Remember coffee tins? What happened to coffee tins.

[Baitball Blogger]

We used those cans for just about everything, including turning them into sterno stoves.

[valerief]

1. Oil --> Plastic happened

[Baitball Blogger]

2. The ones we had in Panama were not as decorative.

They were just round tins or cans that came with a plastic top.

[valerief]

4. Don't we still have them? Oh, yeah, they're cardboard now, I think.

[Baitball Blogger]

6. Very similar to that one.

Though we were smaller so the cans were big enough for the important things in life.

[pinboy3niner]

3. The plastic ones also can be useful

But not as Sterno stoves.

I like the handgrip on the side, one thing that is an improvement with the plastic containers.

[Baitball Blogger]

7. I tried to show my daughter how to make a sterno stove out of a large can the weekend that Hurricane

Charlie knocked out our electricity.

You're supposed to cut a little door at the bottom and pry holes at the top using a can opener. If we were really out camping we would insert as much wood as we needed to get the top really hot, but being in suburbia I used the sterno to try to heat up water in a kitchen pot and it never got hot enough.

That was lesson two. You really do need camping cooking pots that heat up quicker.

[pinboy3niner]

11. In the military before MREs it was comon to use C-ration cans as stoves

If you didn't have Sterno sent from home you'd use heat tabs or a piece of C-4 plastic explosive.

[antiquie]

16. !!! > a piece of C-4 plastic explosive < ???

[pinboy3niner]

17. They need a detonator to actually detonate them

If you set C-4 on fire, it just burns--but very hotly, so a small piece serves as a good heat tab for cooking.

[antiquie]

18. Oh, yeh.

[Feral Child]

24. Some wag in the Red Cross

sent us a case of Jiffy Pop in the field. Trying to pop that over C4 was...unacceptable.

We used heat tabs in C-rat cans to light up the inside of our fox-hole berms for an night air-strike, one time. NVA were 50 mikes out.

I thought it was stupid but that pilot stitched 20mm cannon fire just outside our perimeter. Must have looked spooky to him.

They were dim enough not to give away our positions.

[hobbit709]

5. They went the way of an actual 1 lb coffee can.

[NYC_SKP]

8. Lids were useful for closing up mouse holes, and the cans had value, too!

Cans used as steel siding in Bodie, California:



And, OK, this is a Mason jar lid but you know what I mean:

[Lochloosa]

9. I'll always remember them. I have an 8 inch scar on my leg from one of the lids.

My brothers and I would throw them at each other like frisbees. Ah, my youth.

[hlthe2b]

10. You can still find them for some coffee--especially those from New Orleans...

Coffee du monde and other chicory varieties




The cans are a lot smaller, though

[irisblue]

12. I have been drinking this for quite awhile

and I have quite a few cans in a pyramid in the basement waiting to go to a new home.

[Sherman A1]

23. Just picked one up on the last visit there

it is on the shelf in the kitchen.

[tabbycat31]

13. They're cardboard now

I have one from Trader Joe's in my fridge that I put all my 'coffee remnants' in (aka the coffee you have left at the bottom of the bag after you've used it up) and occasionally have mixed coffee.

TJ's sells their coffee in them. I wish they were metal but oh well. I don't remember them in metal ever.

[Liberal_in_LA]

20. like oatmeal containers

[grasswire]

14. that's why I hoard shoe boxes.

I use them for all sorts of things. Postcard collection, seasonal decorations, toys, etc.

And I used coffee tins too. Gone!!

[betsuni]

15. I just bought a three pound coffee tin at Costco -- and I have a can of crackers!

[mrmpa]

21. That's right.........

I drink Costco's Kirkland brand coffee in the can & my 84 year old mother buys the Kirkland DeCaf. We use the empty cans for any garbage that can't be put down the disposal.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

19. And in Houston, we proudly have our local landmark, the Beer Can House!!!

I take all my out of town friends there!!
There and Howard Hughes' grave in Glenwood Cemetery.

Just because it's weird!!!!!

www.beercanhouse.org

[TeamPooka]

22. Blame Keurig and single use coffee makers.