Frothed Camp Latte
Powdered milk and instant coffee whipped stiff with a battery frother.
- calories
- 210
- weight
- 1.6 oz
- cal / oz
- 131
- protein
- 11 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 2 min
- cook
- 4 min
- total time
- 6 min
- water
- 300 ml boiled
- 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
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Backpacking
- Winter / snow
- Vegetarian
- Gluten free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Whole milk powder | 1/3 cup | whole, not nonfat; the fat is what holds the foam |
|---|---|---|
| Instant coffee | 2 tsp | freeze-dried dissolves cleaner than spray-dried |
| Sugar | 2 tsp | |
| Salt | a pinch | |
| Rechargeable stick frother | 1 | charge it at home; the whisk head detaches for packing |
Method
- Boil 300 ml of water and take the pot off the flame.
- Stir in the coffee, sugar, and salt until the grounds are gone. Do this first, while the water is hottest.
- Add the milk powder a spoonful at a time, stirring as you go. Dumping it in at once gives you lumps you will never beat out.
- Hold the frother just under the surface and run it fifteen to twenty seconds. Lift it toward the top at the end to pull air in.
- Drink it while the head is still standing. It falls within a couple of minutes.
This one comes off a product page for a battery stick frother, not a kitchen, so treat the drink as the point and the gadget as the reason it works. A spoon cannot get air into powdered milk. A frother can, and that is the whole difference between camp coffee with milk in it and something that looks like it came off a machine.
Use whole milk powder. Nonfat dissolves fine but the foam collapses almost immediately, since there is no fat holding the bubble walls together. Water off the boil rather than at it, or the milk proteins seize and you get grit at the bottom of the cup. The pinch of salt is doing what it always does with instant coffee: covering the flat, papery edge.
Packing
Milk powder, coffee, sugar, and salt premixed in one small bag per morning. Frother goes in a stuff sack with the whisk head off, or it bends against something in your pack.
Variations
- Two tablespoons of cocoa powder in place of half the milk powder makes it a mocha.
- A scoop of protein powder froths the same way and turns it into breakfast.
- Cold water works if you skip the coffee and use a drink mix instead; the foam is thinner but it still forms.
https://instacuppastore.com/products/rechargeable-coffee-frother-travel-casing-3-speeds