Not all coffee goes stale quickly in the pantry. Survival coffee is ground coffee that has been flash-frozen and freeze-dried to extend the shelf life to decades. If you are like us, and dependent on coffee to stay focused and functional, having an emergency stockpile of coffee is easier than ever. The bad news is that there are several brands and types to pick from.
This is where we come in. We’ve researched the best coffee for survival, tested them, and now the results are in: the overall best, an upgrade option, and one packing some serious caffeine. If you need some reliable caffeine in your pantry, one of our picks will perk you up.
Contents (Jump to a Section)
The Best Survival Coffee
Inexpensive, Long-Lasting, and Effective
Massive shelf life makes these good-tasting grounds worth stashing in your survival kits.
*Price at time of publishing; check for price changes or sales.
Ready Hour’s Franklin’s Finest coffee has been around for a while and is the best value you can get. With a massive 25-year shelf life, it just can’t be beat- plus it happens to be the cheapest option.
Ready Hour offers it in a wide variety of sizes so you can get exactly what you need. The only drawback is that other brands have a bit more gas to them as far as caffeine content, but with the price and shelf life that doesn’t deter us from stocking up on Franklin’s Finest.
Here is how this coffee measures up:
- 60 servings
- Resealable mylar pouch
- 100% Columbian beans
- 63 mg caffeine
- 25-year shelf life
If you are looking for coffee with a massive shelf life that’ll fit your budget, Franklin’s Finest Coffee is the best option.
Upgrade Survival Coffee
Convenient, Nutritious, and High Caffeine
The best coffee for survival is chock full of nutrition to start the day right and is conveniently packaged for any kit.
*Price at time of publishing; check for price changes or sales.
Nutrient Survival has a few coffee types to pick from, but we like the Classic Roast Vitamin Coffee best. As with most of their drink mixes, they come in convenient and practical individual pouches which make them ideal for survival kits.
Campers and backpackers love this coffee too; it is packed with nutrition that really gets your day started on the right foot. While it’s not technically ‘high caffeine’, the 125mg of caffeine coming out of the 8g packet is nothing to sneeze at! The real benefit is all the vitamins packed in here to keep you running in peak condition when you need to most.
Here are the specs:
- 30 servings
- Individual pouches
- 13 vitamins, 125 mg caffeine
- 100% Columbian Arabica beans
- 2-year shelf life
With a nutritious and highly caffeinated blend, the Nutrient Survival Classic Roast Vitamin Coffee is by far the best pick for mobile kits like bug out bags.
Bold flavor with smooth non-gritty texture makes Vitamin Coffee a winner at the table or the campsite.
High-Caffeine Survival Coffee
Massive caffeine, Solid Packaging, and Effective
If you need something to grab you by the nose in the morning and shake you, this high-caffeine survival coffee fits the bill.
*Price at time of publishing; check for price changes or sales.
Death Wish touts that they developed instant coffee for the International Space Station, so those astronauts must be jacked up out there. One serving packet is the equivalent of 5 cups of typical coffee in caffeine content.
Of course, it’s instant coffee too, so you get that 2-year shelf life but it blends well so the taste isn’t gritty. They have different roasts and flavors if the dark roast isn’t your thing, but we found hard black coffee to match up well with the massive caffeine hit.
Here is how this coffee measures up:
- 8 packets
- Individually wrapped
- Organic instant coffee with bean extract
- 300 mg caffeine
- 2-year shelf life
Getting caffeine from coffee in a survival situation is way easier than my days in the military when I was tucking MRE instant coffee packs into my cheeks. If you’re looking for something to just pop when you need to, we’ve reviewed caffeine pills with survival in mind. But, we prefer coffee to help turn sleepy sloths into hard chargers.
If you are looking for coffee with a massive energy boost, Death Wish Coffee Co. Instant Coffee Packets are the best option.
Everything We Recommend
Franklin’s Finest
Massive shelf life makes these good-tasting grounds worth stashing in your prepper pantry.
Where to Buy
$17* at Amazon
*at time of reviewing
Vitamin Coffee
The best coffee for survival is chock full of nutrition to start the day right and is conveniently packaged for any kit.
Where to Buy
$45* at Nutrient Survival
*at time of reviewing
Death Wish
If you need something to grab you by the nose in the morning and shake you, this high-caffeine survival coffee fits the bill.
Where to Buy
$10* at Amazon
*at time of reviewing
The Coffee We Compared
Our research narrowed the field down to a few brands and types of coffee that we compared: Ready Hour, Readywise, Nutrient Survival, Saratoga Farms, Bear Essentials, Nescafe, Black Rifle, Folgers, Death Wish, Legacy, and more.
You can see our full list of review criteria below in the What to Look For section, with an explanation for each.
We considered a wide range of coffee but focused on instant coffee and freeze-dried coffee for shelf life. Stale coffee may be tolerable in a survival situation for a caffeine fix, but it’s not ideal.
We’re always looking for new and better coffee, so if you have some that stores well in the pantry long-term, let us know in the comments. We review most of our tested supplies annually so we can try to get it in the next roundup round and see if it will beat out our top picks.
What to Look For
The best survival coffee has a few features to look for:
- Value
- Taste
- Caffeine Content
- Shelf Life
- Versatility
When you get the right blend of these, you can find the perfect coffee to perk you up after years on the pantry shelf. Below, we break down what each of these features means for the brands of coffee that truly set themselves apart.
