I've just begun to notice: we are on the edge of a serious coffee mug shortage worldwide.* Both stainless steel and ceramic are affected. I'm not an alarmist or a whiner, but have been noticing that there are fewer and fewer available, day to day in my cupboards.

This may or may not be caused directly by the events in Spain and the Middle East, but I say stock up before the imminent shortages get here!! Coffee is sold worldwide and is drunk in almost every culture; coffee mugs ditto.

I usually keep a dozen fresh one in a case in the basement, but recent times have made me start to use those...but I say buy some soon - before the prices go up. A word to the wise.

TRO

* StarBucks of course says nothing.

Usual disclaimer.

Sssh, TRO, don't let word get out yet. We are coming to a world of coffee mug haves and have-nots. Sad, I know, but a business opportunity for the sharp-minded.

I've been hoarding coffee cups since my pre-DW days. She doesn't understand, and so keeps trying to throw them out, but I put them back in the basement under the stairs. I'm waiting for garage sale season to top off my stash. I may need to rent a shipping container to keep them secure.

When the masses realize what's happening and start to make a "run" on coffee cups, I'll be set for retirement.

I'm set... over the years a coffee cup was a recurring teacher's gift by my Asian kids at Christmas....a nice Parker pen from my first 1600 SAT scorer is a prized momento

I'm glad I like my caffiene cold and won't be affected. Though I may go and buy a few dozen and sell them later at inflated prices. Of course, this state does have an anti-price-gouging law on the books, but I think it only kicks in after a hurricane.

I will broker a futures market for the truly qualified. I understand a couple of Texas guys are trying to corner the market, but I have sources in China who tell me that country has been secretly inflating the cost of its mugs and stockpiling the clay from which they are made. i know secrets that can make you rich! [But first you have to make ME rich.]

Fortunately, I bought a fantastic mug years ago at Costco - stainless steel, double wall insulated, with a nice handle and cap to keep things hot. I am set forever. You could say this mug is built like a tank(ard).

Hoarding and market speculation have triggered an irrational spiral of ever more hoarding and speculation. Mugs that sold for $4 a month ago will be going for $20 and up. There is fear that coffee shops and break rooms may get raided by armed mug thieves.

Fortunately, I've avoided the issue by drinking directly from the pot. It is also good exercise.

Likewise the Ti Double-Wall Cup I picked up at REI is pretty much not going to wear out in my lifetime.

$42.95!

A old timer once showed me how you could, in an emergency, use a tea cup for drinking coffee! Yeah, I know. But it's true. I've tried it.

It does require a bit of modification, but it only takes a hacksaw or two and a pair of good pliers. Hammer optional.

-jh

Yep, the price has gone up.

People are hoarding coffee cups ... and Wall Street is going LONG on stainless cups (i.e. investing in them)? What??!!. Are you sure this isn't some secret plot by Starbucks? Ha! ha!!

I'm like Russ. I've got Ti mug from REI. Use it for everything - coffee, boiled water, soup.

By the way ... let me share a story here. Did you ever hear a survival story from an old-timer who was a pro' - but you never quite figured out how it worked? Here's one i heard a long time ago. I met a guy who had been a survival instructor in the military, and after that he had traveled in a lot of rough terrains (just for fun). He told me that he had a special system for how he ate his food , so that he never had to wash the dishes afterwards. It had something to do with the order in which he cooked the food, and the type of meals he ate, but it caused the dishes to be clean when he was finished. He seemed completely serious when he told me this - but I never did figure out how he did it. Or maybe he was just pulling my leg. Who knows???

Pete #2

A lot depends on how you define "clean." Using one mug, I will usually do an entree, then dessert or whatever, followed up with a nice cup of tea brewed in the same mug. When that is drained, I declare it "clean" and move on. If I am really fastidious, I will follow the tea with a sip of plain water. This is OK as long as just one person is using the mug, especially since my "cooking" consists of boiling water to prepare the food.

