Review, Revisited: Esbit Coffee Maker

Hello friends! Yep, another new series. Here I'm going to talk about various items of gear that I've had for a bit, and give my thoughts on them after several months/years of use. Hope you enjoy!

Today I'm going to talk about my Esbit Kaffeemaschine, aka Coffee Maker. You may have read my review of it when I initially got it. In fact, I'm pretty sure that you've read it, as it is now my most popular blog entry ever, finally (finally!) topping the piece about urban parrots and peacocks I did way back in 2005. (I still get comments on that one!) Anyways, after five months of use, I felt it was high time to revisit my review, because there's nothing worse than online reviews of outdoor products where the reviewer brings their item home from REI/MEC, tests it once in their living room, and feels compelled to write a glowing review. Because that ain't "real world" experience, my friend.

I've used it frequently on camping trips since I got it in April. And yes, I still like it. But as with any product, there are pros and cons. Let's go through the pros first.

• Cute/Cool/Wow Factor: Like its cousin the camping moka pot/"espresso" maker*, the Esbit Kaffeemaschine is a looker. If you go on a group camping trip and pull out one of these babies, everyone takes notice, eagerly awaiting the brewing of the coffee and asking questions like "How does it work" and "Where did you get it?" You might even have a famous photographer take photos of it. And its desgin is classic mid-century industrial, which as we all know is "cool".

From the Ainsworth camping trip in April. Photo: Russ Roca.

• Can drink coffee immediately. Unlike its cousin, the camping moka pot, the cup does not sit above the source of heat, so the cup remains cool enough to drink out of.
• Compact. It has its own stove, so you don't need to have a separate stove/source of heat, like you would with the camping moka pot. The stove packs inside the stainless steel unit, so it doesn't take up that much room. The weight of the unit when packed is 11oz/312g, so while it would be too heavy for an ultralight tourer or weight weenie, it still is relatively light.

Snug as a bug.

• Reliable. It uses a solid fuel tablet (Esbit tablet), which burns well once it gets going. One tab will be enough for a cup of joe.
• Makes a great cup of coffee! This of course is the most important factor in any coffee making device, especially when bike camping, where every ounce or litre of volume is critical. When done right, the coffee is good and strong, just like it would be with a standard moka pot.

And here are the cons:

•  Not fool-proof. Meaning, you really need to know what you're doing to get it to work right. Yes, there are instructions (this is a German product, after all), but they leave out a couple critical points: what grind to use and how much ground coffee to use. I figured that a semi-coarse ground works best just from my experience with other moka pots. And I learned from a commenter on my original review post that you need the coffee to be a bit "heaping" in the basket in order to get the full strength. For the first few brews, the grounds in the basket were level (as I would do with a normal moka pot) so the coffee was on the weak side. From the reviews on Sierra Trading Post,** this has happened with a few other folks, too. And Esbit ain't helpful: I emailed them asking about coffee amount/grind type and they never responded.
• Esbit fuel isn't cheap, nor is it reusable. A box of twelve Esbit tablets costs $6, meaning each tablet is 50 cents. While that might not seem that expensive, a twelve ounce bottle of Heet (methyl alcohol) for my Trangia costs about $2. This fills my Trangia burner about four times, and each full burner of Trangia can burn about 1.25 litres of water (my Trangia pot holds 0.7 L). Under ideal conditions there is some Esbit fuel left over, which isn't easy to reuse. There have been a couple times where a tablet of fuel doesn't do the trick, so I have to throw another one on to finish the brewing process.
• Doesn't make a lot of coffee. The Kaffeemaschine makes "one cup", aka 8 oz (240 mL) of coffee. For some people this is all they need. But I'm not "some people", so generally I use it twice each morning (meaning two fuel tabs burnt.)
• All it does is make coffee. This is not a multi-use device. My Trangia camping set has a pot and a frying pan, so there's versatility. I can boil water to make coffee (or tea), heat up soup, fry pancakes, etc. When I'm solo touring, I'm really conscious about space, especially if I'm on a tour where I need to bring a lot of food, like the Helens-Rainier-Seattle-Vashon tour in August. On that one I brought my coffee infuser that nests inside my Klean Kanteen insulated coffee mug.

If I were to give it an overall rating, I'd rate the Esbit Kaffeemaschine three and a half out of five stars.

