Ultralight Coffee Options

The Frieling One Cup coffee filter is a workable coffee filter if you want the real thing. It comes with an inner liner with holes in the bottom to control water flow and a lid, weighing about 3.6oz for the whole assembly. Leave the lid and flow control liner behind and you end up with a gold-plated screen filter that sits on your mug and weighs 1.8oz. Easily found on eBay and web stores for $15 or so.

Tom Davenport –

"Brand blindness? I suspect the opposite is in play here and that you are a knee-jerk bed-wetting big brand basher."

IMHO, brand deserves to be "bashed" if it consistently overcharges its customers. Wholefoods is another example of that.

I especially like your " measured" response above calling me a "bedfwetter"…

Congradualtions!! You are the king of insults .I am sure your mother is proud of your incredible debating skills.

Go enjoy your overpriced instant coffee ;)

Amazing that the original poster stated he had tried Via and was looking for alternate options (which he has since found) yet the word Via comes up 96 times (now 98) in this Thread…

Let's examine who started with the insults. . . per your "measured" reply, those who use Via are "Starbucks drones" or guilty of "brand blindness".

And your bedwetting tendencies were confirmed with your criticism of Starbucks pricing. Do you have any idea how long it took to develop Via or what it cost Starbucks? And, if "drones" like myself, afflicted with "brand blindness" pay it, what does it matter to you? That doesn't make Starbucks evil.

Excuse me folks, the only ones around here who shall be named bed wetters are these dang bed wetting liberals.

Please keep the insults straight as Jimmer, to my knowledge, has not declared his political leanings.

That is of course unless you drink Via which is in essence admitting that you swear loyalty to the axis of evil.

Seriously. Turkish coffee is the way to go.

If there's a thread topic deserving of personal insults, it's coffee.

Carry on.

Allow me to repeat those immortal words…

"Can't we all just get along?"

Starbucks coffee tastes burnt because the beans are burnt. Seems that lots of people like that taste. To me it just tastes burnt. However, when they make the coffee in the stores they use enough coffee grounds to make it drinkable. I admit to having a cup of Starbucks several times a year.

I HATE instant coffee. For me it is undrinkable. No matter how bad I want coffee I just can't drink instant, I've tried. That stuff just doesn't taste like coffee at all to me.

I hate Folgers and other pre-ground canned coffees. I can drink a cup made with them if I really want a cup of coffee, otherwise forget it.

All that said, Folgers singles are almost as good a coffee made with the grounds from the can. Starbucks via is better than that if you use two packets per cup. I could use Starbucks via for backpacking, but I carry the GSI filter cone and real coffee; Just in case anyone wanted to know. ;^)

"If there's a thread topic deserving of personal insults, it's coffee."

This from a guy who sings the praises of PBR? ;0)))

The blue ribbon speaks for itself Tom.

Since you brought it up, I think a comparison can be made between Starbucks coffee and the painfully long lived IPA fad. I think Starbucks purposefully burns their beans in a misguided effort to give it more character. A nice hop-ie beer is nice from time to time but I think it's often times a means to compensate for an otherwise $#!+y beer by running bunny piss through a pool filter pump crammed with good hops.

But I digress.

"running bunny piss through a pool filter pump crammed with good hops"

Don't knock it until you've tried it! ;^)

"In the past I've used Starbucks VIA, and I don't hate it, but it would be fantastic to have a quality cup of coffee using fresh ground beans each morning!"

Reminds me of asking directions in Dublin, only to be told " if I was going there I would not be starting from here"

"If there's a thread topic deserving of personal insults, it's coffee. "

Is it just me, or is there an unmistakable urine odor in the forums these days?

Don't blame me. Blame those d*** bed wetting bunny piss drinking liberal hipsters.

Please be patient if I haven't offended you yet.

"The blue ribbon speaks for itself Tom."

Indeed it does. As H. L. Mencken once observed, "Nobody ever went broke underestimating the American Public". PBR stands as eloquent proof of his perceptiveness.

"A nice hop-ie beer is nice from time to time but I think it's often times a means to compensate for an otherwise $#!+y beer by running bunny piss through a pool filter pump crammed with good hops."

+1 Which makes me wonder why the makers of PBR, Miller High Life, and others in that category so woefully under hop their brews. What they end up is a sh!tty beer without the saving grace of a good does of hops to conceal their crimes against humanity. Now a good northwest IPA, like Stoup's or Ruben's, on the other hand…..

Ah, Ian, I can see I've got some educating to do. ;0))))))

"the bag is non woven plastic so it should not be buried."
There plastic bags, paper with plastic mesh inner bags and paper only bags.

I'm just fine with Nescafe, but that wasn't the OP's question, not that it really matters here, apparently….

Doug,
recently mates of mine bought a 20' container (as a shed) with a very strong smell of fish.
Leaving it open did not work, coffee grounds (from a local coffee bar) did.
So if you want to get rid of smells, try coffee grounds.
(incidentally , worms love coffee grounds)

Who is the "OP" I keep hearing about… ;^)

Coffee grounds are an old cook's trick to rid your hand of garlic odors. So the legend goes, the lover boys of Napoli would chew a coffee bean to take the garlic off their breath before a hot date.

I doubt it will do much for the odor of horse manure here though :)

Pack your favorite grounds in a biodegradable filter, when ready to brew secure filter on your mug with a rubber band and pour boiling water. Once it slows down detach bag, pinch closed and use two sticks or one bent straw to squeeze every last drop (or your fingers if you're really tough).

Grounds + filter can be buried so no trash, no extra gizmos, pure coffee goodness.

Requires a cup in addition to your cooking pot. I carry a 12oz dual-layer thermos type thing and lets me have coffee along with my breakfast and pack some hot coffee in my bag for later!

Use Nido for creamer – I'm milk fiend and find it pretty darn good, plus I use it for oatmeal, etc.

"I think Starbucks purposefully burns their beans in a misguided effort to give it more character."

The original owners of Starbucks learned their trade from Alfred Peet here in Berkeley. Indeed, Peet loved to roast his beans to a high degree because he liked the result. When the Starbucks guys moved on to Seattle and brought their panacea to that sun-starved region where depression reigns–or rains–they also brought their roasting habits. Still, the Starbucks roast is nothing as extreme as Peet's.

By the way, I grew up in Kirkland and went to college in Bellingham, so I know whereof I speak when I mention the weather…If ever a region needed strong coffee in the morning, it's the PNW.

I'm no fan of Starbucks, but it wasn't long ago that you couldn't get anything like real coffee in Chicago or Miami or London or a number of other big cities until they moved in. But they put a lot of great independent cafes out of business here in the Bay Area at the same time.

That's interesting. I got a bag of Starbucks, because that's all I could get, and it was very heavily roasted (burned).

Talk about a thread derailment. . . but I have to agree. I cannot stand IPA and I live 5 minutes from Russian River Brewing Company. I am constantly buying Pliny the Elder for folks who have near religious devotion to it. Can't really stand it myself.

Actually I've never brewed my own coffee from Starbucks beans, so maybe that's different. I've only had Starbucks coffee from their own outlets. Peet's tends to be more roasted still.

Via is a step up from the Folgers crystals I used to take with me backpacking, for sure. But really, I just want caffeine in the morning in the easiest possible way.

"But really, I just want caffeine in the morning in the easiest possible way."

Then take the XUL route and use No Doze.

+1 for Medaglia D'Oro

I buy it by the case from Amazon and just dump the glass jar into a ziplock for trips. Great flavor (for those that like a full roast like Via).