Ultralight Coffee Options

[Justin Baker]

I think the issue is that coffee doesn't naturally exist in that environment.

Either way, if you bury the coffee grounds in a discreet place then you aren't leaving a trace. Nobody is ever going to see it. It has no significant environmental impact.
Just like a small twig fire if you kick some dirt over the coals isn't leaving a trace, there is no trace of a fire ever being there.

[brian H]

this all-important topic is covered in a thread that dates to 2008:
http://tinyurl.com/nechxl7

I consider myself a coffee snob after 25 years of enjoying it.
i brew coffee 2x/day and have enjoyed roasting my own beans in the past.
For me Starbux Via tastes way burnt.
I have found only one instant coffee that pleases my buds, and luckily its very available at the nat food stores where i live. And further luck: its organic!

It is called Mount Hagen Organic Freeze Dried Instant Coffee, from Hamburg.
For you Via fans, try a taste test and let your buds decide. O & its cheaper too.

Because it's tasty, the convenience of freeze dried instant far outweighs the alternatives.

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

"Add ground coffee to cold water. Bring to boil. Let boil for one minute. Remove from heat. Let cool two minutes and grounds will settle. Pour in mug. Enjoy."

This works (assuming fine ground beans), but I've found boiling coffee to have a pretty substantial and negative impact on the taste. So I bring the water to a boil, remove it and then add the beans. That means the clocks ticking on getting the beans to sink before the coffee is cold, but I think the higher quality brew is worth the effort.

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

Seriously do you pick the corn out of your cathole? A small amount of coffee grounds is nothing. Take the coffee filter home, though. Don't put that in your cathole.

[Ian]

"Seriously do you pick the corn out of your cathole?"

Yes. Doesn't everyone? Can you ever be LNT enough? Not only do I pack my coffee/pooh-corn out, I actually take the time to dig up the cat holes of other campers and… well… you can figure out the rest. I realize that it sounds disgusting but it's not, it's LNT.

[Ian]

Turkish/cowboy coffee is the way to go for me. As mentioned, boil, add moon-dust grounds, return to boil, drink.

Cold brew is an option as well which gives it a noticibly different but not objectionable flavor. It's just a matter of letting the coffee grounds soak in cold water overnight in a gatorade et al bottle, pour coffee off the top while trying to keep the grounds in the bottle, and heat in mug.

I then take the grounds and fling them into the air as I trample flowers in the most pristine meadow I can find followed by slapping a marmot and setting a pit toilet on fire.

[Jerry Adams]

"Seriously do you pick the corn out of your cathole?"

You need to chew your food better : )

[Ken Thompson]

I'm going to brew a second pot. Anyone? I'm going to fling the grounds. Then I am going to shampoo in the creek.

[Kattt]

There are chemicals in coffee….but anyone with a garden knows how good coffee grounds are for the soil.

Is pulling a pre bloom invasive thistle on the trail, and tossing to the side to decompose LNT? :)

Edited for clarity. I hope.

[Jerry Adams]

yeah, good in compost pile

if you had a Starbuck's worth of grounds it might be a problem. And filter paper would be unsightly, but you could put that in cathole just so other people don't have to look at it.

[Jeffs Eleven]

It beats picking a cat out of your cornhole!

Ian, I always knew you were a marmot slapper

[W I S N E R !]

If you like coffee in catholes
or cats in cornholes
consider this kernel of truth:
Piling your grounds
in unsightly mounds
leads to marmots
jacked up on caffeine.
Looting and hoarding,
chewing boots while you're snoring,
the bean can turn them quite mean.
A marmot with the jitters
is a terrible critter
and a sight best left
unseen.

Sorry, I've been reading a lot of Dr. Seuss lately.

[Jerry Adams]

you are wasting your imagination and creativity : )

[Steofan M]

Loved the verse, but really CREEPED-OUT by that marmot. Not gonna come back to this thread, ever!

[jscott]

Fellow marmots! You have nothing to lose but your chains!