After all that, you must wonder, "when do I use the Esbit Coffee Maker?" I pull it out for overnight bike camping excursions, because on a short trip I'm not overly concerned with how much stuff I bring. I'll also bring it when April and I camp or tour together, as we can divvy up camping equipment. Plus, having a dedicated coffee maker means we free up the Trangia for other things (like making pancakes), meaning less time making breakfast.

And yep, I'll be using this nifty gadget in the months and years to come. I would like to make a small soda can stove that will fit in the unit, so I can use alcohol instead of Esbit tablets.

If you are interested in finding one, I got mine from Sierra Trading Post. They currently have the best price that I've seen ($22.50 plus shipping/handling), though I got mine for only $12.50. (Must have been a fluke in the pricing?)

*I put "espresso" maker in quotations because no stovetop espresso maker makes true espresso. Yes, the coffee is strong and espresso-like, but is not true espresso as it is not extracted at a high enough pressure.
**One complaint that some have made is that the unit is hot to touch and one can't make another cup of coffee immediately after brewing one. Well, duh. You can't do that with a regular moka pot either. Another complaint is that the brewing time is "long". I've found mine can take five to ten minutes. Considering it takes about five or so minutes to boil water with the Trangia, I don't consider the brew time necessarily long.

A couple updates on clothing, equipment, and all that business.

I've talked about a few new acquisitions over the past few months, giving my initial review and impressions. Thought it would be good to check back in and see how things were going with all of it!

MUSA Knickers by Rivendell
I acquired these "plus-fours" last month from Philip of Bike Tinker. (If you want to read the Doctor Who filled initial review, go here.*) I've worn them pretty consistently over the past month. They've been my "pants" for two of the three bike camping overnights in April.

After wearing them for a month, I must say that I do like them, despite some nitpicks. They are comfortable both off and on the bike. The front pockets are deep. They wash easy and dry quicky.

And with the velcro leg enclosure I can hike them up pretty good, just below the knee. This is a good feature as I intend to wear them a bunch this summer. I'm generally a shorts person once the weather gets consistently warm enough, 68F/20C and above. But if I go on a tour, I may want something a little more versatile than just shorts or having to bring both shorts and longer pants.** Having pants that are long enough for when its cool yet short enough for when its warm has great advantages. I tested this the other day by wearing them when it was 82F/27C out. They did fine. Yes, having shorts would have been better but I didn't feel too sweaty.

My nitpicks are still the ones I expressed in the initial review. Lack of belt loops, drawstring style belt, no place to tuck the drawstring, and no fly. It would also be nice if there were one or two utility pockets as well. Besides all that, I think these are some good pants. So much so that I would consider getting another pair.

Esbit Coffee Maker
I got this moka-pot styled camping coffee maker at the beginning of the month. It has accompanied me on all three camping expeditions in April. It has worked well! I've played around with the amount of coffee and got it to a point where it consistently has made a good cup o' joe. There are a few drawbacks with the Esbit, though. Usually one fuel tablet is what it takes to make coffee, but there has been at least once where I had to throw an extra tablet on. And the "steam escape valve" always seems to have steam escape, whereas on a standard moka pot it rarely does.

Would I bring it on a longer tour? I don't know. I guess it would all depend on how much other stuff I'm bringing and how much space there is to spare. It's a nice coffee maker but a bit redundant when I always have a pot to boil water in, and my coffee infuser nests inside my coffee mug.

Mini Trangia 28-T Backpacking Stove
I've used a Trangia burner for almost a year, so I already knew I liked Trangia. But I only got this particular setup in the beginning of the month, and have tested it over the camping trips of April. It has also performed admirably. I was worried that food would burn to the sides of the 0.8L aluminum pot, but I haven't found it to be the case. The small frying pan works good as well, and was put to the test when I cooked some eggs last week. The windscreen/pot stand is stable. The pot grabber is on the flimsy side but I haven't had any mishaps. I might get a better one, though. This kit will be seeing a lot of appearances on campouts this summer!



*We've been watching a lot of Fourth Doctor/Tom Baker episodes. Yes, Mr. C, we know that amuses you.
**Yes, I could get around that by getting convertible pants with zip-off legs, but I've never found a pair that I liked.

Modifying the Bike Camping/Touring Setup

One of the good things about doing an overnight bike camping trip (or if you are that way, "s24o") is it gives you the opportunity to try different things. You can bring more stuff than you normally would because it's only an overnight ride. Or you can bring less for the same reason. Bike overnights are a good, low-risk reason to experiment with setup.

