Whiskey, Wine and Sweets

[mightymayesy]

What a cracking idea Cory!
MM

[Deeps]

I'm a bit late to the party, but this may be of value.
Last yr myself and the missus went glamping in the van for a week. We keep in the van a smaller proportion of all the preps we keep in the house, all the usuals plus goodies. We decided just for the laff, to live entirely off the van preps.
We are obviously all different, but we learnt these lessons.
After just a couple days no chocolate was touched. Wifey normally has a bar a day but she couldn't face it. Instead, citrusy type sweeties were great.
We had lots of spirits onboard, but not normally being big spirit drinkers, we went through the beer and wine onboard before even touching them. Classic case of prepping with booze we don't usually plough through. We no longer buy a bottle of spirits a month to prep and stash away.
Off topic but we learnt that we'd rather have tinned or dried fruits over any sort of chocolate.

If anyone takes anything from this, if you ever want to truly learn if your preps are adequate, then try living off of them for a week. Heck, even four days should be long enough for your body to tell you what you need, and your brain to tell you what you'd really like.

Our prepping stocks and prepping shopping changed a lot after that one week experiment.

This sounds like good advice but I doubt I could get Her Maj to give it a go. I'd like to do an experiment living without services for a week in the house, charging devices by solar etc and getting by on candles for lighting but I think I'd wake up with a bread knife in my chest. In fairness, I'd have to wait to the end of the football season to carry this wee experiment out otherwise I'd probably crack before she did.

[redskies]

Home made tablet & Mint Cake? I've been making those lately, as sugar is quite cheap at the moment. Getting them vac packed for long term storage is another matter entirely, it seems the family really really like tablet, I've had to hide a lot of it! I also put up 500g vac packs of sugar. We buy 2kg of sugar per week, and what I don't use is stored away. Next on the list is honey!

Coffee is another one I store. We use those stores when coffee isn't on special offer, and when it is, we get extra that I pack away. Tesco just had 2x170g tins of coffee for £6, so we were getting two a week. Can't help thinking that if the world goes tits up, it's one of the things folk will really miss, along with the sugar!

I can make beer, wine and spirits, so not too fussed about those, they're not difficult to acquire as long as you've a bit of space & time.

I think about what we'd miss, then try to put up extras. If we don't trade, we'll use up what we have over time. And with the research and learning I do, I'll know how to make more or a substitute for the really important stuff.

[Arzosah]

I have to say, I gave up trying to store anything of the craving variety as I have no won't power at all. I've even tried storing sweets and chocolate in mylar in the hope it would make me think twice. it didn't So now I keep some sweets and chocolate in the cupboard and replace when they're gone. A couple of bottles of good Bourbon and a few 1/2 bottles of nasty Vodka and I'm good.

On the still tasty website http://www.stilltasty.com/ the consensus for sweets and chocolate is 1-2 years but I reckon longer. However, Honey stores for years.

Because I am so weak-willed I store the ingredients to make things. With what I normally have in my stores I can make fudge, tablet, honecomb, coconut ice, peppermint fondant, chocolate fondant etc. A good old fashioned cookbook is your friend when using food storage.

EDIT: I see me and Arzosah are on the same page

We're on the same page about being weak-willed too it's impossible for me to keep chocolate or biscuits in the house, I've stopped trying!

[ukpreppergrrl]

I have a barrel of TEOTWAWKI chocolate (things like Snickers, Bounty, Twix - incidentally, I find that Aldi's own versions of these are pretty close to the originals! More so than Lidl's). The original experiment was not to eat them until they were at least a year after their Best Before date. I partially succeeded... But the discovery was that they were absolutely fine 1 year after the BB date. And still fine (maybe a tad musty tasting if you're being picky) 2 years after. The shortbread in the Twixes was still crunchy! Alas nothing survived 3 years after So now I just keep the barrel topped up. Stock what you eat and eat what you stock!

I would love to lay down a TEOTWAWKI spirits stock (whisky and vodka are my vices) but unfortunately I keep drinking it However, the homebrew wine is still going strong...mostly because no-one but me will drink it!

Temperature is the key thing for chocolates and sweets. Keep them cool, preferably slightly below "room temperature": heat melts the chocolate and causes it to bloom, and makes the sweets really sticky.

