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WW1 soluable coffee question


jgawne
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OK, there's a small tin disk on ebay supposedly of soluable coffee for front line doughboys, but yoiu would think if that is what it was the rusted remins would scattered along the front lines...

 

My reasons for not assuming this is what it is are:

 

1. I have source material that claims the George Washington Coffee company invented the whole soluable coffee thing and licensed it out to only a few coffee companies in the war and this is named to one NOT on the list.

 

2. I also have period documentation that for the soluable coffee they adapted a "seed packet" filling machine to use to pack the coffee- which never actually said it came in envelopes, but sure sounded like it the way they talked about it.

 

3. The coffee itself would have come sealed in the 25 man ration food tins and really not need that much more more protection from gas- and there is ample evidence that the kind of tin they used for this was in somewhat short supply at the time (at least that what my reading indicates)

 

My wild guess is it i a sample of some kind. post war. But I would really love someone to know one way or the other as I just like to know this stuff.

 

 

Or have our French Freinds found piles of these little tin disks and never mentioned it?

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Here is and interesting tidbit by searching " Barrington Hall Coffee."

 

In 1883, at the age of 53, William Baker gave up the pastorate and he, Eva, their 4 daughters, and youngest son, Roswell (who was only 13), moved to Barrington Hall to live with Eva's widowed mother, Mrs. Barrington King. The Bakers two oldest sons had already left their Virginia home and were living in Minneapolis where they would eventually create a successful coffee company which would pioneer 'soluble' (instant) coffee. Their high-end coffee products were called "Barrington Hall" and featured a photo of Barrington Hall on advertisements and labels. Their youngest brother, Roswell, would eventually move to Minneapolis to assist his brothers with their coffee empire. "Baker & Co, Importers and Roaster of Coffee" remained in business until WWII, at which time the US Government took over the company and converted production to K-rations for the Allied troops.

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pioneer 'soluble' (instant) coffee

 

which is interesting as the George Washington coffee people claim their guy invented it, and I have a 1920 record of a war department debt settlment on them allowing a few other coffee companies to use their special process (and Barrington Hall was not one of them).

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  • 5 months later...

Jon,

 

I saw that tin when the guy had it listed... It's from a WW2 C ration B unit.. I've opened dozens, here are some identical examples right from the B unit cans.

 

Kration

post-107-1228788865.jpg

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  • 7 months later...

Last week I picked up a tin of Barrington soluble coffee from a group of WWI and WWII items and I did some Googling tonight: the book All about coffee by William Harrison Ukers says soluble coffee is dried coffee extract, and that Barrington Hall Soluble Coffee was "brought out in 1917."

 

The book also says "The G. Washington Coffee Refining Company has its coffee-roasting and preparing plant in Brooklyn; but its process is a secret one, and has never been patented." Also, "Eight or ten United States patents have been granted on soluble coffees that have never been applied commercially."

 

The book further says of WWI, "Early in the war, soluble coffee was added to the reserve ration, three- quarters of an ounce being considered at first the proper amount per ration. After trying to put it up in sticks, tablets, capsules, and other forms, it was determined that the best method was to pack it in envelopes."

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Shall we muddy the waters even more? Instant coffee during the Civil War...

 

http://www.fugawee.com/coffee.htm

 

Tom :thumbsup:

 

and it sounds like instant latte:

 

1. It contains all the nourishing and stimulating properties of the coffee, with the addition of the nutritive element of the milk.

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