Coffeeneuring Report, Week 2: Wed 17 October

Last week, you may have seen the report about my first Coffeeneuring Ride for this year's Coffeeneuring Challenge. And I ain't stoppin' yet!

For week two, I decided to do another "Coffee Shop Without Walls". Yes yes yes, Portland has loads of great coffee shops (and plenty of mediocre-to-sucky ones, too, don't get me wrong.) But the weather has been too good here to go indoors to drink coffee. And what better time to do this than on my most recent Bike Overnight to Willamette Mission State Park? (I'm not going to repeat the details of the ride, since you can just read all about it in exquisite detail here.)

The coffee making happened in the morning (naturally) around 8 am, after waking up and before making pancakes. The coffee setup is different than Coffeeneuring Week One, as I was trying to travel as lightweight as possible on this camping excursion and didn't feel like carrying the Esbit with me in addition to a "regular" stove setup.

So I used my versatile little Trangia backpacker's stove kit (28) for boiling of water. I love this kit, and I feel that it's the best bang for buck and the most versatile small kit. (No other kit I know of this size has a frying pan, for instance.) Sure, the alcohol burner doesn't boil as fast as a Jet Boil, but so what?

The coffee "maker" would be my GSI H2Joe coffee infuser. I used this on the Big Tour in 2011, and it still reports for duty every once in awhile. The idea of the infuser is simple: it screws into a Nalgene bottle, or in my case, a Klean Kanteen insulated mug. The coffee making works by agitation: screw the top onto the whole shebang, gently (and very gently) shake the thing for a few minutes. Three minutes later, coffee is ready. The finished coffee tastes similar to a French Press.

The coffee used this time was pre-ground Trader Joe's French Roast. And I like cream and sugar in my coffee, so that went in. The coffee itself: okay. Nothing super-great, but not swill, either.

And this coffee helped fuel me for the 50 miles of riding back home.

Alright, let's see where Week Three will bring me...

QUICK FACTS:
Miles ridden: 52
Bike used: Surly Long Haul Trucker
Coffee: Trader Joe's French Roast
Coffee prepared by: Infusion method