Techniques and gear for the lightweight backcountry coffee connoisseur

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555

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Found this and thought I would share this cool find.

Please forgive me if this has been posted before. :)

Techniques and gear for the lightweight backcountry coffee connoisseur, because under no circumstances should you let a non-coffee drinker brew your bliss.

If my years as a backcountry traveler have taught me anything, it’s this: backpacking should never EVER be attempted without coffee. If this statement does NOT ring true as a fundamental fact in alignment with the laws of the universe, then don’t bother reading any further.

Okay, lets review the statement above. If backpacking equals coffee, then ultra-light backpacking must somehow equal ultra-light coffee, right? Right......................
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http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/coffee_beautiful_cup.html

IMPORTANT TRUISM #1
Under no circumstances should you let a non-coffee drinker brew your coffee.

Non-coffee drinkers CANNOT be trusted to make acceptable coffee. If some well-meaning tent-mate gets up early and offers to bring you coffee in bed, do NOT let them. You will be sadly disappointed, and the entire day may founder in a miasma of negative drama. Let’s face it, the coffee ritual is something those not addicted to coffee will never understand. Politely get up and give them a genuine and heartfelt thank-you. Then make your own beautiful cup.

(Note: it’s possible that your hiking companion will be annoyed at this type of behavior and come to view you as the control freak that you are. But remember, joy is joy, and any impediment to your coffee bliss MUST be avoided.)

IMPORTANT TRUISM #2
Instant coffee isn’t actually coffee, and is therefore outside the scope of this discussion. It is quite simply not an option. I will not mention it further. If you’ve no sense of coffee-related propriety and are simply trying to get out of bed in the morning, pop a couple pieces of Jolt gum and hit the trail fer Pete’s sake.
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:D

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Lol. Yes definitely agree with truism #1, that's even worse than having someone who doesn't drink iced tea making your tea!! and truism #2 is spot on!
 
There was a thread here a little while back with a guy [can't recall which] that had a bulk bundle of tea bags. He was opening them up and making coffee bags with them, simply using staples to close them. Bag blanks can be bought off the interwebz very cheaply from vegetable rights protester outlet store kinda places. …......... I take issue with the instant coffee isn't coffee thing as necessarily true. I can see where the dodgy myths started. For example Douwe Egberts was guilty of outing tulip bulbs, peas, beans, acorns, all sorts of crap as a coffee substitute during WW2 and they didn't quit doing it 'till '50s. And for sure now the cheap stuff is bulked out with a good amount of ash amongst other stuff. For here at least I would wind in that in living memory I can't recall an instant coffee advert that alluded to the Arabica bean as being anything other than the most desirable. But instant coffee does exist that is made from genuinely good ground coffee beans that have been processed. The processing may well be obvious to those of us that enjoy coffee but it is coffee never the less. I'll throw in this snippet to because this is a myth I've encountered a lot - many believe that it does not contain as much caffeine as brewed coffee, and this is a mistake .
 
I make cowboy coffee. It tastes like coffee. It isn't instant or canned, doesn't come in a squeeze tube paste or "shot" bottles. It doesn't take any special equipment or containers. I premeasure it into tiny nalgene bottles for convenience, but it can be put in zip-loc snack bags as well. But to each his own. If you like foo-foo coffee that looks like a milk shake and tastes like a candy bar, then have at it. I'll carry and make my own, thank you.
 
I have been using the Folger's Single use bags..looks like a tea bag but it's coffee inside. The only equipment I need is a metal container to heat water.
 
thrillbilly said:
I have been using the Folger's Single use bags..looks like a tea bag but it's coffee inside. The only equipment I need is a metal container to heat water.
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I used to use Folgers exclusively, but I've spoiled myself to the high octane stuff from Hawaii Kauai and Jamaca Blue Mountain. One place where I don't scrimp any more is on my coffee.
 
i just out the coffee grindes into a piece of kitchen roll..twirl the top around and dunk it in and out of the hot water in the cup for a few mins..good coffee
 
I use a small Lexan French press. I think GSI is the brand. It is fairly compact and works decently, and the carafe and cup can be used for other purposes when not making coffee.
 
I use instant coffee when camping and hiking. My coffee snob friend that I hike and camp with cant get enough of it and never complains. Sometimes we will do fresh brewed coffee when just camping. Instant is so much easier and taste very good. I like to keep things simple when outdoors and instant coffee is as simple as it gets.
 
For those who enjoy Starbucks, there's not a whole lot of difference between their VIA instant coffee and the normal ground coffee bean coffee. It's basically just beans that are ground so fine that they almost dissolve in the hot water.

That said, nothing beats sourcing your own high end coffee beans from the suppliers, roasting and grinding it yourself, and making coffee bags with it.
 
I agree with Grease, the Starbucks VIA French Roast is actually quite good. However I do agree that most instant coffee is not coffee. It is also quick and very compact to carry. Now for those that has to have fresh brewed, the MSR brewers mentioned above work very well. By the way, in my opinion, Folgers in any configuration is the worst tasting coffee on the planet.
 
This French Press works with and fits inside a JetBoil Stove system.

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Me? I prefer espresso in the mornings!

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CWL said:
Me? I prefer espresso in the mornings!

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Got one of them, love it. Used to be a medic, and when doing support for officer courses in the field, I'd fire it up so they knew what they were missing:D
Course, I had a six wheeled ambulance to carry my pongo gear (and to sleep in...)
 
Camping I take a bialetti 6 cup espresso pot. Hiking I take instant and mix it with hot chocolate powder - caffeine, sugar, chocolate in one easy step.
 
Arabic/Turkish/Greek coffee
Extra fine ground
Cooked in a Finjan, a conical shaped pot with a single long handle

Found on building site, camping sites, and any Army manouver
 
I've done percolator, Folgers bags, French press, and now just use the cowboy method. The biggest factor in taste is still the basics - good coffee to start with, and the cleanest water you can find. I do most of my camping in the Adirondacks where tannins are found in abundance in virtually every stream, pond, puddle. I have used MSR ceramic filter, boiling, Agua Mira, bleach - nothing I have tried can remove the taste of tannins from the water. Unless I'm camping on a very large lake (seldom), bring in water specifically for my coffee (never), manage to capture some rainfall (best thing about catching some rain on a trip), or discover a spring from which to draw (always on the lookout), my coffee will taste horrible no matter what method is used.
 
Majority of backpacking trips/overnighters/etc, I carry Nalgene bottles, and some form of Gas Canister type stove, so I got the Guyot Brand H2Joe (spelling?)...Anyway, it's easy to use, and I carry coffee grounds in a Lock n Lock Container.....Just dump grounds into the Nalgene, put the H2Joe on, pour your hot water in, and cap the bottle. Let it brew up in there, and commence with drinking....I love my coffee and found this item to be the best choice for quality coffee is weight is a factor in your planning.
Just my two cents. Good luck.
 
Check out "Bush Coffee Mors Kochanski" on youtube.

I used to make coffee this way when I was younger. It always tasted better than at home or coffee shop coffee!
 
Mors make BIG white-man fire for coffee! :D That is more or less the method I use, but I don't boil that long, or use a log fire. I let it steep for a few minutes, then I do use cold water to settle the grounds unless I have a cold rock to set the pot on. That works too. Then I can just pour the coffee slowly into my cups and find the grounds only on the bottom of the pot.
 
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