Being current and former military, we must have a lot of hardcore coffee drinkers past/present. The coffee onboard wasn't bad. It was usually terrible. But it worked. Buy grounds from the lowest bidder, brew it in 5-10 gallon MilSpec pots and still drinking it on the night shift hours later. Whew, strong bitter stuff that was crying out for something with more flavor. Enter: Coco. Stir a half-pack of powdered chocolate in and presto-whamo, a sweet tasting brew that besides waking me up added the chocolate for energy for the caffeine to run on. A good way to stay semi-alert on the 12 on, 12 off schedule. I get wild-eyed again just thinking about it.

Now in later years i had to cut the caffeine to continue sleeping like a baby at night. My choice now is Folgers 1/2 caff and a spoonful of coco. A candy bar. It adds more to the midriff bulge, but hey it's tasty and energising

Who's got a good coffee combo, tried and tested?

 

Go get a big jar of plain old coffee from a restaurant supply store, and when you get it home mix it about one part in three with BUSTELLO!!!

*There was a coffee mess POIC on one of my ships that dragged aboard a bunch of Kona Coffee when we pulled into Hawaii one time. At first it was great, but when the Kona ran out we found it had leached into the aluminum pot and screwed up the flavor from then on after... I think that was why he was unanimously voted the shops "WOG QUEEN" when we went on cruise later

 

i had to look up bustello... Cuban coffee, i bet it's good stuff. Weird that Kona coffee impregnated the aluminum, that brew is primo. Where'd you cross the Line? We hit it halfway across the IO the first time. A real treat it was in the 70's, not sorry I missed Shellbacking in earlier years. Duckwalking on non-skid, slithering through garbage chutes. Old garbage chutes. Fat chief's belly smothered in grease to kiss obeisance to. Unidentifiable edibles. At least the salt-water washdown was warm water. What we did for amusement, sheesh.

 

An intelligent initiate listens to his or her sea daddy and smears a huge amount of hand cleaner into their hair... But I digress

Chances are crossing the line is a thing that will be taken as totally non-pc.
Do you remember the phrase: "WHOOPEE DING"?

BUSTELLO is classic Espresso café, and if you never had a true espresso you can go to starbucks, but the coffee should be regular stock at your nearest commissary

~I wonder if modern navy people will make that go away too

You want one of these:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B...-280e-53a8-8b56-4ee863aa554b&pf_rd_i=14163721

Once you have had espresso - coffee is not the same

But I use a French press, and make a mix of my own

 

LOL i'm not that fancy. A drip-coffee maker, Folgers or teabags, pour brew in cup, drink. If i need to really wake up then add coco. And yes the modern Navy will likely ditch real coffee and go with mandatory warm milk or something so that the sailors don't get excitable or "tense". There's a just-retired HMCM working at my doctor's office as a patient-interviewer and nurse. He said he doesn't even want to talk about the changes in my Navy, it would just get us both po'd.

What's Whoopee Ding?

 

From the Urban Dictionary:
Colloquialism from the mid- to late 60's, meaning "big deal" or "so what"
"So, the dude scored a 'Vette from his old man. Whoopie ding..."

 

Oh yeah, like "Woopee" or "And so...?"

But I gotta' say that scoring a 'Vette would be a big deal. Enjoy the fast beast for a while then trade it in for a new Ford Truck.

And this morning, me and Donna are enjoying our morning brew plus hot chocolate (candy bar) while looking outside at the rain starting to come in. It got to 20F here the past few days, unusual on Puget Sound, and glad to see it warmed up and is raining not snowing.

 

So you are up there around Puget Sound and PSNS (Penis Anus) Naval Shipyard? Where the relic subs are parked, awaiting destruction...

Tell me this - is that old cargo ship still abandoned after somebody bought it from the NAVY thinking they could build a cruise ship out of it before they realized what it would cost to strip out all of the asbestos in it?

HELLS BELLS - do me a favor:
Cruise around the Port Orchard dives, and see if you can pick up word of an old friend of mine:
Goes by the name of James, I don't recall his last name just now but he was a BM1 on USS Nimitz just before he retired. Gets real pissed if you call him "JIM" instead of James... (???) Might be found at the Old Oak Harbor Inn

JAMES FRYER!!!! That was his name. Retired off the Nimitz, CVN-68 after the HELL CRUISE! Oddly enough, I owe him either twenty bucks, or a Schwinn bicycle one way or the other (long story). We were roomates after the Nimitz pulled in after the round the world cruise. Tell him that Dutch thinks he has a thing about fat chicks...

