Coffee Talk

by **mfox79** » Thu Jan 28, 2010 2:29 pm

Tigerlilly

Illy with a plastic cone & Filter = blissfully good.

yes you cant go wrong with Illy, unless you live in a small town and can only get it on line :cry:

also Roasting your own beans works just fine if you set up a good system :wink:

I use an IRoast and a fan aimed ut the back door and have not worried about the fire department coming over since then :wink:

by **builttospill** » Thu Jan 28, 2010 2:39 pm

I've tried the java juice and didn't really like it. But it was only one time, so I can't say for sure.

As for the issue of cleaning the french press: I really don't mind that part of it. I use a french press at home for my coffee, so maybe I'm just used to it. But when I'm at a base camp for a couple days or more, I bring a big dromedary water bag that holds 10 liters. Fill it up the night before so I don't have to pump in the morning, and I'm never short on water to clean up if I need to. Or I just leave it until after the climb, and hang the thing so no rodents get into it. Either way works for me.

But, admittedly, the coffee doesn't stay hot a long time, as it is a "drinkable temp" right out of the press....that's the downside, but I don't take it with me anyway. I guzzle and get going.

by **tigerlilly** » Thu Jan 28, 2010 3:13 pm

Mr Fox,

Wow. Very insteresting! I'm impressed.

My old boyfriend used a glass/test tube with stopper and heated it over an open flame. It looked like a promising method until he opened the stopper top.... :lol:

I'm curious to know what that smokey STINK is. Nasty stuff.

by **welle** » Thu Jan 28, 2010 3:30 pm

QITNL wrote:I'm going out on a limb here, don't crucify me, okay?

I love coffee. At home I'm an expresso guy. Can't get out of bed without it, I mean, what would be the point? I make my own, am a bit of a snob, not into coffeeshops. I've tried a bunch of stuff on the trail.

A few months ago Starbucks came out with their instant coffee thing, so I went on a bunch of "taste tests" to bag all the free samples I could score. I figured they might work in a pinch - but I tell you, the stuff is pretty good.

My girlfriend bought me a month's supply for Xmas after the price dropped. Stoke!

It's real nice in winter. I keep a packet of that (the darker roast, Italian?) and an Emergen-C (orange!) in my sleeping bag. No critter is getting between me and that. Jetboil at arm's reach - breakfast in bed! Vrrrooom!

I consider myself a coffee snob as well (not coffee geek to the point of roasting my own beans, but I do get fresh high quality beans and grind them every morning). I took the Starbucks Via challenge and I failed! I agree, I think the stuff is pretty good. I think at high altitudes where boiling point is lower, instant is the way to go, and Starbucks makes better product, this is pretty good too (but SBUX convenient packets are nice and keep coffee fresh):

by **kheegster** » Thu Jan 28, 2010 3:39 pm

Mark Twight disapproves of this thread.

by **Dow Williams** » Thu Jan 28, 2010 3:53 pm

welle wrote:I consider myself a coffee snob as well (not coffee geek to the point of roasting my own beans, but I do get fresh high quality beans and grind them every morning). I took the Starbucks Via challenge and I failed! I agree, I think the stuff is pretty good. I think at high altitudes where boiling point is lower, instant is the way to go, and Starbucks makes better product, this is pretty good too (but SBUX convenient packets are nice and keep coffee fresh):

On same page. We have a commercial expresso machine at home. I never drink regular coffee, just expresso in the morning. If my wife and I are on a lesiusly climb, taking a tent for example, we might throw in the camp stove expresso thingy. If I am hauling weight sleeping out of a bivy, I normally just take straight cocoa powder. When I saw these new single pack starbucks deals, put a smile on my face. Looks to be the best way to go. Better than getting cocoa powder over everything. If you are climbing big days, it is all about weight, every ounce of it.

by **Diggler** » Thu Jan 28, 2010 4:12 pm

It's eSpresso.

Those Starbucks packets are quite nice.

by **Deltaoperator17** » Thu Jan 28, 2010 4:42 pm

Time for me to chime in with something I know a lot about.
Put hot boiling water in French Press- Enjoy it hot (probably the best option)
Bags are fine if you don’t like coffee. Some instants are ok I prefer the real thing.

