INDEFINITEMORALEMULTI-USEWorks without power
Quick facts
- Real shelf lifeIndefinite sealed; years opened if kept dry
- Label date saysAbout 2 years
- Best storage
- Airtight glass
- cool
- dark
- dry
- Watch forClumping and caking from moisture; flavor fading
Where this sits on the food shopping list
Instant coffee is brewed coffee with the water taken out, and with the water gone there is nothing left to go stale. It's in the field guide's Indefinite 15: sealed and dry, it keeps for years past the label and makes a cup with nothing but hot water. Roasted beans and ground coffee are a different thing, fresh for weeks and acceptable for months, and they are not a storage food. In a long outage the jar of instant is the morning, and the morning is most of morale.
Which to buy
A brand you will drink, in glass jars, which seal better than the plastic tubs and do not take on smells. Freeze-dried instant (the granules) tastes better and keeps as long as spray-dried (the powder). Single-serve packets for the bag and the truck. Decaf keeps the same. Buy the big jars on sale; a 12 ounce jar is about 170 cups. Keep a few pounds of beans for while the grid is up, and know they are a month's food, not a year's.
How long it really lasts
By how it is kept
| Form | Label says | Real, stored well |
|---|---|---|
| Instant coffee, sealed jar or packet | About 2 years | Indefinite, cool and dry |
| Instant coffee, opened jar, kept dry | 2 to 3 months at full flavor; years and still coffee | |
| Whole roasted beans, sealed | Weeks at peak; months acceptable; a year or two frozen | |
| Ground coffee, sealed can | Months; days once opened at full flavor | |
| Green (unroasted) coffee beans, dry | Years; roasted in a skillet as needed |
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What to store, how much of it for one person for one month, and how long it keeps. One page with checkboxes, built from the Survival Foods field guide. Print it, multiply by your people and months, and take it to the store.
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How to store it
Sealed until opened, then a dry spoon every time and the lid tight, because moisture is the only thing that gets to it: a damp spoon turns the jar to a brick within weeks. Cool and dark. Jars can go into Mylar or a bucket for the deep store, and the sealed jar is barrier enough on its own. Keep it away from spices and anything with a smell. Green coffee beans, for anyone who wants real coffee years out, keep for years in a dry bucket and roast in a cast iron skillet in fifteen minutes.
How to tell it has turned
It does not spoil. Caked or clumped coffee has taken on moisture and still dissolves; break it up and use it, and dry the jar. A faint, flat flavor is age, fixed with another spoonful. Mold would need the jar to have been wet, and means it goes. A sealed jar found a decade past its date is coffee.
A caked jar, a flat flavor, a sealed jar long past its date.
Mold, or a jar that got wet and smells off.
How much, and how to use it
A teaspoon to a heaping teaspoon per cup; a jar a month per drinker is the planning figure. Beyond the cup, the Indefinite 15 list below: a baking flavor, and a meat tenderizer and rub (the acids in coffee work on tough cuts). A spoon of instant in a mug of hot water with sugar and a square of dark chocolate is the morning ration in a long outage, and the headache that comes from doing without caffeine is a real thing to plan around: keep the coffee, or taper off before you have to.
When the power goes out
Hot water is all it needs, from a camp stove or a thermos filled from the morning's boil. It's the one luxury on this site that costs nothing to keep and does the most on the fourth day.
What else it does
- Beverage
- Baking flavor
- Meat tenderizer
Shelf-life figures are from the Survival Foods field guide; fridge, freezer and pantry times are from the USDA cold and pantry storage charts. Run the look, smell, taste check before eating anything past its date.
Questions this answers
Tap a question for the short answer.
How long does instant coffee last?
Indefinitely sealed and dry, against a label of about 2 years; an opened jar keeps 2 to 3 months at full flavor and is still coffee years later if it stayed dry. Roasted beans and ground coffee fade in weeks to months.
How do I store instant coffee long term?
Sealed glass jars, cool, dark and dry, with a dry spoon every time once opened. Green coffee beans keep for years in a dry bucket for anyone who wants to roast.
How do I tell if instant coffee has gone bad?
It does not spoil. Caked coffee has taken on moisture and still dissolves; mold would mean the jar got wet and goes.
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