Making a Cup from Ground Coffee

ON a search, I found one post from an old thread:

"Ahhh, so wtf guys no one has suggested reuseable cotton cloth bags roughly twice the size of a teabag. I got them at the grocery store. Hell the cut off toe section of a clean, old cotton sock would work. Fill with grounds and steep. Fling grounds broadly across landscape and dry on pack during the hike and it is all good."

That's not a tea infuser, but it's the same idea…

Here's another:

"Now onto making a DIY filter here is an idea: you can take cone filters, add the ground coffee for one cup (to your cups size of course!) then sew the top closed with cotton thread. Cut off the top excess and you have a "coffee bag". Then toss it in like a tea bag when you make coffee."

Aha, MSR Mugmate. Perhaps that's what I'm looking for.

I think I got this recipe from the BPL forum or maybe it was Mike Clelland's book

Basically it is a deconstructed "french press"

Use one coffee measure, french press grind, for each 4 to 6 oz of water

Bring the desired amount of water to boil (32 oz)

Remove from pot from stove

Add 8 measures of coffee

Let coffee bloom for 1 minute

Stir down the bloom

Let coffee steep for one to 3 minutes (depending on taste)

Filter into your cup with an MSR gold filter

Pack used grinds into zip lock bag (pack it in, pack it out)

Enjoy

"Bloom"? What means this?

> the Okies made coffee by just tossing ground beans into a boiling can, then
> straining out the grounds with their teeth.
Sometimes referred to as 'cowboy coffee', and as old as the hills. Works just fine.

Cheers

Delmar,

When coffee is roasted Carbon Dioxide is trapped in the beans, when fresh beans are hit by hot water the gas is released, causing the coffee to float to the surface, this combination of grounds, water and gas is called bloom.

Dave

Delmar have you seen this?

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/coffee_beautiful_cup.html#.UnD3-5Fd0m0

"Is it possible to put ground coffee in a tea infuser, and get a decent cup of joe? If so, this would seem a lightweight way of making backcountry coffee. Or does the coffee have to pass through the grounds, as opposed to soak?"

Tea infuser is fine but I prefer cowboy/turkish coffee. With the infuser, I feel the coffee is on par with using a french press.

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just pack some of this up in a ziploc and take it with you

> Delmar have you seen this?

Not till now, and it's excellent! Many thanks for your zen-like librarian skills, Ken, not only in this thread but many others.

Ian, what is that orange gizmo?

It's a tea chingadera.

The green lid is your portal to happiness and bliss. Sold in many grocery stores, top shelf.

Get this Tuffy Steeper from The Tea Spot in Boulder CO. Nice online store, great customer service too.

I can't remember the weight of my diffuser but I'll check it when I get back home. It works fine but since it's made for tea, it's slow to drain when you lift it out of your mug. It works but there are better systems out there.

Folger's makes a "Via"-like product that only costs half as much as $tarbucks' product, but is essentially the same thing. So if you like Via (but just find it too expensive) try this…available at most grocery stores.

Edited because I left out a word!

Turkish Cowboy Coffee

Excerpted from Ultralight Backpackin' Tips: 153 Amazing & Inexpensive Tips for Extremely Lightweight Camping by Mike Clelland!

This is an easy way to make exceptionally wonderful coffee in the backcountry, and it’s UL groovy. It is a combo of Turkish and cowboy styles, integrating the best of each technique. This system factors in my impatience, so it works well for me.

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The Turkish solo cup of goodness:
A. Start with the actual coffee beans, use the inkiest and oiliest beans you can find. Either French Roast or Espresso roast.

B. Grind the beans as fine as you possibly can. A specialty coffee shop will accommodate your needs. Most grocery stores provide a burr style grinder, this will have a Turkish setting at the farthest end of the dial. The ground coffee should end up looking like chocolate cake flour.

C. Pack the coffee in two bags, one inside the other. The aroma is so overpowering that everything in your pack will smell like coffee if you just single bag.

D. In the field, bring your cup of water to a boil, and take it off the heat, pour this water into your mug.

E. Add one heaping spoonful to your mug and stir. The spoon itself will get stained and oily if you use it to stir, so just use the spoon to plop it into your cup, and then use a stick to stir.

F. Wait. How long? Hard to say, I am antsy and impatient, so this is a tricky question. Let’s say less than a minute.

G. Drink. (good, isn’t it!)

H. Be careful, there is a layer of gooey stuff at the bottom of your cup, known affectionately as the sludge. No matter how tempting, do not drink the sludge. Trust me on this.

The tried and true COWBOY option is good if there are two coffee drinkers sharing a pot.
(Follow steps A thru C from above)
D. Bring your pot of water to a boil, take it off the heat, and put it in the insulating cozy.

E. Add two spoonfuls of coffee to the pot, stir with a stick.

F. Wait. During the waiting time, you can stir gently, and tap the sides of the pot to get the fine little grounds to settle. Maybe toss a pebble in.

G. Carefully pour the coffee from the pot into the cups being hyper aware of the sludge. The longer you wait, the less sludge. Okay, now drink

The words 'instant' and 'coffee' do not belong in the same sentence.
Yuk!
Unrepentent and no apologies.

Cheers

The words 'instant' and 'coffee' do not belong in the same sentence.

+1

Real Coffee, no excuses. No reason not to.

To the web site admin

****Please remove all references in this thread to instant so-called coffee.****

I personally tried 3 or 4 various cowboy methods and the method above extracted from Mike Clelland's book. I for one do not like the taste of grounds on my teeth. Hence my use of the MSR gold filter and my recipe.

My recommended blend: Peet's Major Dickasons.

> Folger's makes a "Via"-like product

I had no idea! Thanks Valerie. Will check it.

(Do the anti-instant activists in this thread consider Via-type coffee to be instant?)

(Do the anti-instant activists in this thread consider Via-type coffee to be instant?)

Yes and very expensive for what you get. A subpar, tiny cup of coffee. Only time I worried about my safety was when everyone realized that they all bought Italian Roast decaf by mistake, and I sat alone with real grounds.

If you have spent time in the military, this should be more than adequate — anything should be more than adequate.

Just re-package into a Ziploc.

No extra weight for paraphernalia needed. The coffee is lighter than ground coffee.

This is BPL, you know :)

"If you have spent time in the military, this should be more than adequate. This is BPL, you know :)"

Considering the fact that my total ruck weight has been reduced from 75+lbs to 20 (not including LCE or weapon), I'll gladly accept the 1 gram penalty to drink real coffee.

I don't know when you got out Nick but trioxane tablets basically disappeared from the supply room when the MRE heaters arrived.

Grunt coffee is now (or at least when I ETS’d) 1) empty (dry) instant coffee, creamer, and sugar into mouth, 2) take a swig from canteen, and 3) gargle and enjoy.

See, but what is "real" coffee? I don't drink coffee at home – I was a barista for 9 years and have a near pro espresso machine. I make lattes ;-) To me that is real.
I am fine with instant on the trail simply for the caffeine.

"Real Coffee" is one of Ken T.'s trail names.
Here is why