- I think what I'm realizing, is that I don't have a palette
for differentiating how the coffee is made.
Then I'll use that same starchy water
that I cooked the noodles in do make my instant coffee.
To me it merely tastes like coffee and I like coffee.
So I like it.
(upbeat music)
This is my show, gosh darn.
Let's get brewing, percolate on that.
Grab your cup and pour some Joe.
You love coffee on the trail, I love coffee on the trail.
You don't know how to make it?
Lucky for you I'm gonna try out all the different ways.
I have a percolator, French press,
a few different pour overs,
two types of instant coffee, an AeroPress.
And then I also have a coffee grinder.
The plan is to literally make a cup of coffee
with every single one of these methods.
I tend to be an instant coffee person when I'm backpacking,
but perhaps by the end of this,
it will have changed my mind and maybe your mind as well
about the best way to make coffee when you're backpacking.
Let's make coffee.
I've four different types of instant coffee here.
These Starbucks VIA packets, Alpine Start instant coffee,
Instafuel, which is a coffee and creamer.
I also have this generic household brand of instant coffee.
I'm not gonna test this one
'cause I've had it a bunch of times before
and I know it sucks.
I'm gonna try and give instant coffee
it's best possible shot here.
So I'm actually not gonna do Starbucks VIA,
nothing wrong with it.
I definitely like this stuff,
but I'm just gonna try this gourmet version instead.
So it's a teaspoon for eight ounces of water.
Oh my gosh, it smells really good.
One teaspoon of coffee is, I don't know.
Is that a teaspoon of coffee?
Does any one know?
I think that's about a teaspoon.
I'm actually really not sure.
That doesn't look like enough.
I'm gonna put some more in.
So our water boiled
and we're gonna make some instant coffee.
It was really hot.
Wow, it's really good though.
That is quite good for instant coffee,
but I might have just burned off all my taste buds.
Definitely needed the second scoop of coffee.
The strength is perfect.
Well done Alpine Start.
Well done, indeed.
And now I wanna try this Instafuel from Laird Superfoods?
Four tablespoons of Instafuel to 12 ounces of hot water.
Okay, so we're gonna do eight ounces, so three tablespoons.
One, two, three.
Oh, this smells great.
Oh, that's awesome.
Wow, it's really yummy.
Sort of tastes like a, like a cappuccino almost.
Now, I don't know if I would actually take this backpacking
because three tablespoons of mix for one cup of coffee
is a lot.
That being said, the taste of this is phenomenal,
if you like creamy coffee, I do.
Overall takeaway,
I would probably still go with Alpine Start instant coffee.
Definitely like how lightweight it is
and how little I need to make a pretty decent cup.
Now we're gonna move on to pour over.
I actually have three different pour over contraptions.
This is a little bit weird.
So I'm gonna show it to you guys.
This thing pops off and then your grounds are gonna go
in this bottom case.
This little pour over dude folds down really flat
and the best part about this is that
it's actually small enough to fit underneath
a fuel canister, so really compact.
And then this guy is the X-brew from Sea to Summit.
This is actually a collapsible.
Hold on.
Here we go.
I'm grinding whole beans with this compact
back country grinder,
but you could always just bring ground coffee from home.
Alright.
I have ground coffee in here for all three of my pour overs.
I'm gonna go ahead and boil my water
and then we'll make some coffee.
We pour for about 30 good slow seconds.
That's one.
Now this guy, and the weird one.
This guy appears to be done.
This one also appears to be done.
And this one is just getting started.
I wonder if it will be more flavorful
because it's taking longer.
I don't know, I'm not a coffee connoisseur.
Definitely not.
I really liked that instant coffee.
We're about done here, let's taste them out.
Tastes them out?
- (producer) No, not a thing.
That's a thing.
Let's taste them out.
That's great, yeah.
It's a good solid cup of black coffee.
Oh yeah, that's really good.
That's very like rich.
And then the surprisingly dark slow pocket coffee.
Rocket.
This is really good.
It's strong, it's smooth.
If I'm gonna go through the effort of carrying
some sort of contraption with me to go backpacking
and make pour over,
I'm not gonna to bring this.
I'd probably bring one of these, probably this one.
