[pct-l] Instant coffee tastes awful??

[pmags at yahoo.com (Paul Magnanti)]

It is all a matter of context.

At home, I would never use any form of instant cofee
(including bags). Bleech!

On the trail, however, I seldom make a hot drink. When
I did the Colorado Trail this past year, met someone
who was out for 12 days. We ended up camping together.
Long story short he was leaving the trail that day and
and had some extra coffee. Made me a 1/2 Gatorade's
bottle worth of hot water and gave me two coffee bags.
Tell you what..on that cold morning (25F) the instant
coffee tasted GREAT!

I do many winter outings here in Colorado. One of my
favorite things to pack is "backcountry mocha". Take
some instant coffee, add a healthy portion of instant
cocoa mix. Place in thermos. After ski touring or
snowshoeing for a good portion of the day, the instant
mocha tastes like the drink of the gods!

This coming Thanksgiving I am off to Utah again (4th
yr in a row!. Will be canyoneering. Packing my coffee
bags. If it is like last year, the hot caffiene will
taste wonderful! (As an unrelated side note, we are
doing to Blue John Canyon, very infamous because this
is where Aron Ralston lost his arm. Did not realize it
until I googled Blue John Canyon in an attempt to find
pics of it!)

So...the instant coffee is not great. But, after
several days on the trail or on a cold winter day it
is wonderful!

Mags (drinking a dark French roast as I type. A little
cream, no sugar)


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The true harvest of my life is intangible.... a little stardust caught, a portion of the rainbow I have clutched
--Thoreau
http://www.magnanti.com