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

That marmot is screaming GIMME MORE CAFFEINE!!!

[Sean Westberg]

"I think burying coffee grounds in your cathole would be fine, you know, done in non-sensitive areas. I work on a college campus and they actually use the coffee grounds and the coffee filters as mulch around the landscaping. Apparently it's beneficial for the plants plus it reduces campus waste."

Coffee grounds are fantastic for composting.By the time you're done brewing and drinking your coffee most of the solubles in the grounds have been leeched out in the brewing process. You're left with mainly cellulose, probably a little bit of carbon if you like darker roasts, and a small amount of caramelized sugars and some tannins left behind in the grounds.

It'd be interesting to see if coffee grounds in a cathole would accelerate, slow down, or have no impact on the degradation of the waste. Not interesting enough to start conducting experiments but like interesting to read a study synopsis or something.

[Eric Blumensaadt]

I like MILKMAN powdered milk with my VIA coffee. It's the best powdered milk I've used for decent taste.

I keep it in my garage fridge to keep it fresh.

Previously I've ground my own beans and put the coffee in re-useable cloth tea bags. Too much bother and weight and messy clean-up. VIA is great coffee and is actually very finely ground beans.That's why it has dregs in the bottom of the cup.

[John Eyles]

>> I like MILKMAN powdered milk with my VIA coffee. It's the best powdered milk I've used for decent taste …

Have you had a chance to compare it to Nido ? It looks like it's "low fat" so I'd be surprised if it's as good. I have yet to understand why Nido is SO much better if you mix it up the night before. You might try that with Milkman too.

[Stefan Hoffman]

Piper, i really like your ideas. I have coffee, and and protein shakes, but combining instant with my shakes sounds solid. And ya, why not put chocolate coffee beans in the trail mix.

On the other hand, its not really about the caffeine, though i am a fiend. Its more about the act of producing a damn good cuppa at 11000 feet. As is the case with most of my "brilliant" ideas, its a matter of "ya, why not?". Crouching in the snow and looking at the valley through the steam of some hot brew in a fosters can really makes me feel like i got something right. An integral ingredient in the grand illusion of adventure.

My vote is cowboy coffee. I like my coffee like i like my women…. earthy, robust and Hawaiian. :)

[Ian]

"My vote is cowboy coffee. I like my coffee like i like my women…. earthy, robust and Hawaiian. :)"

Oh thanks goodness!

For a minute there, I thought you were going to say, "I like my coffee like I like my women… ground up and in the freezer" which would have been in poor taste… so good thing you didn't say that and ended up saying the thing you said.

[Nick B]

"On the other hand, its not really about the caffeine, though i am a fiend. Its more about the act of producing a damn good cuppa at 11000 feet"

Exactly! I'm a one-cup-a-day kind of guy (OK sometimes maybe 2), however combing an excellent cup of coffee with a sunrise in the mountains is truly hard to beat. Two of my favorite things.

[Anonymous]

"It is called Mount Hagen Organic Freeze Dried Instant Coffee, from Hamburg.
For you Via fans, try a taste test and let your buds decide. O & its cheaper too."

If you like a lighter roast, it's a superior choice. Unfortunately they don't, AFAIK, offer a darker roast. If they did, I'd be all over it, but for now it's VIA burnt roast for me. :0(

[Anonymous]

" but I've found boiling coffee to have a pretty substantial and negative impact on the taste. So I bring the water to a boil, remove it and then add the beans. That means the clocks ticking on getting the beans to sink before the coffee is cold, but I think the higher quality brew is worth the effort."

Exactly. +1

[Anonymous]

"You need to chew your food better"

+! Because if you don't, some other critter will, and then waddle over to the nearest water source and dip his poo smeared snout in a previously pristine stream to wash it down. Good argument for making your cat hole under a big rock. Beyond that,
I agree that if you leave your poo in the woods, a few coffee grounds scattered discreetly under a bush or buried is not a practical violation of LNT.

[Author]

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