essence of coffe help

[Joni House]

All,
I am not sure where to post this but here goes.

We are gearing up to start making tar or "essence of coffee" for the ration program at Perryville. Does anyone have a source for good tins other than Jarnigan (I am sure I spelled that wrong.) I am looking for a tin about 2" in dia and about 2 3/4" deep.

Thanks,
Joni House

[Marc29thGA]

Re: essence of coffe help

Ms. House,

This thread may be of help to you:

http://www.authentic-campaigner.com/forum/showthread.php?t=18170&highlight=essence

Y.O.S.,

[pvt_dirty]

Re: essence of coffe help

Jarny not a good place to go.
I would say Otter Creek tinware as to be the best Ive seen.

Your pard
Tyler Goodrich

[coastaltrash]

Re: essence of coffe help

Joni,
Call Chris Utley at Carter and Jasper and ask for a small tin can. The label will fit on most cans.

For Vicksburg in 2007, I purchased a one pound can from Chris and attached the label, if this is for a large group I would suggest that route.

[Charles Heath]

Re: essence of coffe help

Joni,

A few thoughts on the subject:

The old Jarny Essence of Coffee cans you may remember from 10 or more years ago, are not the same as the new Jarny cans (circa 2005). The latter are overpriced, and you can buy as good or better from most any F&I or Rev War vendor at a Market Faire for 1/10th the price, or better in some instances; however, if you need a convenient source, and are strapped for time, well, there you have it.

If these are give-away cans for a large scale ration issue, and $20 per pop isn't in your budget, then this isn't a bad route to go:

Specialty Bottle Has Tins

When placed side by side, they look darn close to the $20 tins mentioned above, if you get my drift.

Pat's advice about Utley's tins is darn good for a variety of reasons, and the larger tins work well for company or larger issue, such as was done at his 2007 Vicksburg NPS LH. The only disadvantage is the larger tins are a big big for opening and tossing tin, label, et al into the medium nesting kettle for a coffee boil.

From what I'm reading these days, the issue coffee tins came in a variety of sizes, so bigger is fine. Containers of at least 3-gallons in size are mentioned in period accounts, but they are a bit on the huge size for our purposes. While reenactors tend to use Hummel's labels the most, it would appear Alden's (American) and Tilden's brands were definitely issued in large quantity. Bob Sullivan's "Patent Medicine's & Household Labels" (CD 0303) has a Hummel's Milwaukee label, and the yellow or blue paper can be had at any office supply house. I have not seen a reproduction Hummel's Phila. label, as of yet. If the images survived the last couple of rounds of forum crashes, a couple of photographs of original and repop cans will be found in the biggie rations thread. Just hit the search engine, and you can't miss it.

If properly made, the essence will last several years on the pantry shelf. If you drop by a paint store, or even a big box home improvement store, and pick up a couple of empty quart paint cans (just like the sorghum tins seen in giftshops), then you can store any excess essence of coffee for years. A variety of methods for creating Essence of Coffee exist, however, this recipe from Marc Benedict has worked well for me:

Essence of Coffee

"Ingredients:

6 – 8 oz jars instant freeze dried coffee
1 – 16 oz can sweetened condensed milk
2 cups water

Utensils:

Large wooden spoon
Table spoon
4 quart stock pot

Instructions:

Put four ounces of water in the pot, and add the contents from one jar of the freeze dried coffee. After this is mixed and grainy, start this goo on very low heat. Add water one tablespoonful at a time, and stir gentle. After the first jar becomes the consistency of molasses, add the whole can of sweetened condensed milk. Add in the other five jars of instant, freeze dried coffee and water one spoonful at a time until the substance becomes as if good grade of roofing tar. If the mix looks like a liquid Nestlé’s Crunch candy bar, then add a little more water. If it looks like soup, let it evaporate a little longer. This whole process takes less than 30 minutes.

One teaspoonful of Essence makes a cup of coffee, and one entire can dropped into a medium size mess kettle of boiling water will make enough for a platoon of men."

Since that was written in late 2006, we now have documentation of up to 15% chicory being a component of at least one period brand of essence of coffee, but that was back when chicory was inexpensive.

This is a nice blurb, although the source material is better referenced in the other active Essence of Coffee thread in the Camp of Instruction folder:

Notes on Essence

Take your time, and go slowly. On a modern note, this stuff makes a heck of an ice cream topping.