{"id":39428,"date":"2018-08-14T15:52:18","date_gmt":"2018-08-14T15:52:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/08\/14\/sweet-java-these-are-the-coffee-brands-that-fuel-the-us-military\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T07:10:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T07:10:20","slug":"sweet-java-these-are-the-coffee-brands-that-fuel-the-us-military","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/off-duty\/military-culture\/2018\/08\/14\/sweet-java-these-are-the-coffee-brands-that-fuel-the-us-military\/","title":{"rendered":"Sweet, sweet java \u2014 these are the coffee brands that fuel the US military"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The secret to the United States military won\u2019t be found locked inside a room at the Pentagon nor encrypted on a secure network behind a firewall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s found in mugs on messy workstations, in the hands of a sailor half-asleep just off of watch and brewed in chow halls all over the globe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s coffee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf the Taliban or al-Qaida ever poisoned the coffee supply, the entire military would be combat ineffective in less than a day,\u201d Richard Siemion, a former Army infantry officer and combat veteran, joked in an interview with Military Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Siemion\u2019s analysis is based off no actual <\/i>research, his observation, as one who spent seven years in uniform, speaks to the importance of the liquid fuel as the life blood of every military branch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking back through history, coffee\u2019s importance to American and military culture becomes abundantly clear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the Boston Tea Party in 1773, Americans began drinking java more often because consuming tea, the drink of the enemy at the time, was considered un-American. The military, however, didn\u2019t completely embrace its need for caffeine until the Civil War.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coffee\u2019s importance to morale was noted by Union cavalryman Ebenezer Nelson Gilpin, who wrote in a April 1865 diary entry that life without coffee was unbearable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEverything is chaos here,\u201d he wrote. \u201cWe are reduced to quarter rations and no coffee\u2026 and nobody can soldier without coffee.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even eventual-President William McKinley was taught an important lesson while in making sure the Union fighting man was adequately caffeinated when, as a 19-year-old, McKinley delivered hot coffee to front-line soldiers.<\/p>\n\n\n\t