Coffee Crisis!

[NWKate]

We have been losing power off and on all day and finally lost it for good around 11:30 this morning due to a tree on a power pole. Generally, I have enough freshly ground coffee to get me through but not today. After standing vacantly at my coffee grinder for over a minute, I knew I was in trouble. No problem, I thought- after all, how long can it take to cut down a tree? After 4 hours, I was getting desparate! Finally, I dumped some beans in 2 layers of paper bags and started whacking them with my rolling pin.

At this point, my teenage son walked in, took one look at me and said, "Um, Mom, are you okay?" (always a good question when faced with a menopausal woman with a raised rolling pin!).

My point is, I have now ground enough reserves ( and safely placed them in my freezer) to get through a prolonged outage. What lengths have you gone to to get your fix?

Kate

neo-Luddite

Edited February 18, 2006 by NWKate (log)

[Marlene]

I have in fact ground up coffee in a pepper mill. Once, while camping and we ran out of ground. It took some work, and we did have to crack the beans with a hammer first, but it came out pretty good in fact. I always keep a manual spice grinder on hand now for coffee emergencies.

[SushiCat]

We have been losing power off and on all day and finally lost it for good around 11:30 this morning due to a tree on a power pole.  Generally, I have enough freshly ground coffee to get me through but not today.  After standing vacantly at my coffee grinder for over a minute, I knew I was in trouble.  No problem, I thought- after all, how long can it take to cut down a tree?  After 4 hours, I was getting desparate!  Finally, I dumped some beans in 2 layers of paper bags and started whacking them with my rolling pin. 

At this point, my teenage son walked in, took one look at me and said, "Um, Mom, are you okay?" (always a good question when faced with a menopausal woman with a raised rolling pin!).

My point is, I have now ground enough reserves ( and safely placed them in my freezer) to get through a prolonged outage.  What lengths have you gone to to get your fix?

Kate

neo-Luddite

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how are you getting water hot enough to brew without electricity?

[SBonner]

how are you getting water hot enough to brew without electricity?

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I'm guessing she has a gas range

Stephen

[jsolomon]

Wow! Kudos for perseverence... but why not melt some chocolate chips in a double-boiler and make your own chocolate covered beans? I generally find 6 or 7 as good of a pick-me-up as a cuppa....

[kbuzbee]

We are 80% manual. Zassenhaus hand crank grinders, butane burner for the Cona pot. Only the La Pavoni requires outside power. While I do preheat the water in a tea kettle, it's only to save fuel. The butane will heat the pot almost as quickly. These were actually factors in choosing this to be our daily routine (btw - power free backup for the Europiccola is an Aeropress) Do NOT want to start the day coffee free - and the power goes out here frequently enough.

BTW II - we now have a generator so we are double backed up. Hooray for coffee!

Ken

[scubadoo97]

During the hurricane power outages last year I remembered we had a power inverter device in the car. I was able to take my electric grinder to the car and plug it in. Just remember to open the car door.

[NWKate]

how are you getting water hot enough to brew without electricity?

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I'm guessing she has a gas range

Stephen

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Yup!

Kate

[Adrienne Carmack]

During the hurricane last year, my neighbor used her gas range to make instant coffee, which I drank for the first two of the 10 days without power, until enough places nearby got power back and started serving real coffee.

This year, I will be more prepared for the hurricanes. I'll remember to use my car ac-dc converter to grind beans and will ask my nice neighbor to fill my carafe with hot water.

[scubadoo97]

During the hurricane power outages last year I remembered we had a power inverter device in the car.  I was able to take my electric grinder to the car and plug it in.  Just remember to open the car door.

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My warning should have read remember to open the garage door.