Well since the zombie has been awakened, I like those GSI collapsible drip coffee makers. In my area, water isn't always readily available, so the "wasteless" permanent filter types as well as french presses are a no go. They require abundant water to clean. I like a nice cup of coffee in the am, but i'm not too proud to pack instant if it's going to save some hassle.

I like looking through zombie threads and seeing whether there are still folks active from years ago. This one has a few.

Make coffee the Turkish way as someone upthread stated. Boil water, add to coffee in cup. Wait for grounds to settle or add a few drops of cold water to settle the grounds faster.

Or make coffee in a cup and pour through a filter into another cup or small pot.

Or use freeze-dried coffee.

Cheers

Being philosophically opposed to chain stores, starbucks via is out for me, regardless of how good it may be. I get an instant coffee brand called Mount Hagan from my locally owned & operated health food store. It's organic & fair trade. And delicious!

Why would you be philosophically opposed to chain stores? I've always considered individual retailers based on their corporate or business philosophies. Some mom and pops care nothing about their communities while some chains have pretty comprehensive public policies. You could say supporting local keeps dollars local but if those dollars just goes to one selfish owner I don't see the "good" in it. Curious what your take is.

The problem on a bike tour is you don't get the same local store everywhere you go so you are really rolling the dice each time you purchase. I like SB's and TH's because the product is known and consistent across the board. I know what I'm getting. Sometimes when I go local I get a really good coffee and sometimes a really bad expensive one.

Not directed at me I know, but since I am also Sort Of opposed to chains I can give one answer. Its the utter homogenization of the landscape. I like rolling the dice in a small diner or coffee shop. It might be horrible, it might be great, but given the choice of a greasy spoon or a slick cookie cutter marketing machine, its the first one every time.
I won't boycott a chain to the point of not going into one(except mcdonalds, I will wait in the car while others go in). I really dont care about the whole shop locally thing, or who gets my money. I do care about the dismal sameness of a brand that is established everywhere.

And on topic, sort of, I am a tea drinker, and pretty persnickety about that. I will take a quality irish breakfast tea in bags, and keep them dry at the expense of almost everything else. From fall to late spring I take a thermos on tour. Fill it with boiling water and a bag at night, then drink it first thing in the morning. Its over steeped, but since I am not a morning person, it still helps. I like to be ready to roll early, not messing with the stove till I find a spot down the road and am more awake.

Trader Joe's Brew in the Bag--pour your hot water in the bag, wait just a bit and its perfectly brewed. Easy to pack (although not as easy as freeze dried) and tastes great.

Ah the joy of finding a diner/restaurant with excellent food whilst touring. I stopped at a small cafe ,The Half-Way Cafe, in Glen Morris that's half-way between Cambridge Ontario and paris Ontario (on East River Road) and ordered a coffee and hamburger. The hamburger was an absolute delight and the coffee was fantastic and made from well water. A lot of those small cafes or diners have excellent food with generous portions and at a very low price compared to the chain stores.

Cheers

I accept that idea but on the other hand, I have had some very crappy road coffee in my day. Almost all my adult life I have driven between Vancouver and Calgary/Edmonton with some runs out east. Before SB or TH there was crappy gas station coffee or cafe coffee (where you usually had to buy something to eat) or donut shops, which were usually off the main roadways and took too long to locate when driving distances. I drank stuff that tasted worse than deisel. It really sucked to stop, buy a coffee, and throw it out down the road because it was completely undrinkable or worse drink it because you need the caffeine fix, and that used to happen a lot.

Then SB hit the scene internationally and they changed the coffee landscape. All the local, good quality coffee shops, even the mom and pops, owe their existence to SB making coffee a "thing" worth producing for its own sake rather than an after thought. They upped the game and created a reality where others could make a living selling coffee. I became sooooooooooo thankful that, when driving, I could see a SB or TH sign and know I would get a decent cup of coffee.. every time. I actually schedule my stops around those places.

Even McD's, which I don't eat because I'm a vegetarian and even the darned fries are boiled in beef oil, was a god send when we had small kids. I have spent many a rainy winter hour sitting in one with friends, talking over coffee while our kids played in the play zone - free! In the summer it was getting TH coffee's and taking them to the park playground.

Bike riding is a little different in that I can take the time to explore hole in the wall places but I still wouldn't boycott chains because of it. The only chain I ever boycotted was Roots Canada because they sued a small prairie newspaper/ newsletter that described backroad locales called Routes for name infringement. They are a huge company now and I don't think I affected their bottom line but I still refuse to buy any of their stuff.

When I toour on the backroads of Norther Ontario Canada I buy TASTER'S CHOICE freeze-dried coffee at a supermarket. Actually there's a lot of lightweight foods at a supermarket and a lot of those foods are as good as the far more expensive speciality shop freeze-dried stuff.

I really miss the MAGIC PANTRY entrees though.

Cheers

Yeah, keeping dollars local is the main thing & homogenization of the landscape as mentioned above. Walmart & Starbucks are really the only two I've stayed out of for 10+ years. But when in a rural PA town for 3 weeks where the only coffee to go was McD's the caffiene need trumped the other stuff. Only human here. Except where derrierre is turning bionic...