how to cut coffee weight

[Link .]

The Beautiful Cup and How do BPL Staffers stay warm, hydrated, and caffeinated in the backcountry?

[Ian]

Mike has a good technique for Cowboy coffee but I just wanted to add something he didn't cover..

With my technique where you bring water to a boil, add coffee grounds, briefly return to a boil and remove, the coffee grounds will ime quickly settle to the bottom of the mug.

[Link .]

Ian that technique is discussed in my second link in the BPL staff video.

[Ian]

Can't access the video from my phone but I'll check it out later.

EDIT Just watched the video and yup…. took the words right out of my mouth… except that he said it before I said it…. whatevs.

[Charles P]

Nice to hear about Mount Hagen instant. I almost picked up a jar last summer but decided against it. I've been trying to use Via recently but don't really like it. Its weak brew. I'll try the MH stuff this weekend though.

Or I might just take my MSR filter and some ground coffee (beans from a local micro-roaster). Going that way is a little heavier but you get a good cup of coffee. Like others (addicts all of us!) I enjoy a nice cup of coffee on the trail. It really hits the spot.

[Michael Driscoll]

Lachlan; Vietnamese use a style of drip filter / press called a phin… I had never heard of this and so search found this site… < http://www.vietnamese-coffee.com/coffee_accessories_shop.php > … they have a bunch of stuff but no aluminum phin it seems… what I was fascinated with was the assortment of wire mesh strainers and Single-Use Filter-bags… love posts like this takes me on different trip altogether… Thanks

PS: Via hiker (but will try TJ)

[Eric Lundquist]

I've been using the VIA packets ever since they came out. Mix in a little leftover Bailey's from the nightcap before and it's the perfect cuppa. Shug, a member over at hammock forums and famous for his hammock how-to videos, drinks and recommends Medaglia D'oro instant espresso. I finally emptied my stash of Via this year and decided to try out the Medaglia D'oro powder. It is quite good and better, in my opinion, than VIA. It is, however, harder to package.

[Peter S]

Eric,

do you find that Medaglia D'oro has any acidic or bitter taste?

Thanks

[Ian]

Last week I spent quality time googling premium pencils as lesser pencils are verboten on the JMT.

This week I find myself trying to perfect my cowboy/Turkish coffee.

Such is life.

I just wanted to add something I touched on earlier. I made a couple cups of cowboy coffee using different grinds to see how they compare. I used a French Press grind (coarser) for one and a Turkish grind (finer) for the other. I find that the smaller the grind the better when it comes to cowboy coffee. While both will settle to the bottom, the Turkish grind seems to do a better job.

[Eric Blumensaadt]

Why would you want to do that? Cuting coffee weight is akin to cutting alcohol weight or the weight of OREOS.

Kidding…

Actually now I use VIA most mornings. But I also carry one or two of my cloth drawstring tea bags (@ some kitchen stores) filled with a fresh ground mix of my own. Now there is THE coffee taste.

** To keep rising hot water steam from clogging your VIA tube pour it in before you put hot water in the mug. Don't ask…

[Nick Gatel]

Spend some time in the military and any instant or freeze dried coffee will taste great. You will no longer be a coffee snob :)

I find that NESCAFÉ® CLÁSICO™ is the best tasting for me. It is usually found in the hispanic foods section at most big super market chains. I keep it in a ziplock sandwhich bag and then inside my food bag.

[Ian]

"Spend some time in the military and any instant or freeze dried coffee will taste great. You will no longer be a coffee snob :)"

+1 on flavor but -1 for caffeine

The Germans used methamphetamines to fuel their blitzkrieg. We fought them back during the Battle of the Bulge with Army coffee. Definitely excels as a caffeine delivering device but a little lean on flavor. Heat tabs (trioxane) started disappearing from the supply rooms in the early '90s when the MRE heaters arrived. While great for warming up Meals Rejected by Ethiopians, MRE heaters do nothing for heating up freeze dried coffee.

So your average grunt had (to my knowledge has) a couple options:

1) Ranger pudding. Mix MRE crackers, hot cocoa, and coffee together and chow down.

2) Pour freeze dried coffee, creamer, and sugar into mouth. Take swig from canteen and swish ingredients together in mouth and enjoy iced coffee.

3) Transfer to a mechanized unit and enjoy blitzkrieg defeating Army coffee on the LD thanks to (get the he!! off of my grass) 1SG. Also works well to remove paint or clean battery terminals.

