I’ve tried a number of different systems for brewing coffee while camping, but they all require a bit of time and fiddling or too much gear. I once lugged a percolator around on a canoe trip for 10 days, it made great coffee but was heavy, bulky, messy, and used a lot of fuel. I now make individual serving packets before my trips using instant coffee, creamer, and sweetener. It’s as quick as boiling water, produces minimal waste, and there are no grounds to dispose of.

Directions

You could simply use snack-sized zip lock bags for this, but I prefer to make my own packets using food saver rolls. Each packet is filled with:

1 heaping teaspoon instant coffee

1 heaping teaspoon coffee creamer

1 level teaspoon sweetener; I use Truvia

After the packets are filled I line up three at a time in the food saver and seal them.

In camp, just dump the contents of a packet in your cup and fill it with boiling water. Couldn’t be simpler!

Each packet weighs in at about 15 grams. Here’s a picture of one, with a quarter for scale: