[pct-l] Instant coffee tastes awful??

[jeffreyn at sonic.net (Jeffrey Zimmerman)]

On Mon, 22 Nov 2004 07:17:56 -0800, Chris Willett 
<CWillett@pierce.ctc.edu> wrote:

> Cowboy coffee.  Put grounds and water in pot, bring gently to boil, shut 
> off.  Let cool slightly, sprinkle the top with a little cold water 
> (helps the grounds settle), pour into cup. ...

I consider instant coffee just a "maintenance dose" for trail time.  
Tolerable,
but still a good way to start the morning.  I've gone through caffeine 
withdrawal
before and never want to do that again.  ;-0

At lower elevations I can get cowboy coffee to work superbly.  Impresses my
companions, impresses me, even impresses the dog.  Killer coffee.  But once
I'm above, say, 7,000 feet, I can't get the grounds to settle.  I've 
Googled
this problem without success.  I'm not sure why the cold water works, I'm 
not
sure why the other remedies (tapping the pot, adding eggshells) are 
supposed
to work, so I'm really at a loss here in my experimental method.

I do have a couple of hypotheses ("hypothesi"?), though.  One, I suspect 
that
some sort of surface tension effect keeps the grounds afloat, and that the
temperature shift caused by the cold water breaks that and lets the grounds
sink.  If that's the case, then adding some booze would help because
it lowers the surface tension.  Now, THERE's an experiment that needs 
trying,
but so far I've been unwilling to dedicate any of my 15-year old single 
malt
scotch to that project.  If only I'd remember to take Kahl?a along!
Too, it may be I just haven't added enough cold water at altitude if this
theory is correct.  May be I have to add so much it'll cool the coffee, 
then
I have to re-heat, obviously decanting first, but what a ceremony THAT'd 
be!

The other hypothesis is that somehow the boiling process traps some type 
of vapor
(steam? air?) on the grounds' irregular surface, and that the vibration of 
the
tap on the pot, the change in the temperature from the cold water, or some 
process
 from the albumin remaining on the egg shells breaks the hold of the grounds
on the vapor.  Lossing vapor, and hence bouyancy, the grounds sink.  I 
kinda like
this theory because it may explain the altitude effect.  The marginally 
tolerable
solution is to filter with the venerable bandana, but then you REALLY want
the coffee boiling *8^)

Shorter trips, those usually done at lower elevation, allow the luxury of 
real
grounds.  Longer trips mean weight is usually more a factor, and are often 
at
altitude, so now that I take instant the issue hasn't arisen.

IS THERE A CHEMIST IN THE HOUSE?

-- 
Jeffrey Neil Zimmerman
Sonoma County, The Left Coast