Cold Brew Trail Coffee
Grounds and cold water in a bottle overnight. No stove, no filter cone, no morning fuss.
- calories
- 60
- weight
- 1.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 40
- protein
- 1 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 0 min
- total time
- 5 min
- water
- 700 ml cold
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Drink
- Breakfast
- Cold soak
- No cook
- Backpacking
- Car camping
- Bikepacking
- Canoe / raft
- Basecamp
- Vegetarian
- Gluten free
- Nut free
- Eat in the bag
- Grab and go
- Shelf stable
- Dump and stir
Ingredients
| Coarse ground coffee | 2 oz | 1 oz of grounds per cup of water, coarse or it will not strain |
|---|---|---|
| Cold water | 2 cups | about 475 ml for the steep, plus 225 ml to cut it later |
| Sugar syrup or brown sugar | 2 tbsp | optional, syrup in a small squeeze bottle |
| Powdered coffee creamer | 2 tbsp | shelf-stable stand-in for cream |
Method
- In the afternoon or at dinner, put the grounds in a wide-mouth bottle and pour in 475 ml of cold water.
- Stir or shake until every ground is wet, then let it sit five minutes and stir once more.
- Cap it and leave it in your pack overnight. Twelve hours is enough, eighteen is the far end. Past that it turns bitter.
- In the morning, strain it into your mug through a bandana, a coffee filter, or the mesh of a spare stuff sack. Do it twice if grit bothers you.
- Cut the concentrate with cold water to taste, then stir in sugar and creamer.
- Pack the wet grounds out in the bag they came in.
Cold water pulls less acid out of coffee than hot water does, which is why cheap grounds taste better this way than they do out of a pot. It also means you do not spend fuel or a boil on your first cup. The steep happens while you sleep, so the whole cost at camp is a strain and a pour.
Ratio is the only thing to get right: one ounce of grounds per cup of water makes a concentrate, not a cup. Drink it undiluted and it will hit hard. Coarse grind matters too, since fine grounds slip through a bandana and turn the bottom of the mug into sludge. The creamer is powdered on purpose, because there is no cream on a trail.
Packing
Measure grounds into a zip bag at home so you are not weighing coffee at camp. Sugar and creamer go in a second small bag or a squeeze bottle. Carry one filter per morning; they weigh nothing and save you from chewing your coffee.
Variations
- Skip the creamer and it is vegan and dairy-free.
- Cold soak it in a jar of snow melt in winter, but sleep with the jar so it does not freeze solid.
- Decaf works the same. The grind matters, the bean does not.
https://www.maritimeglutton.com/cold-brew-coffee-recipe