And I've been toying with this idea of "changing the setup" for awhile. Bike touring/camping is a constant process of change and flux. What might have worked for you two years ago doesn't work now. Or you realize that you can go without certain things. Or you found newer things that are more lightweight than your old things or found an item that will do what two (or three, or four, etc) other items did. Generally the refinement process is towards finding better things and bringing less stuff* while still keeping a baseline of creature comforts and modest luxuries.

Now I am by no means a minimalist or ultralight bike tourer/camper. I don't spend time shaving off keyfobs. Or going without a stove because it "weighs too much" (and then always hunting for a cup of hot coffee.) Or use bubble wrap as a camping pad. But certain aspects of this whole ultralight thing I find appealing. If I need to replace items, I try to upgrade to something lighter so long as I don't compromise on strength or usability. And given the choice I would rather bring less than more.

I thought about this quite a bit on the Cross-Con Tour. We were loaded with a bunch of stuff because of the nature of our trip. We were going to be away for a long time and encounter a lot of different climates along the way. Plus we'd be going through areas with limited food choices so we needed to have capacity for that. Now our load wasn't much of a problem...while we were riding. But it became a pain in the ass anytime we had to go multi-modal or fix a flat. Removing two sets of panniers, a handlebar bag, and whatever I had strapped to the rear rack got annoying. When I got back to Portland I knew we wouldn't be attempting a tour of this nature anytime soon, so I could minimalize things.

The first thing that came off was the rear rack. I figured I can do what I needed to do with the front rack only. And I also picked up a larger Carradice saddle bag (a Nelson longflap). I tested this setup on our Cycle Wild New Year's Trip, loading up the Carradice with bedding and using my two North St. Avenue B bags on the front, loaded with other stuff. This worked well. But this trip did not involve camping. So the Ainsworth camping trip last weekend would be the first test of the new setup for camping.

The Carradice held my "bedding": sleeping bag, sleeping pad, bag liner, and inflatable pillow. Outside of the bag I strapped my bivy sack. Since April wasn't coming, I didn't need to bring the big tent. Everything fit, though tightly. If I had a bigger bag (Carradice Camper Longflap vs. Nelson Longflap) or a smaller sleeping pad it would be less tight, but it still works as it is now. And I think I could also manage to strap the tent to the back as well.

For the front rack, I used my small Route 7 panniers, also made by North St. If you remember from last month, I sold off my older larger set of Route 7 panniers. I felt that I didn't need bags this large any more since I had the set of Avenue B bags which were around the same size as the larger Route 7s. Smaller bags means the likelihood of overpacking is lessened. In one bag went my camp kitchen and food, the other bag went clothing. toiletries, and sundries like a sketchbook and book. I found that this pannier setup worked well, especially for one night. If I went for a longer trip I would want to bring some more clothes so this could be dealt with by using the Avenue B bags...or a handlebar bag.

Before I talk about camp kitchen stuff, let me go back to the bivy sack. For those of you who don't know, a bivy is a weatherproof sleeping bag cover. Mine is made by Outdoor Research and comes with stakes, a "loop" in order to keep the material away from the bag, and a mesh screen and "door" over the head so one can be protected from bugs and/or rain. For extra protection one can hang a lightweight tarp over the whole thing, but since my trip was an overnighter without a chance of rain, I skipped it. (It's nice to be able to look up at the starry night sky if it's not cloudy!) I like my bivy sack but don't get much opportunity to use it since 95% of my camping these days is done with April. I've only used it for one or two night adventures and would probably use it for trips a couple days longer. But if I was going to do longer solo tours I'd want to have a small one-person tent. If it's particularly wet or cold it's nice to have somewhere to "go", somewhere where you can sit up. A bivy doesn't offer this opportunity.

As for the kitchen, I brought my Esbit Coffee Maker, the one I talked about last week. For the cooking stove, it was of course a Trangia. But a new Trangia set! I picked up a Mini Trangia 28-T Backpacking Stove from REI. I've been eyeing this particular set for awhile, and when we got our REI dividend I went ahead and ordered it. (Side rant: why can't REI keep Trangia stoves consistently in stock?) It includes the burner, windscreen/stand, 0.8L pot, small non-stick frying pan/pot lid, and pot grabber. It's the perfect size for a solo trip and packs down quite well. I found it worked good. My only two issues with it is the pot is bare aluminum which is never that great for actual cooking (I just used it to boil water) and the pot grabber feels light and flimsy so I worried about dropping the pot or frying pan.

