[pct-l] Coffee on the Trail

[Robert E. Riess]

Everything following is IMHO:
Coffee begins every good day.  There is no instant coffee.  There are no lattes, no cappuccinos.  I admit to being a coffee snob.  So, on the trail, what?  The answer may be the Melitta Ready Set Joe single cup coffee brewing system.  If a durable plastic cone filter holder with no moving parts that sits atop your coffee cup can be called a system, then it’s a system.  This gadget weighs exactly 2 oz.  It holds a #2 Melitta coffee filter which holds your own real ground coffee.  Pour a cup of boiling water through it and you have real honest-to-goodness brewed coffee.  I got mine at Ralph’s for $4. You won’t lose it; it’s bright orange.   

Now if you have some Kenya AA, a coffee grinder and a food saver you have the rest of your own system for making a wonderful, flavorful, truly delicious cup of brewed coffee as good as you can get anywhere.  I have tried the little spoon with the stainless steel mesh filter top.  Doesn’t seal well enough and I was never able to get the flavor I wanted, so matter how much I stirred.  For an arm and a leg you can get 8 oz boxes of some very good Arabica ground coffee in almost any supermarket.  You can get 20 oz of ground coffee into a bag designed to hold a lb of beans.  You’ve just got to bring some luxury and civilization with you.  Old Bob does not brew commodity grade beans.  Good luck to the Class of 2012.  Bob Riess, San Diego