Breakfast ideas

[Guest]

Same here, but to reduce the cost I mix the Starbucks about 50/50 with a much cheaper instant coffee. Still tastes good, but reduces the cost per cup.

I occasionally do the same. It takes two Via packs to make a strong cuppa in my big mug, and I sometimes linger over a second mug. $4 of breakfast coffee is a bit much. It’s not as good as straight Via, but not nearly as bad a straight Folgers instant.

 

[flyingbison]

... Somewhere along the line I read about instant coffee from Trader Joes so I decided to give it a try. While I was out backpacking instead of paddling (I'm not even Catholic but I've already done my penance for that discretion) I drank the instant each morning and truly enjoyed it. ...

Thanks for the tip. I'll have to pick some up to try next time I am in Madison or Milwaukee.

 

[Guest]

It's been a while since I last checked this thread so I may be repeating what has already been written when it comes to coffee.

I have had the Starbuck's Via but like Mike already said, it's a buck a pop. Somewhere along the line I read about instant coffee from Trader Joes so I decided to give it a try I drank the instant each morning and truly enjoyed it.

Snapper, I’m interested in the Trader Joes instant coffee as well. 10 packets for $2 would be a huge savings over Via.

But the only Trader Joe’s instant packets I found were “all dressed up”, with sugar and creamer already included. I prefer my tripping coffee strong and black. I could deal with creamer, but not sugar.

Does the Trader Joe’s instant come “undressed”, or with just creamer?

 

[latremorej]

Snapper, I’m interested in the Trader Joes instant coffee as well. 10 packets for $2 would be a huge savings over Via.

But the only Trader Joe’s instant packets I found were “all dressed up”, with sugar and creamer already included. I prefer my tripping coffee strong and black. I could deal with creamer, but not sugar.

Does the Trader Joe’s instant come “undressed”, or with just creamer?

Yes they do have plain old instant coffee in a jar. I found it to taste ........ just like instant coffee. I tried it after hearing good things on BCUSA. Unless there is something else that I missed. If so, please let me know. That coffee press takes up a lot of room in my pack!

Jason

 

[snapper]

Sorry, I've been away for a bit so I didn't see the replies until this morning. As to the question...YES...the Trader Joe's coffee I was talking about is their instant in a jar; didn't even know they had packets. For me the closest store is a bit over an hour away in Albany, NY so I only picked up the one jar to test it out. The next time I stop by I'm going to get at least one more for upcoming trips. What I like about it is you can make your coffee as strong (or weak) as you like. It takes a bit of trial & error but it's certainly worth it in my opinion.

That's all for now. Take care and until next time...be well.

snapper

 

[Guest]

Yes they do have plain old instant coffee in a jar. I found it to taste ........ just like instant coffee. I tried it after hearing good things on BCUSA. Unless there is something else that I missed. If so, please let me know. That coffee press takes up a lot of room in my pack!

I wonder if the Trader Joe’s “all dressed up” cream and sugar single serving packet version in more similar to Via. Starbucks Via isn’t a freeze dried instant; I believe it is simply an extremely fine grind.

I think it is the “freeze dried” aspect that makes instant coffee so bitter and (to me) distasteful. That chemical flavor mighty be disguised by the addition of sugar and creamer.

If the nearest Trader Joe’s wasn’t in a horribly congested metro area I’d try some as an experiment.

Maybe another experiment. I have some good bean coffee and a coffee grinder. I wonder if I could grind whole bean coffee fine enough to dissolve like Via. Report to follow.

 

[Guest]

Maybe another experiment. I have some good bean coffee and a coffee grinder. I wonder if I could grind whole bean coffee fine enough to dissolve like Via. Report to follow.

Report: That was, as expected, a dismal failure. If it was that easy it would be commonplace. I ground some whole beans down to flour consistency with a coffee grinder. Might as well just masticate the beans with my molars.

Via appears to be far more involved. Best info I found on how Via is made; a (patent pending) combination of microground coffee and dried coffee extract

https://www.quora.com/Is-the-way-th...y-that-other-instant-coffees-are-manufactured

The $1 a cup is probably due both to the lower extraction method yield, and to what the market will bear. It’s worth a buck a cup to me. Well, $2 a morning mug. If it becomes a second mug morning cutting the Via with a helping of other instant coffee remains a cost-reduction option.

