Speedo

Not if you order it with the Band of Brothers Blueray disc set that you've been waiting to buy.

Speedo

zeppinger

In Vietnam they almost fill the brewing cup with coffee grounds to make it as thick as sludge. If you want to make an americano or drip style coffee, which is what I do every morning with it, even at home, just use about a table spoon of coffee. Enough to cover the bottom of the cup plus a bit more. You can regulate how dark the coffee will be by how much you use. If you add a lot of coffee then the hot water will take longer to drain through it and effectively brew for longer. Play with it till you find your preference. I generally brew pretty dark.

As for the shipping. Order some coffee grounds with it, or order more than one and give them as gifts to save on shipping. I promise that it works as advertised. Its actually not a Vietnamese coffee maker is some ways since it is actually a French style device that was adopted by the Vietnamese during their occupation of the country. Point being is that it works.

zeppinger

Here is how to use the Vietnamese coffee maker. Pardon my messy kitchen, I am getting ready to go on a 6 month tour of Asia so everything is destroyed right now...

Here are the four pieces included. To the left is the base that sits on the rim of the mug. To the right is the cup that sits on top of the base. On the bottom is the plunger that sits on top of the coffee once you have loaded it in the cup. On top is the lid that helps keep the coffee hot while brewing.
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Step one is to put the base and the cup on top of your mug.
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Step two is to put about a table spoon of coffee in the cup. You can see its just enough to cover the bottom plus a bit more.
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Now put the plunger on top of the coffee and spin it a little to even out the coffee underneath it.
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Fill the cup with hot water and put the lid on top of the whole thing. You will need to fill the cup with water 2-4 times. I usually just need 3 for a normal size mug. If your coffee looks like its too dark, add some hot water to the mug instead of the cup.
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The whole process takes about 4 minutes. To the right of my coffee mug is my 0.6L Trangia kettle which is good for 2 mugs of coffee if all the way full.
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When the mug is full of coffee add sugar to taste, or hot water if the coffee is too dark, and enjoy. Dump the coffee grounds out and rinse the pieces. No scrubbing required and no filters to throw out.
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The lid of the coffee maker can be turned upside down so that you can place the base of the coffee maker on top of it and coffee will not leak out on your table. A nice feature and useful when you dont want to clean up right away.
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phughes

I got this from REI for use when I travel: https://www.rei.com/product/794391 It is an insulated much with a screen at the top. They call it an infuser. You simply put the coffee grounds in the bottom, add the hot water, put the top on and drink. It is also completely leak proof and stays hot for many hours.

tip

Zeppinger: Thanks for the recommendation! I got mine last week and finally tried it out. Definitely easy! I will have to play around with the correct amount of grounds to get the perfect cup, but so far so good. I also found the only down sides where that it only makes one cup at a time, and you have to fill it every couple minutes to make a full cup. No big deal... its camping, after all.

I really like how light and simple it is; and of course, the price. Got mine for like $7 shipped. I would also highly recommend one of these to anyone else.

neilfein

Related: I recently found that you can add a pinch of salt to a cup of coffee, and it helps reduce the bitterness and harshness. Don't add enough that the coffee tastes salty, but you will find that you need less sugar. (If you take very little sugar in coffee, you may find that you can eliminate sugar altogether with this method.)

countrydirt

We used to crack a raw egg into the cowboy coffee while it boiled. It calmed down the grains and made it really smooth and not bitter at all.

charly17201

I've had people call my coffee "Liquid Crack" - not to say that I like it strong or anything.......

I got one of https://www.campmor.com/outdoor/gear/Product___60050 for my upcoming tour and I've been using it at home to get used to it. Works very well - actually easier than making a whole pot.

In the past I have used an Italian stove-top espresso pot (I lived in Italy for 2 years). The only problem with that was that it was very easy to burn the coffee.

MMACH 5

I can't stand Starbucks coffee so Via is out.

Here's my recipe for a decent 16 oz cup of instant coffee:
1 Tablespoon of Medaglia D'Oro instant espresso
1 Tablespoon of Nescafe Classico instant coffee
1 Tablespoon of Nido powdered whole milk
7 sugar cubes (cubes pack smaller than loose sugar) - I like lots of sugar
Combined into small zip-lock baggies (3"x4", from the jewelry/craft aisle at Wal-Mart) at home.