Value: Cost vs. Benefit
The amount of money you spend on something like coffee shouldn’t blow out your entire budget. Despite what you may convince yourself, coffee and caffeine aren’t necessary for you to survive. If you find yourself addicted to coffee, the self-reliant choice would be to wean off caffeine to avoid headaches during withdrawal. But, everyone’s life is their own life to live, so a coffee stockpile may be the better choice!
You never want to spend too much money on one resource, even when it comes to caffeine and coffee. It’s better to diversify your spending to make sure you are covered for a wide range of scenarios.
Taste
We’re far from coffee snobs, but we do have taste buds. Bitter, stale, and funky-tasting coffee is not what you’re going for even in an emergency. It all starts with good beans, then the grind and the roast, and then (especially important for survival coffee), the preservation and packaging.
Each one of those steps contributes to the quality of the final product, and how it will perform in both taste and shelf-life performance.
Caffeine Content
Different types and brews of coffee can have a large range of caffeine. Most coffee ranges between 45mg per serving to 300mg. Certain ways of freeze-drying can change caffeine content, and it is often used to increase the potency of coffee extract.
A large amount of caffeine can be the draw for some to pack or store coffee. Caffeine is an addictive substance, and skipping any routine during an emergency can put your body out of sync.
Shelf Life
Regular coffee grounds only have about three weeks of shelf life once opened. Even whole beans are best when used within four weeks. Both of these are just ‘best by’ dates, as coffee goes stale rather than spoiling.
We’ve gone over food storage packaging countless times, and doing it yourself can teach you about what matters to extend food shelf life. Theoretically, you could do all the same things our top survival coffee picks do:
Unless we’ve just given you an idea to get started with your own survival coffee business, it’s cheaper to trust the pros and go the store-bought route. The steps above are how they get it done and put out quality products.
Versatility
Some survival coffee is more than just coffee. Vitamins and minerals can sometimes be added, making the drink more versatile than just a caffeine fix. Speaking of caffeine, the amounts can vary between different brands and types of coffee.
Low caffeine can be useful for managing your intake if you are caffeine-sensitive. Caffeine can also be used for medical reasons and can address headaches in one of the most common applications.
The packaging type can help with versatility too, as the individually-packed coffee servings work great for any mobile survival kit, like a bug out bag.
| Survival Coffee Type | $/cup | Caffeine | Shelf Life | Taste Test |
|---|
| Franklin’s Finest | $0.28 | 63mg | 25 years | 4/5 |
| Vitamin Coffee | $1.50 | 125mg | 2 years | 5/5 |
| Death Wish | $1.25 | 300mg | 2 years | 3/5 |
| Brain Coffee | $1.67 | 150mg | 2 years | 4/5 |
| ReadyWise | $0.28 | 90mg | 15 years | 3/5 |
| Legacy (Ground) | $0.57 | 80mg | 25 years | 3/5 |
| Nescafe | $0.16 | 65mg | 2 years | 4/5 |
| Folgers | $0.17 | 60mg | 2 years | 4/5 |
$/cup is calculated for the smallest quantity available.
What is Coffee’s Shelf Life?
Roasted coffee beans generally last up to a year in cool, dark storage rooms in their original sealed package. Ground coffee has a lower shelf life, usually topping out at 6 months.
So why are our picks touting up to 25-year shelf life? Because they are freeze-dried coffee, not simply coffee grounds. After they are freeze-dried, they are either nitrogen-sealed or have an oxygen absorber dropped into the mylar bag with the instant coffee.
Brian from Live Life Simple has some fun freeze-drying some popular coffee brews:
Who Needs Survival Coffee?
65% of Americans drink coffee at least once a week, and 20% depend on it every day. Coffee has a different reception around the world, with some countries preferring tea or another beverage. We’re big on coffee around here at TruePrepper, so we didn’t mind testing out all the different types of survival coffee.
While we love coffee, we don’t consider it essential for any survival kit. We do recommend getting some for long-term storage or your bug out bags if you are a regular drinker, so you can have some enjoyment and avoid any sort of withdrawal effects.
We list it to consider for:
Having extra coffee never hurt- many people figure they can use coffee for barter if things get tough.
How We Review Products: We research thoroughly before selecting the best products to review. We have vast prepping and survival experience and bring in outside experts when needed. Hours on end are spent testing gear in stressful conditions and using specialized testing gear to verify claims. We assign performance criteria and impartially rate each tested item. Learn more about how we test.
Sources and References
All of our experience and the testing we do to determine the best survival coffee are useless without listing our research sources and references. We leaned on these for the book knowledge that we paired with our hands-on testing and practical survival experience:
Silva, A., et al. (2022). Intensification of freeze-drying rate of coffee extract by vacuum freezing. Innovative Food Science & Emerging Technologies. Volume 78. (Source)
Fissore, D., et al. (2014). Applying quality-by-design to develop a coffee freeze-drying process. Journal of Food Engineering. Volume 123. Pages 179 – 187. (Source)
Petersen, E., et al. (1973). Influence of freeze‐drying parameters on the retention of flavor compounds of coffee. Journal of Food Science. Volume 38. Issue 1. Page 119 – 122. (Source)
The Final Word
Coffee is an important part of my morning and a luxury I’ll be able to afford even in an emergency. Sifting through the grounds to find the best-tasting and longest-lasting on the shelf wasn’t a grind, but one of the more fun reviews we’ve done.
Here are a few other reviews and guides our subscribers have found helpful:
We presented quite a lot of information, but as always: if you have any questions let us know and we would be happy to help. Our testing found Franklin’s Finest Coffee to be the best option given its value, taste, caffeine content, shelf life, and versatility.
Keep exploring, stay prepared, and be safe.
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