[Jane Baack]

Peet's is entering the market for single serve coffee. Don't know if it's available yet-anyone tried it?

[JJ Willcoxon]

Love my jetboil coffee. I grind my own beans and seal them into packets just the right size at home, so that each one is used as it is opened. The key to a good cup seems to be heating the water to near boil, shutting off the unit, adding the coffee, and letting it soak for about a minute, before using the press.

Weighs almost nothing and uses very little fuel.

[Casey Jones]

"Peet's is entering the market for single serve coffee. Don't know if it's available yet-anyone tried it?"

Those are K-cups, not single serve instant.

[Kevin Burton]

caffeine pills… they weight 200mg… BEAT THAT! :-P

[Erik Basil]

Yeah, you tasted a caffeine pill? Just let 'em dissolve in your cheek? They make uncoated aspirin seem normal.

[Will Tatman]

I usually premix Nescafe, soymilk powder, and a bit of something sweet in a ziploc and take it with me.

Shake it up in a water bottle cold. Delicious.

[Marko Botsaris]

Nescafe Espresso instant is purported to be the best of all instants by many people who have experimented with instant coffees, including the ones discussed above – this according to my research department. I think it is very hard to find except online, and it is expensive.

http://www.amazon.com/Nescafe-Espresso-Instant-Coffee-3-5oz/dp/B002O3SAJE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1371141024&sr=8-1&keywords=nescafe+espresso

However, if you are a fan of light roast American style coffee this may not fit your tastes.

I'm in the process of ordering some. Now that we have a very preliminary solution to the JMT pencil I feel like I need a resolution of this issue as well.

I made some Aeropress coffee this morning and it was excellent, even to an espresso drinker. Using a few modded techniques and a good deal of force, the Aeropress can even make something sort of like espresso, but I would not personally feel these extra mod were worth it away from my home espresso machine.

Unfortunately the weight of the LW (car camping) kit for this, including Aeropress, mini Porlex hand grinder with porcelain bur, and battery operated Aerolatte mini milk frother is still around 16 oz.

I have verified the the press component from the Bodrum 4 cup french press and a host of other french presses and possibly the one you already have (about 94 mm in diameter) does perfectly fit the Jetboil and the SP 0.7L Ti mug.(2.7 oz). It also comes apart and would pack nicely. So if you are a french press fanatic with a Jetboil or the right sized mug already then this might be a high end solution for you. Should be much better than the crap one sold by Jetboil.

I think the above will probably become my solution for car camping and overnights that involve more navel gazing than hiking. Though I will continue to practice with cowboy coffe techniques to see if I can get a good enough brew to be worth it, probably I will be satisfied with one or another of the instants in the end for UL. I may even go back to the (objectively speaking admittedly foul) General Foods International Coffees, such as cafe Vienna. These have the advantage that the milk and sugar are already in there (sugar doesn't seem to taste so bad after hiking 20 miles) and this stuff can easily be found in every crappy supermarket and even in 7-11 type stores at the last moment. Buy, open, dump in ziplock baggies and you are gtg. One "box" of this is good, I have found, for 5-7 days.

[D G]

I've tried them all and I prefer nescafe espresso also. Though I get it in the individual size:
http://www.enjoybettercoffee.com/Nescafe-Espresso-Delicate-Crema-p/ne019.htm?gclid=CLCmyu_D4bcCFcU5QgodgGAALA&Click=2753

[Pete Staehling]

I tried some individual serving Nescafe packets and found them pretty awful. I do not recall the specific product name on the package.

[Ian]

Clever Hiker shared this today.

Looks interesting. If I understand it correctly, the weight is 1.2 oz for four cups.

http://www.naturescoffeekettle.com/get_real/default.aspx

[Marc Shea]

Basically, the Nature's Kettle coffee is simply a filter bag of coffee, that you pour hot water over. I tried one out, and the fiddle factor is pretty high as you need to pour hot water into a narrow opening at the top of the bag. With hot water in one hand and the other hand trying to position the bag and opening, it was a bit of a hassle. I tried to make it as strong as possible, but in the end it just wasn't worth the hassle. The coffee that I tasted (the organic) wasn't to my taste.

They do sell the coffee in the filter bags separately, so on the plus side you could just steep it in a pot like a large tea bag. Might make good cowboy coffee with less mess and grounds in your teeth.

Another one is growers cup. http://www.growerscup.com/eng/

[Rick M]

del

[Roger Caffin]

Coffee is made by pouring boiling water over ground roasted coffee beans. End of story.

Cheers
(Ducks…)

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