I'll be definitely playing around with setup in the months to come. Hopefully there will be more windows of good weather in the next couple months because I'm itching to get out there on the bike!


*Unless you are Matt Picio, then you try to figure out ways of bringing more stuff on your next tour.

Camping Gear Corner: Esbit Coffee Maker

I've become quite the "gadget geek" when it comes to camping. This is partly because I want to familiarize myself with various options so I have knowledge of these things when I write bicycle touring guides and give bicycle touring workshops. And partly because I'm obsessive.

I'm also obsessive about coffee. I want to, no, demand good coffee when I'm touring. Instant will not do. Over the years I have tried many methods of camp coffee preparation; from cone filters to infusers to french presses (press pots) to moka pots (stovetop "espresso" makers.) I've found that the infuser method is the easiest to do on the road as my infuser nests inside my coffee mug. I like moka pots best but they take up too much room. So I'm always on the lookout for camp coffee gadgets.

A vintage version of the Esbit "Kaffeemaschine". Design has not changed much, huh? I think if I ever started a Kraftwerk cover band, I'd call it Kaffeemaschine.

The Esbit coffee maker has caught my eye. Esbit is a German stove maker that specializes in solid fuel stoves. (Esbit stove and solid fuel stove are pretty much synonymous, though Esbit also makes alcohol (spirit) stoves.) And it's a moka pot! I like the integrated stove, stainless steel, and retro design. But I already own a camping moka pot made by GSI so I couldn't justify the $50 price tag for the Esbit model. Then I found it at the clearance price of  $12.50 at Sierra Trading Post. And before the blink of an eye I had ordered it.

My GSI camping moka pot with a knockoff Esbit stove

I received the coffee maker on Monday and wasted no time testing it.

Like other moka pots, the Esbit coffee maker has a fresh water reservoir (F) at the bottom, nearest the source of heat. Sitting atop that reservoir is a basket (B) with a funnel for coffee grounds. Unlike other moka pots, the Esbit has a separate filter (C) with separate gasket (D) that sits atop the basket, other moka pots have the filter integrated into the basket. Standard moka pots have another reservoir above this where the brewed coffee goes. But camping moka pots instead have a nozzle (E) for brewed coffee. Beneath this nozzle is where the cup to collect coffee is placed. Other camping moka pots place the mug on a shelf above the fresh water reservoir, which means the cup gets hot as it is over the source of heat. (See photo above) Just try to drink out of that cup! With the Esbit the cup stays on the ground, meaning (theoretically) one can drink the coffee straight from the cup.

As I said above, the Esbit coffee maker has an integrated stove (A) which uses Esbit solid fuel tablets. I was hoping the stove would be big enough so I could use my Trangia alcohol fuel burner, but not so. A "pop can" stove might work. The nice thing about the stove part is that it nests inside the coffee maker when not in use, making it more compact than my other camping moka pot. And having its own stove means I can use my Trangia stove for other things in the morning other than coffee preparation.

And the operation went smoothly. It took about eight minutes to brew coffee, about the same amount of time if I was using the GSI moka pot. The brewing process used up most of a fuel tablet, and the flame was easily doused with the provided "cap" extinguisher. As for the coffee, it was a bit on the weak side. I'm going to need to play around with roasts and grinds to get the optimal strength.

Will this be a regular part of my kit? I don't know yet. It all depends on whether or not I get the brew strength right and how much room it will occupy in my bags. It might not be an all the time thing but more for short excursions. Nevertheless, I think it's pretty cool!

UPDATE 4/7/12: Here's an image of the Esbit Coffee Maker (mostly) packed. Everything but the fuel holder is packed inside here:

The weight of this is 9.8oz/279g. With the fuel holder and in its protective mesh bag, the weight is 11oz/312g.

My New Years 2012, where April and I ride out to a cabin in the woods (again)

New Year 2012 went down pretty much the same way New Year 2011 went down: riding our bikes to Stub Stewart State Park in the Oregon Coast Range. The Stub Stewart trip has become an annual Cycle Wild New Year's tradition. We were supposed to meet up at 10am on Saturday morning (Dec 31st) at the west end of the MAX line in Hillsboro, Portland's western suburb. However, it was only 22 miles (35km) of riding from there to the park. April and I had done this ride so many times before, and there was an ample amount of daylight. So we opted to leave late.

