Coffee is an indispensable American drink.
Don’t get me wrong, people drink it around the world, but in the United States, we have a special relationship with it.
At 400 million cups of coffee daily, Americans are the leading consumer of the stuff - we clearly believe that it is a necessary part of our lives.
It took the bombing of a U.S. harbor and its entrance into a war of total proportions for Americans to even think about slowing their coffee consumption, and they weren’t happy about it.
On November 29, 1942 the Office of Price Administration began rationing coffee for American civilians. Shipments from Latin America had been limited due to the war effort, so American consumption had to be restricted to one pound of coffee every five weeks per citizen over 15 years old.
As a reference, the average American in 1941 drank twenty pounds of coffee yearly - the rations cut that value in half.
As a general rule, Americans were supportive of rations. They dutifully took used rubber to gas stations, limited gas to 3 gallons a week, and went without sugar, cream, butter, and canned milk.
But when the government announced that it would be rationing coffee, Americans panicked. They promptly stormed retail stores, quickly emptying shelves.
By November 29, the problem wasn’t the ration but whether stores would have enough coffee to allow customers to use their ration tickets.
“If the start of rationing finds many citizens unable to use their ration tickets, the coffee comedy will cease to be funny. Such a failure might endanger the whole principle of rationing - which the people have accepted wholeheartedly thus far,” an article published in TIME on November 9, 1942, read.
The home front morale became so low following the decision to ration coffee that the government lifted the restrictions eight months later, in July of 1943.
It was an important lesson - the simple things in life make a difference in the morale of a country. Prioritize supplying people with the simple joys of life, and they will gladly sacrifice the necessities for the sake of the common good.
And, of course, don’t get between Americans and their coffee.