When America Rationed Coffee: November 29, 1942

The stamp was No. 27.

It sat in War Ration Book One, the ration book first issued for sugar. Starting on Sunday, November 29, 1942, that stamp was good for one pound of coffee. The next one, No. 28, would come later. Anyone over 15 got a ration. The ration was the same for each eligible person: one pound every five weeks.

A coffee explainer printed in the Eugene, Oregon, Register-Guard nine days earlier summed up the problem in three short phrases: "They can't ship it . . . we can't roast and pack it . . . you can't drink it."

The reason for it had nothing to do with the coffee crop.

Plenty of coffee, not enough ships

The farms were doing fine. The National Park Service notes that Central and South America had bumper crops when the war began. The trouble was getting the beans north.

Most of America's coffee came by sea. In May 1942, TIME reported that at least half of it came from Brazil and another quarter from Colombia. German U-boats were sinking ships in the Atlantic and the Caribbean, and the cargo ships that were left were needed for the war. TIME counted four Brazilian freighters among the ships lost by that spring.

The government tried smaller steps first. In the spring of 1942, the War Production Board limited coffee deliveries to large retailers and restaurants to 75 percent of what they had been a year earlier. In September, according to the Park Service, the restriction tightened to 65 percent. Then the Office of Price Administration moved to ration coffee for consumers.

The week with no coffee

Before the stamps came a pause. The Register-Guard's explainer told readers that coffee sales to consumers would stop from midnight November 21 until midnight November 28. The idea was to keep people from buying up what was left and to give grocers time to restock their shelves.

The rules covered more than kitchens. Restaurants, hospitals, schools, and defense plants applied to their local ration boards for coffee certificates. Coffee for the armed forces was exempt from the civilian ration. "Coffee to every branch of the Service is exempt from rationing," the explainer said.

The rule about the coffee in your cupboard

The rules also covered families who had stocked up before the freeze.

On November 15, a deputy administrator at the Office of Price Administration explained the rule. "The coffee rationing regulations will provide that each consumer must retain in his ration book for later surrender, a coffee stamp for each pound of coffee he possesses in excess of one pound."

In other words, a single eligible person with three pounds in the pantry on November 28 could keep one pound free and clear, and the other two counted against future stamps. You would hand those stamps back later. Stamps in the books of children under 15 also had to stay in the books for that purpose.

In December, the agency added that a household sharing coffee could count its supply as a family, one pound per eligible person.

Four cups can serve five

So Americans learned to stretch it.

Life magazine ran advice in its November 30, 1942, issue. "Four cups can serve five," it said. Pour a little less, and the pound lasts longer. Some people tried double dripping, running hot water over grounds a second time. By the Park Service's account of the Life article, that could raise the yield by about 30 percent, though the coffee could turn bitter.

Others added chicory. The same article, the Park Service says, recommended half an ounce of chicory per pound of coffee to stretch the yield about 30 percent without much change in taste. Postum and other roasted grain drinks filled in too.

The Park Service notes that restaurants that had once kept refilling cups started serving just one. People who did not drink coffee sometimes passed their stamps along to people who did, which, the Park Service adds, was strictly speaking illegal.

Down to six weeks

The pinch got tighter before it got better. In February 1943, the ration dropped to one pound every six weeks. TIME reported that lower inventories and military demand meant the same pound now had to last a week longer.

Then the war at sea began to turn.

"We are able to terminate the rationing of coffee"

On the evening of July 28, 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave a radio address on the progress of the war. Partway through, he gave the country some good news at home: "tonight we are able to terminate the rationing of coffee."

The reason, he said, was more merchant shipping. A Tennessee newspaper the next morning repeated the explanation and pointed to fewer ships lost and more U-boats destroyed.

Coffee rationing had lasted eight months. In September 1944, the government raised the price of coffee to hold down demand rather than bring the stamps back.