And this was a good thing. It had rained on Friday and then the temperature dropped dramatically overnight. So those riders who left early were greeted with black ice. There were a few spills. Since it had thawed by the time we left the house around 11am, we didn't have to deal with that. It was still pretty cool all day, though.

The MAX ride to Hillsboro was uneventful, and we started our ride around 1pm. It was a peaceful trek. The first half of the ride uses lightly used rural roads (read: farmlands and nurseries). The second half is exclusively on the Banks-Vernonia State Trail, an old logging railroad turned bike path. In the middle is the town of Banks where we supplied up for the two days.

While the roads out here are quiet, there are some people who don't want bikes around.

This small sign can be seen on Wilkesboro Rd about a mile SE of Banks. At first one might think, "Yeah, uninsured drivers suck!" But the size and the low placement of the sign isn't directed towards motorists, but bicyclists. And that's who the sign is talking about. Any ambiguity in its message was dispelled when some other riders passed by on the Verboort Populaire Ride in November, and the homeowner came out of his house, shouting: "GET OFF OF THE ROAD! YOU ARE NOT INSURED!"

Anyways...we got to the park around 4pm. Cycle Wild had rented four cabins and there was 20 of us, so five per cabin. Most people on New Year's Eve hung out at the fire pit, though there was movie viewing as well. I wouldn't know, I was too far gone at that point and sleeping it off. Yes, I slept into the New Year. And vomited shortly thereafter. Go Shawn! (It didn't help that a group from another cabin was loudly and drunkenly "singing" "What's Up" by 4 Non Blondes at the time of my regurgitation. If I needed any help doing the deed, hearing the song that signified all that what was wrong with "the Grunge movement" while  simultaneously signaling the death knell of said movement would have helped it along.) But hey, looking on the positive side of things, the years I have rang in the New Year with retching featured significant changes to my life, usually for the better. So maybe this is a sign of something "epic" for 2012?

New Year's Day (Sunday) was the chill day. Most people hung around the cabins, making food and talking. Some folks attempted to ride the muddy mountain bike trails with their touring rigs, with comical effects. Some rode 10 miles down the Banks-Vernonia Trail to Vernonia for beer and restocking of supplies. While some took a walk in the woods. That's what we ended up doing.

We all had to depart the park on Monday, January 2nd. Everyone left at random intervals. April and I left in the last group (of course) which included Matt and Kristy, Erinne and Kirk. While the weather remained dry for the rest of the trip, we had to deal with rain on the return ride. So it was a good idea to stop and break in Banks for mediocre Chinese food. The rest of the ride was good, and we got back to Portland before dark.

*****
And while we're talking about bike "camping" (and I use quotes since we had cabins so no tents, but still had to bring sleeping stuff and cooking stuff) and all that, I figured I'd talk a little about gear.

A joke I frequently made on this excursion is that a Cycle Wild trip can automatically turn into a photo shoot for: Klean Kanteen, Trangia stoves, Surly bikes, Showers Pass rainjackets, and/or Ortlieb bags.

Tomas looks off into the middle distance.

But as April says, these things have been proven through time. Especially my Trangia stove. Initially when I purchased one before the Cross-Con Trip I was intending the spirit fueled Trangia to be the back-up stove to my canister fueled Varga. But now the Trangia has become my "go to" stove, and the canister fueled one sits in my camping supplies box.

Right before leaving, I purchased a new pan, this MSR Flex Skillet. During the tour we had a generic non-stick camping frying pan that worked so-so. If we used it on the Trangia it would burn the pancakes we like making for breakfast, and if we used it on the Varga we worried about balance. But the MSR sits nicely on the Trangia and cooked the pancakes nicely. A success!

I also picked up a Bleuet solid-fuel stove. It's basically a Esbit stove made by someone else. I also decided to bring my GSI camping moka pot for this trip and use the Bleuet stove for it. It's pretty bulky but I don't mind bringing it on a one or two night trip. Unfortunately it wasn't a good combination, as I had to use almost two fuel tablets to make a cup of coffee.

No coffee yet?

You live and you learn.