I’ve had a lot of backcountry coffee. Some of it is just plain bad, and others are pretty good. Most of the coffee marketed to adventurous folks like me is instant. I don’t mind good instant coffee, but who says every adventure necessitates it? For the times when you have room in your kit for coffee brewing supplies, there’s Hikers Brew.
I recently drank the Hikers Brew Six Pack Sampler over a weekend of camping in Prescott National Forest. This sampler pack contains six Venture Pouches, each containing 36 grams of ground coffee. A venture pouch is enough coffee to brew a French press for two to three AeroPress cups or a single pour-over (plus a little extra).
In the sampler were two different roasts and four flavors of coffee: Mile Marker, a medium roast; Yurt Dirt, a dark roast; Some Mores, s’mores flavored; Red Rocks, caramel flavored; Hazy Hiker, hazelnut flavored; and Van Life, vanilla flavored.
I brewed the Mile Marker first since I prefer a lighter, unflavored roast. This isn’t just coffee that tastes good because you’re far away from everything. This could be served at a high-end coffee shop when brewed in an AeroPress or as a pour-over.
I’m usually not a fan of flavored coffees, but I tried the Some Mores flavor next. What I found was true for all the flavor varieties: it still tasted like coffee, this one with a hint of chocolatey marshmallow. The flavor was slightly stronger than the tasting notes of a particular roast of beans, but it was certainly not as strong as many flavored coffees.
Hikers Brew uses creative naming of their flavors, too. I found “Van Life” for the vanilla coffee to be especially funny. Is Van Life vanilla because of all those white Sprinter vans out there? Or is it poking fun at the ubiquity of those white Sprinter vans? Maybe it’s both.
The Venture pouch package says you can brew using drip, French press, AeroPress, percolate, pour-over, or cowboy. This might be splitting hairs, but the grind is slightly too fine for a French press and maybe too coarse for a pour-over. If you’re concerned about getting the perfect grind for your brewing method, you’re probably buying whole beans and grinding it yourself, though.
Hikers Brew coffee also comes in a “Basecamp” size, which is a 12-ounce bag. These larger bags come either as a whole bean coffee or pre-ground. Also, all of Hikers Brew’s packing is compostable. Bring the bags home to your compost bin when you’re done with them.
If you were worried, I didn’t try all six varieties in one day. I made these last over a long camping weekend, with a view, of course. There’s nothing like a good cup of coffee, especially when you’re the only barista for miles.
$27 | hikersbrewcoffee.com
For further details and to buy individual roasts or flavors, visit hikersbrewcoffee.com.
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