Perhaps he is eating MREs. Not too many dishes to do with them.

hikermor ... think you're right. It probably all depends on exactly what you're eating, and the order of how you prepare the food & drink. The trick is to somehow get the plates/dishes degreased as you move thru' the process.

A couple of random thoughts about clean cookware. I try to pay attention to the lessons learned by various elite military forces - because those people are trained to work in many parts of the world. I have noticed that the soldiers belonging to the SAS (Britain) are very careful to keep their plates/dishes/cookware scrupulously clean after eating meals. They will carefully scrub off every tiny remnant of food from both plates and eating utensils. Apparently this is because of the growth of bacteria under tropical environments. So they must have had some bad experiences - to have learned this lesson.

Also, I happen to be reading a book right now about the US Marines during the war in the Pacific (WW2). Some of their soldiers got badly dehydrated under the intense tropical heat, but the supplies for their battle got bogged down on the beachhead (heavy enemy fire). So they were intensely thirsty. When they finally got water, it came in old oil drums that had been converted for water storage purposes. Unfortunately for the poor Marines - their own men didn't do a great job of cleaning out the oil drums. So the water for their canteens was contaminated by a layer of machine oil on top - and that's all they had to drink in the battle. Nauseating! So they also learned an important lesson the hard way ... do a super good job of cleaning all contamination from old containers.

I seem to have strayed from the original topic of coffee cups. Ohhhh well.

Pete #2

[quote=Pete

I seem to have strayed from the original topic of coffee cups. Ohhhh well.

Pete #2 [/quote]

Au contraire. There is a valuable lesson here - be wary of military surplus coffee mugs, especially if they come from the Marines. They will be coated with a light sheen of oil (makes them shiny for inspection, I'll bet).

I'm really diverging now. But here goes. The book I'm reading is about a battle that the US Marines fought on an island called Pelileu. It is all but forgotten these days. But it was one of the worst battles the Marines ever fought in the Pacific in WW2. Worst ... in terms of the casualty rates. The island was all solid coral - they had nowhere to dig in.

Anyway, I sat down over breakfast in L.A. this past weekend. There was an 85-year old man across the table. So I got talking to him ... and lo and behold the guy had served with the Marines and had fought at Pelileu. He lied about his age when he was 16 years old, got into the Marines, was sent across the Pacific, and got thrown right into the "meat grinder". I could not believe it! So I bought him breakfast. :-)

The story of what happened is in the book "With the Old Breed", by E. B. Sledge. It's a book that a lot of Americans should read.

Pete #2

I've taken the "hiding in plain sight" approach to preventing the pilferage of my apparently now much coveted coffee cup.

My wife gave me an insualted plastic travel cup that looks exactly like a convenience store paper cup with a styrene lid. To make it look more convincing, I let it roll around on the floor of my car when empty and no one has stolen it yet.

There still is a secret source for coffee mugs. As I got much useful information on this site, I am willing to share the secret. One caffeine addict cannot let down fellow addicts after all.
These things are still readily available and can be used as coffee mug when push comes to shove:
Seidla (half quart stein)

These mugs are used in my region:
Häfala (small mug)

They keep the coffee warm and can hold a reasonable amount of coffee. As regional products they are not affected by international shortages.

This is proof of why gas prices keep going up and never down. Proof!

I'm not one to subscribe to conspiracy theories, but you do know that there isn’t really a shortage, don’t you ?

It’s a secret government department trying to control the population by creating an artificial shortage.
Ever since Roswell the aliens have been visiting earth to steal coffee mugs and office tea spoons. (Sometimes they take my keys too … now you hear the alarm bells don’t you? ….not so crazy now ! Ha !)

“The Department” realised this some time ago adopted the tactic of reducing coffee mug supply to try and deter the aliens from coming. Irresponsible discussion about coffee mug substitutes will only serve to encourage the aliens, who monitor all earth communications with their Echelon system, specifically looking for key works like “coffee mug”, “spoon” and “car key”.

So we all need to start talking in code so avoid detection. From now on its not coffee mug, it’s a “turtle” and don’t talk about a tea spoon of sugar, lets call it a “pongo”.
Example, at the “pet shop” (see how cunningly I avoided saying “coffee shop”) : “Can I have a hot turtle and a couple of pongos please ?” Try that next time you go for a turtle, all the shop keepers are in on it so they will know exactly what you want – really !

So to be responsible I think I’ll ask Blast to change the name of this thread from “Coffee Mug shortage” to “Turtle and pongo shortage” – then we should be safe, but we still have to work out what to do with car keys, if only we could find them.

Aha! Exactly! Turtle pongo pongo! (soy please)

I am designing a prototype travel turtle that will even the score. It does a biometric scan every time you take a sip. If you're the wrong person (or species) the seal retracts and spills unspecified hot beverage all down the front of your shirt/tie/blouse/tunic. That'll fix 'em. Don't mess with Earth.

This is why I EDC 5# of wet clay - You can thank me when you have a nice coffee cup after the ...

Keep an eye out for orphans. I snagged a wonderful one a few weeks ago. Metal, insulated, with a well fitting lid AND a french press. Imagine someone tossing it aside because it's got a few injuries. Thank heaven for the ignorant! (Far beit for me to spread the word of the crisis and miss out on more potential cast-offs!)

>It's obviously time to get proactive and take a pottery class

Women also outnumber men by about 9 to 1. Who is this Patrick Swayze? :-)

I found using a stainless food flask as a mug, meant it came with a watertight lid so I could just throw it in my bag. And pouring boiling water on noodles or porridge cooked them in 5 minutes.
qjs

And just as the best liquid cup is a food flask.
The best food flask is liquid flask.
Food flasks don't keep things hot for long (the big lid has no vacuum).
Just eat soups and frankfurters.
qjs

And the media does nothing! Proof! I'm stocking up on ceramic and stainless steel mugs; cases and cases of them.

I wonder why anyone can be 'alarmed' about a preceived 'shortage'
of coffee mugs?
Don't you have any other problems in your lives?

It is a tongue-in-cheek, just to lighten things up There will always be problems in life, sometimes you just need have a little bit of fun

Pete

And then there's the blonde vs redhead vs brunette conundrum. I never have figured that one out.

I am partial to pies, but a good yellow cake with dark or fudge icing really “takes the cake”. One of my favorite pies (I like pecan, cherry, blue berry, strawberry) that I can no longer get was an almond cream pie.

I make what I call a “dream pie”, it is so loaded with fat and calories that I only make it once or twice per year. I melt and blend a full bar (minus 1 square) of semi-sweet dark baker’s chocolate, a whole bar of cream cheese, a full tub of cool-whip (1/2 for the mousse 1/2 for the topping) into a graham cracker crust. I shave one of the chocolate squares over the top and freeze the whole thing.

Pete

It is things like "dream pie" that will drive up the demand for coffee mugs!

Considering that cheesecake is really more like pie, I say pie.

Jeanette Isabelle

PLENTY! But you have to make priorities, and attack the most urgent issues first. That's why I watch this thread very closely and stock up on coffee mugs.

Amen, and pass the dream pie!

Adventuring in the wilds with DS this weekend. Pack kichen supplies include lots. Troop Patrol box should have more. Packed 3 anyway. Feel under prepared!

Thanks a lot Jeanette Isabelle and Pete!! Now I'm hungry and thinking of changing our Scout camp meal plan this weekend. As if the mug shortage isn't stressful enough!

BTW - cheesecake is it's own food group!

Why not use the simple expedient for drinking directly from the pot? I actually caught myself doing this at my desk the other day when I misplaced my mug somewhere in the plant.

That is what they want you to do! Once we all of us have given up on the coffee mug and are drinking from the pot, then the pot shortages will begin. Oh, the humanity!

Two Words:

THRIFT SHOP.

Infinite supply. Nearly free.

Aha! yes..My local thrift has replenished my supply. Wait - where are all the shorts? Remember just 2 months ago, you could find all sorts of shorts in stores? Now they are all gone! Short shortage!

Hot drinks from styrofoam cups......*GAG!*

If you aren't strange to begin with, that should make you so.

Sue