I use a leak-proof travel mug, so it gets a pretty good shaking to mix it. I've had spotty results when trying to stir it with a spoon.

staehpj1

Have you actually tried Via? I ask because I wondered if it was like the coffee they serve. I know that when I buy their beans and make my own it tastes much better than the coffee served there. To me what they serve tastes burned and the coffee made at home from their beans doesn't even if made strong. I kind of wondered if the Via has the burned taste that I don't especially like.

MMACH 5

Yes, I wondered the same thing, so I gave it a try and it had that same, chemical-wash flavor as their in-store coffee.

To come up with the mix, I bought six different instant coffees and espressos, including Via. I tried each one, by itself. This ruled some of them out, right off the bat. Then I began combining them with each other until I found a mix that I liked.

I drink this in camp. When I'm riding, the first time I pass a 7-11 or Denny's, I stop for a cup of brewed coffee.

MMACH 5

Anyone tried this?

www.naturescoffeekettle.com

NoReg

"I went cold turkey on my big tour and didn't have any problems. Less gear to pack, too. I think my body was taken so far out of its routine that the lack of coffee couldn't rise above the din of other unaccustomed inputs."

+1

And given that no suffering is required to quit, I had to ask myself whether a body running with or without coffee was better set up to deal with the cycling to come. I can't say I know the answer, but it seemed most likely that no coffee would be better. And then no stove, pots, not water for the water lost to the coffee, etc...

LarDasse74

No suffering means you haven't been drinking enough. I get nagging headaches for a couple days if I stop drinking coffee. Or at least I used to when I was in University. I drink between 5 and 10 cups per day now, because I'm no quitter!

etroutski

I too have one of those poly-carb french press mugs which I always take to make a good cup or two of bold morning java from premium grounds. It makes touring sweet for sure!

charly17201

Fixed

+1 except I drink a couple of pots a day. And you left out the shaky hands due to withdrawals.

When in the Marines and in Somalia, we used to take 15-20 instant coffee packs plus the sugars and creamers, add them to a 1.5 liter water bottle, shake the crap out of them and set in the sun for a couple hours before enjoying.

staehpj1

I love my coffee, but I too tend to just do without on tour.

MMACH 5

Ever since I started building DIY, alcohol stoves, I've had aluminum cans, mugs, bottles and pans littering my workshop. The Vietnamese coffee maker intrigued me and I figured I had just the right pieces to build it.

The first thing I noticed was that the bottom of a 24oz, Foster's can fits perfectly over the top of my travel mug. Hmmmmm... promising...
Since I just built a stove from the bottom part of a Venom Energy drink bottle, I had the top section just waiting to be utilized.
I got these two pieces to fit snuggly together and then used a jeweler's hammer and a push-pin to poke tiny holes in the lid of the Venom bottle.

Two things happened in my testing:
1) The funneling of the bottle causes the system to clog up and you have to use a spoon to break the coffee loose at the "filter" (the original Vietnamese system uses the entire bottom of the mug as a filter as well as a plunger to address this).
2) The aluminum conducts heat far too well and by the time the coffee has filled the mug, it is cold (the original Vietnamese system uses stainless steel which is a better insulator).

I haven't totally given up on this, yet. The Foster's can bottom fitting perfectly over my mug is begging to used for something...

bikerider359

Try Starbucks Via instant coffee it comes in single serve packets and is now available at Walmart. Not bad for instant

ChrisO

I don't think that I saw one of these listed here yet, so...


https://www.rei.com/product/726094

It's what the wife and I use when camping/touring. Works great and is smaller than it looks in the pic; just sits down inside your mug.

webtwo

I buy instant coffee when I am in Mexico. They make it stronger down there and it's much less expensive than VIA. Muy bueno!

tip

Very clever, I love the ingenuity. I'd be interested to see what you come up with.

ChrisO

Is there any particular brand that you've found to be better than the others? I'm always looking to try different instants, a glutton for punishment sometimes

pathlesspedaled

we like coffee. here's how we make ours.
www.pathlesspedaled.com

Ekdog

I couldn't make out the name of that coffee filter. Could you post a link, please?