the US consumed some 4.67% of the world production in 2015.
Click to expand...

The following site give consumption as of 2008/9. It shows the US consumption at 4.2 kilograms per person, with a total consumption of 1,290,720 metric tons. The World consumption is given as 7,358,897 metric tons. The US consumes roughly 1/6th of the World coffee. It is not the highest per capita consumer, that honor goes to Finland. Based on the chart, the US in not even in the top 20 for per capita consumption, and Canada has a higher per capita consumption that the US. That I was surprised by.

http://chartsbin.com/view/581
 
timerover51 said:
The following site give consumption as of 2008/9. It shows the US consumption at 4.2 kilograms per person, with a total consumption of 1,290,720 metric tons. The World consumption is given as 7,358,897 metric tons. The US consumes roughly 1/6th of the World coffee. It is not the highest per capita consumer, that honor goes to Finland. Based on the chart, the US in not even in the top 20 for per capita consumption, and Canada has a higher per capita consumption that the US. That I was surprised by.

http://chartsbin.com/view/581
Click to expand...

I'm not- I suspect the coffee consumption tracks fairly well with percentage of world GNP.
 
timerover51 said:
Just curious, are you saying that Finland and Canada have a higher GNP than the US?
Click to expand...

The stats you cited involved per capita use, not GNP as I stipulated.

Two different things.

Looking over the list, I would also say latitude (cold and midnight sun) and disposable income are key (so Russia is in the same zones as the Scandinavian superdrinkers and Canada, but not as high per capita drinkers).

Brazil obviously due to cheap availability.
 
My Five Major Food Groups:

Coffee
Chocolate
Chili (not a purist, so with beans)
Pizza
Peanut Butter (preferably Super Crunchy, but in emergency, will eat Meal, Combat Individual Peanut Butter on MCI crackers)
 
Comes in a box
Comes in a bag
Comes in a can
Comes wrapped in its own skin
Comes unwrapped.
 
maksimsmelchak said:
Chuckling...

*** Are those your five food groups? ***

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.
Click to expand...

Yes. Dinner was "wrapped in own skin" x3, and comes in box & bag x1...
1lb grapefruit, 1 banana, 1/4 cup cashews, and an outshine bar (frozen fruit bar - box contains six bagged bars).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Timerover51
What eateries are in your Universe.
2
Replies
31
Views
606
Condottiere
C
A
TL16+ Darrian Starships?
2
Replies
20
Views
377
AnotherDilbert
A
A
One Damn Thing After Another (Play Reports)
2
Replies
29
Views
768
AlHazred
A
M
Worthless worlds as important places
2 3
Replies
40
Views
1K
bookwyrm
B
Ezra
Adventure Game vs Roleplay Game?
2 3
Replies
47
Views
1K
Badenov
Badenov
Back
Top