[Review] GSI Outdoors Ultralight Java Drip

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fonixmunkee
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[Review] GSI Outdoors Ultralight Java Drip

Post by fonixmunkee »

I was recently inspired in this thread to up my coffee-making skills in the back country. I was always an instant-coffee kind of guy, but I didn't like the waste that it generated. Additionally--let's be honest here--it tasted like crap. The Starbucks VIA were good, but all Starbucks coffee tastes burnt no matter what form it comes in.

I always take coffee-making very seriously at home...I had the traditional drip, that soon gave way to a Keurig. When I discovered the horrors of Keurig, I moved to a regular java-drip method with a tea pot. I haven't looked back since. So, I figured, why not take my coffee-making technique that I use at home and work. Enter, the GSI Outdoors Ultralight Java Drip.

There's really not much to say to this thing. It lives up to the "ultralight" part of its name. It's compact, too, but it doesn't fit under the gas canister like it says it should. That was kind of disappointing, but not a let-down. I still can squeeze it into my MSR Reactor stove, with the 13oz fuel canister, burner attachment, and a small piece of pack towel:
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The Java Drip works just like any other java drip does...put coffee it in the screen filter and pour hot water over the grounds. Just as with a regular java drip, the amount of grounds you put in the speed at which you pour the hot water over it determines the strength of the coffee:
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I thought that the coffee would pour right the the screen from any which angle it can escape, but this is isn't the case if you pour at a slow, controlled pace. If you dump a lot of hot water in there quickly, it will escape from the sides of the mesh without going through the coffee grounds...as I found out once as I impatiently poured a cup. Slow, controlled pour of the water over the grounds is the best method to get a dynamite cup of coffee.
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Clean-up is easy...just dump the grounds out by inverting the mesh filter. 75% of the grounds come right out...then a small trickle of water through the inverted mesh makes the grounds come right off, and the filter is ready for a new cup of coffee. In my testing, I found it's best to clean up the filter right away after making coffee...when I let it sit, the grounds settled some and made a brown ring on the filter that was rather tedious to clean off.

For $10, I'm very happy with my purchase. I now don't have the micro-litter from the instant coffee packets. I also have a cup of coffee that doesn't taste like the hot piss served at Perkins or a bar. While it's true I have to haul ground coffee now, I find that it's a small price to pay: having a cup of coffee on a cool Isle Royale morning watching the sunrise is worth an extra 12oz in my pack.
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