Just found some ready-to-fill tea bags called "t-sacs tea filters" at a local coffee shop. They can be filled with your favorite tea or espresso and closed with a staple. If you mill your coffee extra fine, some of the fines may sift through the bags. They are available online at Amazon, 100 to a box for about $5. Weight per use: negligible.

Edited by pjstarich on 06/09/2009 23:10:49 MDT.

Well it’s a mater of taste.

The instants all tend to lack aroma (but the caffeine is still there and anything is good when it’s cold out). In Australia at least the coffee bag “revolution” was an attempt to return the aroma and earn more money. They mixed a “tea bag” of coffee grounds (for aroma) with instant (for a quick brew) in a 50:50 mix. It is a compromise.

Over than last years the connivance market here has moved out of the coffee bag zone into sachets as a way of value adding.

They tend to be a better instant coffee grade often mixed with a skim milk powder and packed in individual half oz tubes. As you guess the skim milked dissolves better than full fat and allows the claim of “low fat” to be applied. Frothing agents/ flavors/ chocolate led to the myriad of instant cappuccinos and the such to take up supermarket shelf space.

eg. Those clever Canadians drink

http://www.nestle.ca/en/products/brands/Nescafe/mixes_cappuccino.htm

Anything with fresh grounds will smell (hence taste) better then instant. Unfortunately the water needs to be hot. On the Bolivia altiplano water at altitude won’t boil hot enough to make an easy brew. Go instant or take an expresso maker (as it still has to reach the pressure enough to force the water through he compacted grounds).

Anything which allows the grounds to stay in the water will be a thicker brew with more of the coffee oils (if you like that).

The middle eastern way to make “cowboy coffee” was to boil water, throw in the grounds let it foam up/ take it away before it overflows then repeat foaming another 2 times. The idea was to ensure mixing and get the grounds wet enough to hopefully sink away after you let your coffee sit for a while. (too much boiling and it would get bitter hence the magic 3 times). Stirring in milk powder/whitener upset the whole process but gave you something to chew.

A press or a MSR mugmate gave me a similar taste with the latter being a good deal lighter to carry.

A filter sock common in Northern Europe was a stocking and a wire ring. They are light reusable and usually wet and smelly in the wrong climate. It like filter papers would absorb/catch some the oils to give the thinner brew more common in the usa.

Yes a proper expresso is nicer but the pressure need to make a good cup meant that anything you used to make it was strong to be noticeably heavy or complicated.

I will usually tolerate the weight to get some aroma.
If I am alone and lazy I take a MSR mug mate.

If I am with “the german wife” it is usually a filter. A filter paper weighs about a gram. I have done the collapsible filter holder in the paste but they are a little over engineered/heavy. While traveling I would flatten a foil lined juice/milk/wine box (the right type helps)and just cut off a filter paper sized corner. Make a hole in the bottom and open it out to make a filter cone/holder to balance on a cup (you can be more complicated and leave a bucket handle if preferred). An old drink container should be water proof so they don’t absorb much water. It will normally take weeks of use, be replaced if smelly and doesn’t fill up your pack on the way home in a plane.

The MSR site uses the terms envirofriendly and wasteful when talking about filter papers but there is a lot more paper discarded in the newspaper that you read with the morning cup so you don’t need to believe them.

Yes it produces coffee grounds. If you are hiking somewhere that will let you light fires these grounds are not much different to than the ash you leave or the dead leaves around you (this is the line the tea drinkers use when they throw out the tea leaves). Coffee grounds in a fire will eventually burn if it’s hot enough but it’s work to build this sized fire.

If it is a long hike through a frequently used area or a definite “leave nothing behind” zone I think those little sachet things are not sounding too bad.

Perhaps the guys at BackpackingLight could do a world wide search, order a selection and do a blind taste testing of sachets. I can afford a change in ultra light coffee more than in ultra light tents.

I purchased some cheese cloth and I boil some water in my pot, put the grounds in the cloth and pour the water over the cloth over my bottle or cup. makes a good cup of coffee with practice and is reusable. If you cant find cheese cloth, go to a home brew store and get a grain bag. pre ground coffee needed of course.