I am not convinced yet that I would do pour over
when I'm backpacking because there's still a bunch of trash
I have to throw away .
I have to carry out my coffee grounds.
You don't have to do that with instant coffee,
but that is good.
That's pour over next up is French press.
French Press coffee is pretty self explanatory.
The best thing about this is that it be very easy to make
multiple cups of coffee.
That being said, it's way too big for backpacking.
We're gonna do again about two tablespoons
of ground coffee into here for my singular cup.
That's eight ounces of coffee.
One, two.
I'm gonna actually use my cup to measure
since I'm making one cup of coffee
and that's gonna go into my French press.
I'll give it a stir.
So my coffee has been steeping for four minutes now.
I'm going to go ahead and press this.
It's great, it's coffee.
It was fairly easy.
Would I take it backpacking?
Absolutely not.
Would I take it car camping?
Probably not, if I had that pour over option.
As far as me being able to make coffee for multiple people,
I get that as being a plus side, but I just feel like,
you know, bring your own coffee, making contraption,
make your own coffee.
That's French press, next up AeroPress.
So the AeroPress is, I think, pretty similar
to the French press.
So it comes with all these parts and pieces.
You have the press, hold on.
There's the plunger, there's the base for the plunger.
And then there's this little filter hol...
There's this filter holder.
So put that paper filter in the bottom
and then that gets attached onto this piece
that goes on my mug.
I'm just gonna fill this thing.
Next we'll boil some water.
I'm gonna to pour water in to the four,
You can see the numbers on the side.
Now I'm gonna put the plunger in here and wait.
And now we push.
Oh you can hear it.
Ooh.
All right, it made a nice little sizzle noise.
Yeah, it's good.
This is a good cup of black coffee.
I think what I'm realizing in this video is that
I don't have a palate for differentiating
how the coffee is made.
To me it merely tastes like coffee and I like coffee.
So I like it, which I guess is fine.
Right?
Whole point of this is just to find the right way for you.
And that's AeroPress.
Cowboy coffee.
This is our last method that I am testing today.
I've never done this before.
I know that it's popular among people who
like things to be complicated.
I'm a little skeptical, but I'm excited to give it a shot.
So we have our percolator pot here.
You've just removed the basket and stuff.
The more cups of coffee you make with cowboy coffee,
the better because you don't wanna drink that last part
since it would be all the grounds.
So we're gonna do two cups instead of one cup.
So we'll start by pouring in our two cups of water.
And then sticking with the same measurement
as all of the other coffees,
we are doing two tablespoons per cup of coffee.
One, two tablespoons.
Three, and four tablespoons.
I'm really tempted to stir this, but I'm told
I'm not supposed to stir it, so I'm not going to.
Close this guy up, pop him on our stove
and bring it to a rolling boil.
So my cowboy coffee has been boiling for four minutes now,
as you can see it boiled over.
I think that's a really common thing that happens
with cowboy coffee.
So don't walk away from this, keep an eye on it.
It looks disgusting, actually,
but we're gonna go ahead and pour our cold water on top
and yeah, see what happens.
It's been two minutes.
I'm hoping that the cold water has helped those grounds sink
to the bottom.
And now I should be able to pour a cup of coffee
with no grounds in it.
No grounds.
I'm mad impressed, that's pretty cool.
I did not expect this to work, yeah.
Alright cool, let's see how it tastes.
This is so...
Okay, I maybe had it made too strong,
but this is like bitter bitter.
Oh no, what the heck?
You know what?
I bet someone somewhere likes this.
- (Producer) Me.
- After having all those really good cups of coffee.
I just don't think I would do this.
And this is the worst part, ready?
Look at that nasty pot.
Look at how gross that is, you have to clean this out.
There is no way that I would take away time from hiking
or backpacking to clean out a pot like this,
plus it doesn't taste good,
so it's like double whammy for the no.
Maybe I messed up the cowboy coffee.
If you are a lover of cowboy coffee
and you know, I did something wrong.
Let me know in the comments below, but my verdict is
that there's no point in making coffee like this,
but now I've tested many different ways to make coffee.
If you have your favorites,
let me know in the comments below.
(upbeat music)
Every Jane Doe needs a cup of Joe.
Don't use that one.
(indistinct)