Backpacking Coffee Ideas - How I make my coffee on the trail
Coffee is life.
I am pretty darn obsessed with coffee, so you better bet that I am going to have coffee while I am out backpacking. Alot of people will forgo the coffee during their pack trip, but not this girl! I will carry that extra weight in order to wake up and have deliciousness.
My idea of backpacking is to have fun, not make it miserable. Of course I am going to have coffee while I am out there. I want my mornings to be nice sipping on a big ole cup of joe while staring at a high mountain lake with a gorgeous granite mountain backdrop.
Now, I have been through so many versions of coffee and they are all awesome. I started with some amazing things, and then decided that I needed my coffee to get a little lighter. Let’s face it, carrying 2lbs of coffee stuff might be a little unreasonable… or is it?
So, lets talk about all the backpacking coffee ideas and options that there are. These are options that I have used or am still using!
Backpacking Coffee Ideas:
So, when you are out backpacking you are most likely going to have instant coffee so lets talk about that first. Now I feel like I have had them all. I hate to say it, but I am picky when it comes to coffee. I hate that acidic coffee that most cheap coffee has. After trying pretty much everything on the Walmart and Savemart shelf I have found two favorites:
My first choice is Mount Hagen. This is my absolute favorite and one of the instant coffees that I use today.
This coffee is smooth, dark, and absolutely delicious. I can pretty much have this coffee black and still enjoy it!
It comes in single serve packets. I typically take 2 for each morning that I am out there. It is perfect in about 7 ounces of simmered water.
Now, my second choice is the single serve instant coffee from Black Rifle Coffee company. Their coffee is amazing and actually the coffee that I drink on a daily basis. I do love their instant coffee; however, it is my second choice since when I am out backpacking I can’t make my normal coffee latte recipe.
Now, if you don’t want to use instant coffee you can always make cowboy coffee or you can pack in an AeroPress Coffee Maker. The AeroPress is sweet; however, it just adds to the weight of your pack. I prefer the instant coffee with flavors over packing in the aeropress.
In all truth the Mount Hagen instant coffee is pretty much just as good as regular coffee in the aeropress. The thing that is even more awesome about the instant coffee is that you don’t have any dirty clean up after. Just rinse your cup and you are good to go.
I do use the Aeropress for car camping :)
Now, lets talk about different coffee options and flavoring options:
These are going to be made with instant coffee.
1.Black Coffee : This is the easiest, but least tasty. If you like black coffee then you are in luck! You are easy! All you need to do is bring your instant coffee packs, boil some water, put it all in a mug and BOOM! Coffee. I am not a huge fan of black coffee so I have to bring in some extras.
2. Instant Coffee and Cream: The cool thing is that you can bring those easy single serving creamers! The one downfall is that they do have the chance to leak as they are liquid so you have to be careful with them. The awesome thing is those little creamers come in like every flavor imaginable :)
3. Instant Coffee, Coconut Oil Powder, Stevia: This is the way I have been having my coffee for the last few years.
Story time! So, I have been on a mission to make my coffee pack weight light. I also have been on a mission to not have my coffee be like eating a candy bar every morning. Yep, I was one of those people that poured basically all cream and 10 sugar packets to make it yummy. One day I woke up and decided that I really needed to fix this coffee obsession of mine, so I started slowly taking away the sugar. I started using raw sugar, and then slowly switched to honey.
Now, I have my coffee 2 ways. I either make my coffee with coconut oil and honey, or I make it with stevia depending on if I am fasting that morning or not.
So, this took me a long time to get to where I am. If you haven’t tried coffee with coconut oil or coffee with stevia you might really not like this option.
With all that being said, it is one of the lightest options and one of the healthiest options :) Here are the things that I get to make my coffee out backpacking:
4. Instant Coffee, Cream, and honey, sugar, or stevia: You can still drink your sweet coffee out on the trail! You can bring stevia, sugar packets, or they even make honey packets :) Woop woop!
5. Starbucks Via Instant Latte’s: Oh man these are so good. So this is where I started with my coffee journey. I love love love these things, but they are a bit heavy and honestly not the healthiest as they have alot of sugar. The best thing about these is that it is all in one packet! You don’t have to take cream, sugar, instant coffee all you have to do is take 1 Latte packet. Talk about easy and yummy! They even have like everything under the sun as far as flavors. Did I mention they even have a Pumpkin Spice Latte? YES PLEASE!
There you have it. All sorts of ways to make coffee while out backpacking. How do you make your coffee when you are on the trail? Leave a comment below and let us know. I would love to add your idea to the list. Also, this is meant to be a community. Let’s help each other!
Wishing you nothing but awesome adventures and delicious coffee!
Bessie
