Page 44 - 2015 AMA Autumn

The Way of the Fix
By Tomo Thompson
The following article has nothing and everything to do with mountaineering. Is there a climber or mountaineer anywhere that can face the day without a hit of caffeine ? The following ideas will help you brew up very good coffee whether in the back of your T5 or the porch of your Quasar at Camp Four.
Notes
• Use good coffee from a proper coffee shop. Tell the coffee expert what method or device you intend making coffee with and he or she will grind the beans to an appropriate level.
• Use a normal size cup (a tin camping mug is ideal ((narrow insulated mugs don’t work very well for some of these methods)).
• I would recommend, for the purposes of boiling water to make
coffee, either a JetBoil or an MSR WindBurner stove.
• Carry a small widemouth Nalgene jar in which to put your coffee waste, you can then portage it out and grow your mushrooms
in it at home.
The Simple and Effective Way
The easiest way to make excellent coffee outdoors.
Ask your coffee provider to grind a hearty coffee at Grade 0 (sometimes known as Turkish grade). Boil water. Put one heaped tea-spoon of coffee in your tin camping mug. Pour on water. DO NOTHING for 4 minutes. Coffee ground at this level will naturally sink to the bottom of the cup (leaving residue in the bottom) and provides you with excellent coffee that requires no fancy coffee gear whatsoever.
Recommended coffee – Cuban Crystal Valley
The Way of the Bialetti
For some the process and sounds of making coffee in a Bialetti is almost a daily religion. The sound of a Bialetti starting to gurgle is one of the finest sounds of the coffee world. Looked after it will
last over two decades, and will make almost espresso strength nectar with ease. The small one is just small enough to warrant backpacking with, and works over an MSR pocket rocket and small canister. Only ever rinse the Bialetti in hot water (no soaps). If you’re in basecamp or in a VW larger Bialettis are available. Recommended coffee – Ethiopian Yirgachefa
The French Way
French presses come in many sizes and guises and most outdoor stove makers make a press to fit their models. The downside to these is that I haven’t yet found one that works all the time, by which I mean the filter sometimes doesn’t sit flush to the inside of the stove boiler, and you end up with gritty brown caffeinated water for breakfast. They are also inherently finicky. Getting the grind right on these can be a bind also. It may be worth taking the press part in to the coffee shop, or experimenting at home before you head off in to the great outdoors. Unless you thoroughly wash the boil pan after each brew, whatever you next use boiled water for will taste of coffee. MSR, Jetboil and Primus are amongst the companies that make French press adaptors.
Recommended coffee – Rwanda Inzovu Cup of Excellence
The MugMate Way
As mentioned above (in the French way) most of the stove add-ons for making coffee don’t hit the mark, normally for construction or longevity reasons. MSR address this problem by offering their MugMate. It offers probably the second easiest way of making coffee in the Kalahari (or anywhere else). Add fineish ground coffee in to the mesh; sit the mesh inside your base camp mug, pour on hot water; contemplate your own existence; remove mesh; drink. Experiment with the amount (and type) of coffee at home first. The MugMate is also super easy to maintain too, and can be stored / protected inside most cups.
Recommended coffee – Dark Side of the Moon
Question: Why do bears #### in the woods ? Answer: Because they drink rubbish coffee.
Bialetti in the morning
Brewing up in the slate quarries
42 ARMY MOUNTAINEER