In search of the best instant coffee

trader joes

Matt N wrote:

Two packs of cheap instant stuff and a pack of hot chocolate - back country mochas are the best.

BITD it was Folgers Crystals and Swiss Miss hot chocolate. I can drink Via's without the chocolate, but mochas are still nice for the 3am start.

I've had the same plastic pour over cone for camping for decades. I tried instants, a French press but it's a pain to clean, and some other options but just go back to this. Plus paper filters reduce the amount of cafestol, a coffee oil that's been implicated in raising cholesterol levels, that makes it into your cup. It takes 2 minutes more than instant, you get real coffee, and when you're done you just pull out the paper filter. I get big bags of good organic coffee and grind it all at once. You can go simpler and/or cheaper (fancy or crappy instant) but you don't save much time or money compared to this, or you can go fancier and more labor intensive (grinding coffee every day, French press, espresso) but the coffee is not better enough that it's worth the added expense/hassle IMO. To me this hits the sweet spot of easy to use, tastes great, and inexpensive. 

I'll try to address some of the questions: First off, I just put some limited stock available on the website! It was a busy day of roasting coffee, packaging instant and filling orders. As to the question RE Swift cup, based on my conversations with a couple of roasters who have used them, they send the roasted beans and Swift brews, freeze dries and packages it for them. 

bearded sam wrote:

Full disclosure, I’m an owner but I started as a barista and was one of those folks who tried all the nerd ways to brew in the backcountry. I was at the point of bringing caffeinated GU packets to get myself going. We started an instant project 8 years ago, one liter at a time, and using dry ice to freeze dry it. Now we do it 66 liters at a time, twice a week. Outside review:   https://www.outsideonline.com/food/drinks/the-6-best-instant-coffees-for-your-next-camping-trip/

https://www.firstascentcoffee.com/collections/hand-crafted-instant-coffee

Hero day is our medium blend, crowd pleaser, best seller. Dawn patrol is darker, think dark chocolate.
Ethiopia is our lightest roast, single origin. Also, all of these dissolve in cold. Happy to answer more questions as we do it all from roast to packaging 

I went value pack. looking forward to getting the bean

I'll give a shoutout to Black Coffee Roasters' instant coffee.

But to be honest, more and more I just bring the Aeropress. It's usually worth the 8 oz to me.

KIPSY pour over  has great beans, flavor.
https://kipsycoffee.com/

just as a heads up, all varieties of our instant coffee are available!

Locker wrote:

I think you are assuming people will take the time to figure it out...

How about posting a link???...

Oops, not enough caffeine …. firstascentcoffee.com/colle…

I feel like the instant coffees that try really hard to be good always end up being way too expensive for what they are. Mount Hagen for me is the best. Sure I've had better instant coffees, but I was surprised how much I liked this one after grabbing one randomly from the Valley store.

First Acsent is my go to in individual packets. But if I pack “more than a couple days” I use this and put in a ziplock bag.

 https://www.cafebustelo.com/en/coffee/instant/espresso-style

Andreas Gustav wrote:

I feel like the instant coffees that try really hard to be good always end up being way too expensive for what they are. Mount Hagen for me is the best. Sure I've had better instant coffees, but I was surprised how much I liked this one after grabbing one randomly from the Valley store.

Hey Andreas, Since we do the entire process from roast to packaging in house, I can tell you the most expensive part of the process is the green beans. We are starting with specialty grade coffee vs commodity grade coffee. This along with roasting to highlight the flavors in the coffee instead of roasting it super dark in an effort to cover the lower quality, old, stale green coffee make the largest difference in flavor. As we have explored scaling through various experiments, it also seems that getting the concentrate from brewed to frozen as quickly as possible makes a tremendous impact on flavor. Freshness makes a noticeable difference in taste in both your morning brewing method or your instant coffee production. I hope folks are getting out this weekend! I'll be at Steamboat GRVL this weekend sampling if anyone is around.

https://www.makitatools.com/products/details/DCM501Z