Coffee addiction took me 15 years ago. Since then I’ve been searching for the best cup of backcountry mud. I’ve tried everything in the outdoors — from fresh ground gourmet coffee to eating spoonfuls of Folgers crystals. Recently, I decided it was time to get consensus on the lightest, best tasting, and most convenient backcountry joe.

For New Years 2010 I loaded an arsenal of coffee gear into my pack and joined 10 friends at the Crescent Saddle Cabin on the Kenai Peninsula near Anchorage, Alaska. To select the caffeine-delivery mechanisms, I first consulted coffee aficionado Majka Burhardt — her book Coffee, Authentic Ethiopia, is due out soon — about her backcountry coffee preference. “My favorite is the Melitta filter because it easy to clean up,” she said. “If I have running water I take a French Press because it preserves the oils in coffee. Oils are part of the richness and flavor of coffee.”

I took Majka’s advice, then selected 10 coffee brewing methods based on reputation for weight, convenience, and taste. Since this is backcountry coffee, I made a weight cutoff of four-ounces, which eliminated all espresso machines including the new Importika Handpress (17-ounces!). Our only exception was the Big Sky Bistro French Press since it doubles as a mug. We also chose several instant coffees (keep an open mind here) to test. For water, we melted snow producing proper backcountry water with pine needles, blobs of New Years dinner, and some dog hair.

The Sampling
The testing began in the morning, when we woke with a fiendish hankering for coffee after an inebriated night of full-moon rowdiness. I woke first and prepared the coffee array, and the morning continued with lots of coffee drinking and opining until daylight came and we twitched out for a day of chute-skiing. Below are the results listed by overall preference based on the three categories — weight, taste and convenience.

1. Starbucks Via Ready Brew
   <1-oz., $3.50 (packet of 3)
   Instant powder in small packets—light, tasty and convenient. A huge hit! A bit of that burnt Starbucks flavor. At over a dollar a shot, it’s not for dirtbags. Starbucks may dent some mountain images.
2. Melitta Filter
   2-oz., $2.99 (cone) + $0.05 (filter).
   The old standard for good coffee.
3. GSI H2JO!
   1.8-oz., $9.95.
   Clean, easy, but needs coarse-ground coffee. Screw this filter onto your favorite Bisphenol A-free Nalgene water bottle and brew in your pocket. Crank the lid or it will leak.
4. MSR MugMate
   1-oz., $16.95.
   This is a 150-micron filter cup that hangs from the rim of some mugs. Although this unit makes a mean cup of crank, the cup is fragile and needs a slow, patient pour of hot water for brewing.
5. Cowboy Coffee
   <1-oz.
   The way of the west — throw grounds and water in pot, bring almost to a boil, remove from heat for five minutes until grounds have settled and serve. Messy, but flavorful and authentic if brewed right. Jeff said, “It makes me want spurs on my ski boots.”
6. Big Sky Bistro French Press
   7.4-oz., $17.
   Heavy, but an easy French Press method. Some thought the brew became too acidic if you drank it with the grounds still in the mug.
7. Jetboil French Press
   1-oz., $19.95.
   Seems like a great idea, but this French press is a messy operation that guarantees everything tastes like used coffee grounds.
8. Medaglia D’Oro Instant Espresso
   <1-oz., $4.99 (for a 2-oz. jar)
   Available in most grocery stores and decent (considering it's instant). Ben thought it tasted like old truck-stop coffee. Before the trip, transfer the powder from the jar to a zip-loc to save weight.
9. Folgers Coffee Singles
   <1-oz., $4.89 (box of 19 bags)
   These tea bags of bad coffee are grim and perhaps best for packing between cheek and gum as a Folgers Bandit during desperate times.
10. Folgers Classic Roast Instant Coffee Crystals
    <1-oz., $2.89 (2-oz. plastic jar)
    Tasted best when mixed with cocoa as a dirtbag mocha. Straight, it tastes like sock juice.

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