Ultralight Coffee Options

I will henceforth be enjoying amazingly delicious Vietnamese-style coffee on the trail using these two ingredients:

It works great hot and equally well shaken up in a water bottle. Ca Phe Sua Da de Sierra Nevada anyone?

I just got excited to try some Vietnamese style coffee and realized it’s evaporated milk in my cupboard. Damn.

I’ve had Medaglia D’Oro get really bitter after a few days in a plastic bag. I wonder if a small Tupperware container would solve the issue.

For short trips I usually carry my instant coffee in 1 or 2 ounce nalgenes. I’ve not noticed any funky flavors.

Alright I may have to stop by the container store.

I don’t know what caused the flavor to change, maybe air exposure or a reaction to the plastic. The first time it happened I was suspicious a co-worker had pranked/ poisoned me….

Mt Hagen instant coffee. Organic, made in Germany, comes in 60 serving jars or single serve packets. Tastes AMAZING for an instant coffee. Very smooth. WAY better than Starbucks and cheaper. Find it at your local natural foods store or online. Been using it for a couple years and no complaints.

Great thread!  Lots of really good ideas.  My wife is the coffee drinker.   I have a cup occasionally at home, but almost every morning when camping or backpacking. We use Via for her coffee when we’re backpacking, but like some of the other posters here, I don’t care for the burnt taste. (There’s a reason they call it Charbucks.)

In looking up some of the instants mentioned in this thread, I’ve come across one that wasn’t mentioned here.  (Seems that other coffee producers are copy-catting the Starbucks instant packaging.)  Here’s one that I’m wondering about, Nescafe Espresso Sticks, whether anyone’s tried it and if so how it compares to Via:

Elite ULers spoon Medaglia into their oatmeal.

You others can do whatever.

Stay away from anything Nescafe. Horrible stuff. I’m in Saudi for a couple of weeks, and all they have here is Nescafe. This time I packed Mount Hagen and Cafe Bustelo to get me through (Cafe Bustelo has the best taste to price ratio IMHO if you can find it locally – try Target).

Jed’s Coffee Co. in New Zealand makes a coffee teabag which is absolutely stellar. Should have brought a lot more back to the States. The bag is a fat pyramid shape and is made from a slightly finer mesh. So it can be done.

I brought a bunch of these back from our NZ trip last year – they are indeed superb.  Cannot understand why US companies insist on make coffee bags the same size/volume as teabags.  Just not big enough!

I use MYOG teabags and grind my own coffee from my favorite roasters (fresh, never “French” roast, aka burnt to crap roast). After making my coffee, I bury the ground coffee and throw the tea bags in my garbage bag drying them out if possible before putting them away.

I’ve tried them all. In blind taste tests VIA Italian blend usually tops the list. It’s lightweight, there’s no coffee grounds to carry out, there’s no equipment, no matter how light, to carry around. You can buy empty teabags (tried it) but you still have to carry the dead ones out.

Glad you like Via. I still like taking the real, fresh ground from home. I don’t pack out the grounds either.

^^^^ coffee grounds are good for soil structure. Earth worms love them too. Any trace chemical from non organic coffee is still much less than what the average westerner leaves with one single urine stop.

“Elite ULers spoon Medaglia into their oatmeal.”
Hey, you are halfway there. Add a scoop of cocoa and call it Marco’s Mud.

There is coffee – made from ground coffee beans.
There is rubbish – sometimes called ‘instant’. But it is not coffee.
Accept no substitutes!

WARNING: coffee bags contain a little ground bean for appearance, but the rest is ‘soluble coffee’ – aka instant.

Cheers

Some of you guys must have a much more refined palate than I do. If I’m in the woods and I have a hot cup of coffee of any kind with a bit of cream and sugar, I’m happy.

Some of you guys must have a much more refined palate than I do. If I’m in the woods and I have a hot cup of coffee of any kind with a bit of cream and sugar, I’m happy

Cream and sugar is the giveaway you’re not a coffee snob ?

“Cream and sugar is the giveaway you’re not a coffee snob ?”

Growing up in espresso heaven ( Italy) the snobby way was with sugar. Add cream and / or take away the sugar and you were out of the club.

“Cream and sugar is the giveaway you’re not a coffee snob ?

Good point!  I suppose it’s blasphemy to truly devout coffee drinkers.

 

“Cream and sugar is the giveaway you’re not a coffee snob ?

Good point!  I suppose it’s blasphemy to truly devout coffee drinkers.

A wise man once said, “if you can learn to drink black coffee, very little in life will disappoint you.”

But the Wise Man never had Local, free-trade, fair-trade, free range, responsibly grown, shade grown, bird friendly, organic, paleo, old world, child-labor free, non-plucked, non-force fed, non-homogenized, heterozygous (but down with homozygous) retro, artisan coffee?

which is good black.

I would consider myself a coffee snob at home, but after the second day in the backcountry, i’m just thankful for anything that vaguely resembles coffee. I use Mt. Hagen now, after trying a soto helix drip filter, an msr mugmate, and via.

One thing I haven’t tried yet is to make cowboy coffee.

MYOG Coffee filter:

Fine stainless steel mesh ‘filter pot’, hangs on side of cup. Load with ground coffee, pour boiling water over, wait 1 minute (or to choice), remove filter to drain (hanging on back of windshield), drink.

Yes, filter is MYOG. Cut out strip and disk and length of SS wire. Spot welded together, then joints encased in a thin strip if silicone sealant. Wire handle hangs over edge of cup. Dimensions: to fit inside cup (obviously, but also for packing), and slightly larger than plastic cold cream pot (from Sue) which holds the coffee grounds. Fabric wrap protects cup from SS mesh when packed.

This one is at least 10 years old or more.

Cheers

Basically a Mugmate.