The camp espresso thingy’s are great, pull the shot add very hot almost boiling water- BAM= Americano. Here is my coffee salesman displaying the skills I taught him
<a href="http://s724.photobucket.com/albums/ww245/headlyhunter/?action=view¤t=S5000014.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww245/headlyhunter/S5000014.jpg" border="0" alt="Chris"></a>

You can pull shots put in no leak container take with you, add very hot almost boiling water at camp. (Remember about 2-3 oz of espresso to about 10-12 oz of hot water)

For French Press don’t bring Espresso grind (Sorry Splattksi for the one time-I thought we was doing espresso LOL), for espresso don’t bring Rough grind. Use your imagination. I am including a website specifically for this topic: <i><a href="http://ineedcoffee.com/08/backcountry/ ">Backcountry Coffee</a> </i>

Cheers!

by **Dow Williams** » Thu Jan 28, 2010 5:08 pm

Deltaoperator17 wrote: Here is my coffee salesman displaying the skills I taught him

Reminds me of a funny experience. Many years ago, my youngest and I were picking my wife up at the Calgary airport and thought we would surprise her with a commercial espresso machine (many an SPer has drank from this machine). Prior to that just had residential models. So there is this shop in Calgary, Mr. Coffee as I recall. Like an old fashioned main street hardware store, stuffed to the gill with old and new commercial espresso machines and tons of dust. We show up right before closing, 7PM this particular day. Small buyer that we are (he sells mostly to restaurants), this guy treats us like coffee royalty and shows off several different models....each time giving us a swig as well as himself....man o man, this dude was jumping off the walls. My daughter could hardly keep from laughing. If I worked in a place like that....guess I would have been dead by now. Sweet job though, really. Loved his style. Hate to be his doctor.

by **JasonH** » Thu Jan 28, 2010 5:10 pm

moonspots wrote:
JasonH wrote:

Taste good enough to me.

http://www.javajuiceextract.com/

How does this compare to the Starbucks stuff (Via?) that Dingus doesn't like? I tried it once at the local SB, it seemed ok to me.

Don't know, I've never tried the Starbucks stuff. What I like about the Java Juice is the packaging is really tough. You can twist it all you want and it won't break and the only place it will tear is at the top. At a $1.00 to $1.50 each at REI, I'm sure they are cheaper then the Starbucks instant stuff. Plus they take up a lot less weight and space then coffee grounds and a coffee making device, which makes more room for Beer.

by **nhluhr** » Thu Jan 28, 2010 5:27 pm

Dingus Milktoast wrote:
nhluhr wrote:I prefer a french press. Done correctly it's definitely NOT cold coffee.

Luke warm = cold in my book. I like my coffee McDonalds hot and you cannot get such coffee from a french press on an alpine start at Oh Dark Thirty on a freezing morning.

Cheers though!
DMT

I simply cannot fathom how you get it any hotter than what the integrated stove-press can get it. The majority of cooling will happen during transfer from one vessel to another and will be worst when pouring into a metal container such as a titanium mug, so just use plastic or silicone mugs.

You boil water, toss in the grounds, cap it, press it, pour into your mug. Upper temperature attainable would be limited only by atmospheric pressure unless you're willing to dissolve salt in the water while boiling to get it hotter.

by **welle** » Thu Jan 28, 2010 5:47 pm

Dingus Milktoast wrote:I won the taste test - I could and can tell the difference. The girl in the store thought I cheated. The Starbucks instant tastes like instant. Don't let the price tag (ridiculous price tag) fool you.

Or do! If you like it, yer good to go!

Cheers
DMT

the key with VIA is to use very hot water (at a boiling point) and no more than 8oz. of water (most cups and mugs are 12oz) and wait a min - tastes pretty close to brewed stuff. Colder water and less concentration make you taste the instantness...

I agree on the price tag though - ridiculous. I saw Costco carrying it, not paid attention to the price though since I was rushing...

by **DukeJH** » Thu Jan 28, 2010 6:21 pm

It's nice to see I'm not the only one with the coffee conundrum. I've suffered with instant until this fall when above 15k I couldn't drink the stuff. Awful. Ended up drinking Coke the rest of the trip until we returned to civilization.

by **Alpinisto** » Thu Jan 28, 2010 6:45 pm

FortMental wrote:...Not a coffee snob, I just hate crap coffee.

1) Tried the Folgers bags: They suck. Weak, bad flavor and not enough of it to boot. Convenient, but then have to transport used bags.
2) Tried the instant Medglia D'Oro, Taster's Choice, NesCafe, etc.: They all have that same battery-acid aftertaste. Even tried pre-mixing instant cocoa and instant coffee powder. Make sure to dump whatever you don't drink below the root zone. Convenient, but tastes like shit.
3) Tried the paper filters: Bringing that plastic cone-thing into the back-country sucks. Tried pre-punching holes into the edges so I could suspend the filters in the cup using a pencil; works great, except for getting any coffee out. Tastes great but makes too little, is very messy, have to carry grounds...both ways!
4) Tried the mini espresso maker....hugest waste of resources for backcountry, too heavy, too tiny, still have to carry grounds; best flavor, though.
5) Tried the Saeco: Best flavor, but hiking distance limited by extension cord length to the cigarette lighter.
6) Tried the Starbucks instant: Best instant flavor, probably the most lightest and convenient. I'll stick with that, for now.

^^^This iz korrekt.

by **Buz Groshong** » Thu Jan 28, 2010 7:03 pm

Once upon a time, I had a source for really good motel-size filter packs of coffee. If you put one in a small pot of water and heated it over the stove, it made good coffee and you didn't have to drag along a bunch of stuff.

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