If I’m ever near a Trader Joe’s I’d risk $4 (Not $10+ from Amazon) on a jar of their freeze dried Columbian just to see.

https://www.amazon.com/Trader-Joes-Colombian-Instant-Coffee/dp/B007V85UGS#customerReviews

I am still ISO an inexpensive instant coffee to 50/50 augment a second morning mug of Via or an evening toddy of coffee, hot chocolate and a splash of bourbon. Ahhhhh, lip smacking good.

I expect that any of the freeze dried instants will taste like, well, freeze dried instant, but I’d still like to find the least worst.

 

[flyingbison]

I am still ISO an inexpensive instant coffee to 50/50 augment a second morning mug of Via or an evening toddy of coffee, hot chocolate and a splash of bourbon. Ahhhhh, lip smacking good.

I expect that any of the freeze dried instants will taste like, well, freeze dried instant, but I’d still like to find the least worst.

The "best" ones I've found so far are Taster's Choice French Roast (my grocery store carries this in single serving packets, like the VIA), and Medaglia D'Oro Instant Espresso (also carried by my local grocery). [h=1][/h]

 

[Guest]

The "best" ones I've found so far are Taster's Choice French Roast (my grocery store carries this in single serving packets, like the VIA), and Medaglia D'Oro Instant Espresso (also carried by my local grocery). [h=1][/h]

Thanks, I’ll look for one of those in the grocery store and see how it tastes. I like the instant espresso idea.

For Via augmentation purposes I don’t really need the single serving packs, and a jar would have less packaging waste and allow for dosage control.

 

[Guest]

The "best" ones I've found so far are Taster's Choice French Roast (my grocery store carries this in single serving packets, like the VIA), and Medaglia D'Oro Instant Espresso (also carried by my local grocery). [h=1][/h]

The search has begun. I didn’t find the Medaglia D'Oro Instant Espresso in the local frou-frou grocery purveyor. I did find a jar of Ferrara Instant Espresso ($4 for 2oz, “one rounded teaspoon per cup”) and the Taster’s Choice packets.

I will find a jar of Medaglia D'Oro Instant Espresso, and continue looking for a convenient Trader Joe’s.

I’m not going to open any of them just yet. I see an instant coffee blind taste test group trip in my future this fall; Starbucks Via, Ferrara, Medaglia D'Oro, Trader Joes, etc.

If nothing else it should provide a highly caffeinated and entertaining morning. Results to follow in a few months.

What to use as a pallet cleanser between cups?

 

[Canotrouge]

The search has begun. I didn’t find the Medaglia D'Oro Instant Espresso in the local frou-frou grocery purveyor. I did find a jar of Ferrara Instant Espresso ($4 for 2oz, “one rounded teaspoon per cup”) and the Taster’s Choice packets.

I will find a jar of Medaglia D'Oro Instant Espresso, and continue looking for a convenient Trader Joe’s.

I’m not going to open any of them just yet. I see an instant coffee blind taste test group trip in my future this fall; Starbucks Via, Ferrara, Medaglia D'Oro, Trader Joes, etc.

If nothing else it should provide a highly caffeinated and entertaining morning. Results to follow in a few months.

What to use as a pallet cleanser between cups?

Mike, You should do the taste test in the evening.... That could spice up the night around camp....
And keep people blind folded!

 

[Odyssey]

Well, I never did buy any instant eggs. We buy real eggs from a chicken place and are hooked on them. A dozen lasts easily on a one week trip, even in summer (keeping the food barrel out of the sun wherever possible). They only come in extra large/brown. Must come from a cross breed of Rhode Island Ostriches? Funny how you get used to things, the extraordinary becomes ordinary. I recently tried some small organic free range eggs having breakfast at our daughters, and found them to be tiny and insipid (the eggs). Still, substituting fresh with dried would save a lot of space on a trip. But is it worth substituting beautiful with blah?
The same question applies to coffee. How badly do I want to compromise taste and space? Hmm. My wife snagged a flea market find, when she came home with one of those small stove top espresso pots. I'd been pondering downsizing from a large percolator to a small and more space efficient espresso. Is it worth moving on down to the smaller instant packets? I'll wait for Mike's caffeine report. I suspect he'll need an assistant to peel him off the ceiling to help file his results. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12jwC65KD70

 

[wgiles]