[whenfires]

I am a spirits drinker and always have whiskey, rum, brandy and vodka in plus gin for the other half. I have thought about stashing a couple of bottles away but not actually done it yet. I like the good stuff but for a SHTF backup I would be happy with anything that doesn't remove my throat as I swallow

[Brambles]

I have to say, I gave up trying to store anything of the craving variety as I have no won't power at all. I've even tried storing sweets and chocolate in mylar in the hope it would make me think twice. it didn't So now I keep some sweets and chocolate in the cupboard and replace when they're gone. A couple of bottles of good Bourbon and a few 1/2 bottles of nasty Vodka and I'm good.

On the still tasty website http://www.stilltasty.com/ the consensus for sweets and chocolate is 1-2 years but I reckon longer. However, Honey stores for years.

Because I am so weak-willed I store the ingredients to make things. With what I normally have in my stores I can make fudge, tablet, honecomb, coconut ice, peppermint fondant, chocolate fondant etc. A good old fashioned cookbook is your friend when using food storage.

EDIT: I see me and Arzosah are on the same page

We're on the same page about being weak-willed too it's impossible for me to keep chocolate or biscuits in the house, I've stopped trying!

[shocker]

When I was working as a river warden and night fishing guide I learned the value of a hip flask of brandy. Obviously alcohol isnt a great idea when suffering from serious effects of cold or injury, but a nip from the flask or a splash in coffee can be a good morale reviver after minor setbacks.

The point is that for the last decade and more I have not been able to drink much due to various medications, so the hip flasks went untouched until they came to light recently in a clear-up. The brandy was as good as it was when it went in the flask, a little better even as it wasnt an expensive one. The irish whiskey in another flask (that I had been given,pre filled as a gift) was as drinkable as the day it was put there. Which (in my view, at least) is not at all - the missis said it was fine though

The lesson was that spirits last at least 10 years if kept, well sealed, cool and in the dark.

On the sweets front, my father long ago put me onto "travel sweets", a sort of citrus boiled sweet, in tins. In his time as a Scout leader, long distance lorry driving and sailing (among other things) he found that tinned travel sweets survived various extremes better than other confectionery. I have followed his lead in that for many years and while the tinned sweets are not completely immune to time and temperature, they last better than most others. Again, keeping them cool, in the dark and well sealed seems to be the key.

I am not a big sweet-eater, but a boiled sweet is another good pick me up in times of strife. Kendal mint cake is another good one (as said above), easy and cheap to make and long keeping if sealed. I have, however, in my climbing days had some unpleasant sticky hand moments, reaching into a pocket for some mint cake that had caught the moisture. Again, keeping it sealed would help. Possibly with an oxygen absorbing sachet and a moisture absorber, if put aside for long term storage.

PS - "sticky hand"..."pocket"..."moist"...Deeps, over to you...

[Deeps]

When I was working as a river warden and night fishing guide I learned the value of a hip flask of brandy. Obviously alcohol isnt a great idea when suffering from serious effects of cold or injury, but a nip from the flask or a splash in coffee can be a good morale reviver after minor setbacks.

The point is that for the last decade and more I have not been able to drink much due to various medications, so the hip flasks went untouched until they came to light recently in a clear-up. The brandy was as good as it was when it went in the flask, a little better even as it wasnt an expensive one. The irish whiskey in another flask (that I had been given,pre filled as a gift) was as drinkable as the day it was put there. Which (in my view, at least) is not at all - the missis said it was fine though

The lesson was that spirits last at least 10 years if kept, well sealed, cool and in the dark.

On the sweets front, my father long ago put me onto "travel sweets", a sort of citrus boiled sweet, in tins. In his time as a Scout leader, long distance lorry driving and sailing (among other things) he found that tinned travel sweets survived various extremes better than other confectionery. I have followed his lead in that for many years and while the tinned sweets are not completely immune to time and temperature, they last better than most others. Again, keeping them cool, in the dark and well sealed seems to be the key.

I am not a big sweet-eater, but a boiled sweet is another good pick me up in times of strife. Kendal mint cake is another good one (as said above), easy and cheap to make and long keeping if sealed. I have, however, in my climbing days had some unpleasant sticky hand moments, reaching into a pocket for some mint cake that had caught the moisture. Again, keeping it sealed would help. Possibly with an oxygen absorbing sachet and a moisture absorber, if put aside for long term storage.

PS - "sticky hand"..."pocket"..."moist"...Deeps, over to you...

Thanks for lining it up for me Shocks but I'm trying to be all growdeded up, I'm far too mature and sophisticated for that kind of caper*





* I'll see how I go after a few drinks later though.