Isle Royale Forums

I have always used Cafe Bustelo on backpacking trips. It's definitley not my favorite option so I have even branched out to tea when backpacking. I have started looking into coffee tea bags though. Has anyone tried these before? and how do they compare to instant?

Just a nag that if you French press, or use bags, with coffee or tea, the grounds or bags get packed out with you and their cumulative weight with retained water can add up over a week. I have a French press for Nalgene bottles and the result pretty much tastes like French pressed coffee generally does. But the weight and bother to pack out wet grounds, or tea bags, just isn’t worth it to me and my style of backpacking. Mt. Hagen works for coffee, as do various teas, loosed from their bags, and I just do a shot of the minced leaves leftovers. Best salad you can ever eat is tea leaf salad from SE Asia, find some and try it.

If you have ever watched Shugemery's videos on YouTube, he is a huge fan of Medaglia D'oro instant coffee, so when I saw it at my regular old local grocery store, I picked up a jar of it. It is actually really good- he wasn't kidding haha. It doesn't come in little packets (at least that I have seen), but in Shug's videos he pre-bags it in little baggies so it is measured out for his backpacking trips. I have been keeping it around the house and use it when I'm feeling too lazy to make a whole pot of coffee

BerrySlayer wrote: ↑Thu Jan 28, 2021 3:51 pm Just a nag that if you French press, or use bags, with coffee or tea, the grounds or bags get packed out with you and their cumulative weight with retained water can add up over a week. I have a French press for Nalgene bottles and the result pretty much tastes like French pressed coffee generally does. But the weight and bother to pack out wet grounds, or tea bags, just isn’t worth it to me and my style of backpacking. Mt. Hagen works for coffee, as do various teas, loosed from their bags, and I just do a shot of the minced leaves leftovers. Best salad you can ever eat is tea leaf salad from SE Asia, find some and try it.

I appreciate this comment. Somewhere else on the forum i asked whether coffee grounds should be packed out or scattered. I would be interested in the rationale for either approach. Thanks

JerryB wrote: ↑Sun Feb 21, 2021 4:36 pm

BerrySlayer wrote: ↑Thu Jan 28, 2021 3:51 pm Just a nag that if you French press, or use bags, with coffee or tea, the grounds or bags get packed out with you and their cumulative weight with retained water can add up over a week. I have a French press for Nalgene bottles and the result pretty much tastes like French pressed coffee generally does. But the weight and bother to pack out wet grounds, or tea bags, just isn’t worth it to me and my style of backpacking. Mt. Hagen works for coffee, as do various teas, loosed from their bags, and I just do a shot of the minced leaves leftovers. Best salad you can ever eat is tea leaf salad from SE Asia, find some and try it.

I appreciate this comment. Somewhere else on the forum i asked whether coffee grounds should be packed out or scattered. I would be interested in the rationale for either approach. Thanks

Hey Jerry, my rationale for packing out the grounds is that scattering them goes against the LNT principles we're supposed to be following on the island. I think it falls into the category of "Dispose of Waste Properly". It'll eventually break down, but it takes years.

Thanks, Hooky. That seems to be the prevailing opinion and I have no problems with it. I was curious because i have heard coffee grounds described as “black gold” for backyard compost piles.

JerryB wrote: ↑Mon Aug 02, 2021 10:48 am Thanks, Hooky. That seems to be the prevailing opinion and I have no problems with it. I was curious because i have heard coffee grounds described as “black gold” for backyard compost piles.

You're welcome, Jerry.

To shed some light on the 'black gold" - My compost pile gets grounds every day for that very reason. The difference is that the compost pile has other stuff in it and the inside of the pile runs around 160 degrees to break the grounds (and even the unbleached filter) down within months. Scattered on the ground, they'd take years to break down. Same with apple cores, banana peels, orange peels, etc...

I recently stumbled across this instant coffee, and I'm a fan: https://www.cafebustelo.com/en/coffee/instant

Update: I've found a few more instant coffee/backpacking/camping options I enjoy:

1. Alpen Coffee Pour and Explore: a self-contained pour-over setup with good coffee: https://alpensierracoffee.com/coffee/po ... re-coffee/
2. PERC instant coffee: delicious cup of coffee: https://perccoffee.com/products/instant-coffee-brazil and https://perccoffee.com/products/instant-coffee-ethiopia

Both now have a permanent place in my camper, car, and kitchen.

This may be a little OT, but coffee is one of two items I cannot skimp on in the backcountry (the other being good bourbon). I’ve tried several different “instant” coffee brands in the past, including Via, and it misses the spot for me. I’ve finally settled into packing a coarse ground coffee (Highlander Grog by Cameron’s Coffee) and using either a GSI Outdoors Ultralight Java Drip (https://gsioutdoors.com/products/ultralight-java-drip) or a GSI Outdoors Pour-Over Java Drip (https://gsioutdoors.com/products/collap ... adrip-blue). The former weighs in at 1/3 of an ounce and makes an excellent cup of coffee, the latter weighs 1.1 ounce and can be used to make multiple cups of coffee at a time.

Yes – There is added weight in using coffee grounds, and packing the used grounds out even more so, but I am no longer the “up at dawn and hit the trail/water ASAP” type. Just my 2.5 cents worth…

It’s all about the caffeine buzz. So I just switch to tea on the trail.

JavaHiker wrote: ↑Mon Jul 31, 2023 12:14 pm This may be a little OT, but coffee is one of two items I cannot skimp on in the backcountry (the other being good bourbon).

I mean, it's in your forum name, right?

Anybody heard about natural coffee?

It's still ground bean isn't it? It's just how they process it I think