BTW: The man plays a decent game of pool

I still have the Schwinn Varsity I was supposed to pay him for...
(Events overran circumstances - we were all glad to leave)

*Before they discovered the wine stain on the carpet - tell him I said that too


THAT GUY AND ME INVENTED "TOP FUEL V8"
~And what it was, it's Everclear bought on the base, frozen overnight in the freezer.
(Pure grain was illegal in Virginia. To get 180 you had to be in the military)
You make a pitcher of V8 juice, garlic and spices, lemon juice (to bring out the tomato flavor)
And if you really want it right - add some beef bouillon. Refrigerate it in the lower compartment overnight. The cold deadens the taste buds... we found

The next day you see how much 'Clear you can add to it....


It was the weirdest drink we ever came up with, because the hangover was so strange
The purpose of the vegetable juice was to mitigate the damage. In theory if you have some V8 with alcohol or afterwards, it helps you sober up.

But we used it to make it worse....


Hell yes - there were some of us who looked after eachother on the "NUMBNUTZ", and he was a good guy. I would love to get back in touch, especially right now when I am planning to go coast to coast


But please don't misunderstand! Boats James was a classical guy - and that is what I liked about him. If you can find BM1 Fryer somewhere around Port Orchard, I think you will like him too.

Small bars that have draft beer and pool tables is the most likely place you'll get word of him. Although Miller MGD seemed to be his can of choice, I never figured that out.

I would not go to this length, if I didn't think he was a bitchen individual

Black hair, Caucasian. Not fat when I knew him but stout - and he has a slow and steady way about him. Has a way of looking at you that tells you he is making his own mind up - but friendly as all get out. The reserve that you see is because he knows a hella lot about people, he'd be closing in on 60 by now




But anyway - just remember that name and ask around
Please?

 

LOL, we called those Gasoline Parties, mix whatever we had with PGA in a 5-gallon trashcan and party in the woods. One of 'em I had, on the second day of mass-intoxication, we set up my Radio Shack home stereo in a tree. So we wouldn't spill the liquid-fire on it or knock it over. Problem was we got too drunk to get up the dam tree to reload the music. Listened to the same tunes rewinding for hours but nobody noticed by that time. The hangovers were awesome.

Yea, a lot of old decom'd ships at PSNS/Bremerton are waiting to be carved up. Don't remember seeing that old cargo ship lying up, there are many. Some inlets around Puget Sound are packed with other abandoned ships, the state is trying to figure out what to do with them. My old ship Kitty Hawk (CVA-63) is there, and Pensacola Florida is trying to get it for a memorial.

I'd like to find Boats James for ya'. I'm about 80 miles from Port Orchard and haven't been there in years. Dive bars used to be on my must-visit list, but haven't hung around them for years now. You must be getting close to 60yo yourself? Partying on the town recedes... I'll note "BM1 James Fryer" in my memory-book carried in my hip pocket, and if I'm in PO's dives I'll ask around. Does he look like any of these guys on a google? http://tinyurl.com/hbkfpxf

Hads your morning coffee yet? We downed a few cups of java-coca to get the day rolling.

 

thanks guys, bring back bad memory's, navy coffee and midnight shifts., stinking stink of jet exhaust, thumping of the catapult and trip wires 24x7.
dad's 2 brothers were on subs in #2, till they past they talked about "TOP FUEL V8" mixing fruit juice and torpedo alcohol they drained from the torpedo's in small amounts

 

You're welcome

The Sounds of Mayhem: I slept under the #1 cat for three years. It would have been worse sleeping under the arresting gear. Where did you sample that tasty Navy coffee?

It's a heartbreaker for torpedomen now. The new torpedo juice is Otto fuel, definitely detrimental to a drinker's health. Welcome aboard!

 

"TASTY NAVY COFFEE"....

I should kill my estranged wife just for "losing" the 55 cup coffee pots I owned when my back was turned....
Seemed the bitch needed more room for JUNK....

(I think she sold them to a pawn shop)

But nothing beats two day old "BOILED DOWN" - it will light your hair on fire!

~ Once you get past the taste

I used to add salt, and hickory smoke flavoring

 

CVAN 65

 

wake you up for days like dropping acid is more like it.

 

Ok, tasty might be stretching it. But it was sort of free. And the best xxx is free xxx...
That's it, a bit of salt while brewing killed some of the bitter. Did hickory help kill the petrol flavor after a freshwater washdown? The ND and JP wasn't thick enough in the coffee to light on fire, but watching the oil slicks circling the cup

And it made for great showers too.

Marital stuff, aargh. Pawned your big pots? A real sweetheart. Better the pots than one of your Fiestas i guess. Mine filed a breakage claim on a box of Venetian blown glassware that I'd mailed her, because one glass was broken. Out of 24 articles. The post office kept the whole box because they had now paid for it. You'd figure a school teacher would be smarter, sheesh. She never did say she didn't like it. Double sheesh.


"CVAN 65"

Star Trek! My fav series then.