I may have mentioned this before, but there is a product that was available at Walmart for a not too unreasonable price. It's called "Coffee Thins", a wafer that could be chocolate, but it's coffee. I bought some a while ago and they weren't too bad, but I wasn't really looking for coffee wafers. I haven't bought any for a while and they may have stopped stocking them. They were in a three pack for around $1.00. They are made by grinding coffee beans in the same equipment used to grind cocoa beans and then mixed with cocoa butter to bind them together. I've often wondered whether they could be dissolved in water to make a drink. I don't think that you could drink it black, but maybe with some creamer. I don't think that they are sweetened. They aren't bad as a snack if you don't feel like heating water to make coffee. I've still got several packs, but I just don't think to have one when I could. I keep them in a cool place because I figured that they would melt like chocolate. They are foil wrapped, so melting wouldn't be a disaster as long as they were cooled back down.

I've got some of the Medaglia D'oro, but I'm not a big fan. I usually go with the packets, but Folgers or Nescafe rather than Via.

 

[Connecticut Yankee]

Mount Hagen organic freeze dried instant is not to bad, best instant I've tried so far. Also, try this little trick, mix the freeze dried coffee in a spoonfull of cold water and let it desolve first before adding the hot water to your cup. Takes the bitterness out, it's still not real coffee but Much better. I read once of a chemical reason for this about the outside of the crystals getting a coating of some kind from the heated water , but when desolved in a little cool water the chemical reaction is different. All I know is that it does seem to make the end result taste better.

John M

 

[stripperguy]

My last trip I made a concoction of scrambled eggs, grits(with a touch of sugar and salt), ham and sharp cheddar cheese and dried it at home.
15 minutes to rehydrate and it was great!! I'll admit that it doesn't look good, kind of like dirty dish water, but it was delicious, nutritious and filling.
I currently have some of the batch leftover in the refrigerator, and periodically pull some out and let it bench age for a day or three before rehydrating at home. I want to find if it has a finite shelf life...

 

[Guest]

I'll wait for Mike's caffeine report. I suspect he'll need an assistant to peel him off the ceiling to help file his results.

Despite my intentions and a couple of group trips I have not been able to bring myself to serve companions potentially bad coffee. I really don’t want to drink it myself, and sure don’t want to serve it to friends.

I’ll probably resort to doing the instant coffee experiment just on myself. I’m not sure how to make an instant café latte, so for undisguised taste comparison I’ll opt for straight black.

 

[flyingbison]

The "best" ones I've found so far are Taster's Choice French Roast (my grocery store carries this in single serving packets, like the VIA), and Medaglia D'Oro Instant Espresso (also carried by my local grocery). [h=1][/h]

Finally picked up some of the Trader Joe's instant coffee, and gave it a try. While it still tastes like instant, it's better than the two listed above, and would be good to mix with the pricier Starbucks VIA.

 

[Odyssey]

Mike, there was never any doubt. You're clearly not the type of guy to share anything but the best of everything you have. I was just expecting you to du du du develop the ca ca caffeine sh sh sh shakes after all this coffee experimentation.
I'm a lazy food slob. er no, I mean lazy food snob. I love the best I can find, but have no problem enjoying whatever flotsam and jetsam washes up on my culinary shores. Like instant coffee. Even the cheap stuff. Whatever.
I've found I love the comfortable routine of making coffee in camp. I didn't think I would, because I don't particularly get a kick out of fussy kitchen stuff. The simplification of meal prep with dehydrated food frees up so much time. Why don't I feel the same about coffee? I have no idea. Scrunching a teaspoon of granular mystery dirt from a ziplock and into a cup, quickly filled with piping hot water doesn't register with any emotional me; but sit and listen, and smell, and then silently rejoice at the first few blurps of gurgling coffee percolating under that clear glass skylight separating the dark roast world from the patient paddler...well, that's magic.

 

[Doc.]

If I'm making a pasta-based evening meal I boil a little extra pasta and save it for breakfast. Fry it in your bacon grease with some Cajun seasoning or onion salt. Eggs, bacon, and fried spaghetti...mmmm...good!

 

[lowangle al]

Eggs on spaghetti works for me at any time of day.


My big breakfast idea is the simple muffin. I get the giant blueberry muffins from costco, wrap them individually in celophane and freeze them beforehand. They have lasted almost 10 days for me (in cool weather) and were still great. They enable me to get something in my stomach while I have my coffee at 6 AM and get on the water fishing. When my wife rolls out of the tent about 9 AM I start thinking about a hot cooked breakfast.