Tea or coffee?

Tea or coffee?
Which one in the kit and why?

Tea. It's a mild antiseptic, packs smaller, is less of a diuretic and contains less caffeine. by 'coffee' Americans normally mean ground, not instant, so that also means you need equipment to make it.
There's a warning there; if you come to Britain the 'coffee making facilities' your hotel advertises means boiling water and instant coffee. Bring your camping coffee pot.
The Sock

tea..and "real" loose tea from one of the local import stores and not big box bag tea.i stay away from anything with exotic tastes and use Black Tea.i also have MRE coffee packs.they are small and not all that bad.i find mixing drinks and food on long canoe trips--two weeks--is good for you attitude...i don't have a BOB or a "kit" but my canoe gear would fill-in for one.



MRE coffee pack on a mid winter hike.one change that i'll be making is rather than take sugar packs like you see on the ground is to make rock candy from that type of sugar to get more sweets in less space and it might have a better chance not dissolveing if it gets a bit wet..

Hot coffee (black, no sugar), iced tea (no lemon or sugar) is the way for me. Lipton cold brew iced tea bags work very well for a glass of tea...

Hot coffee, all the way. I dont mind instant; 12 years as a grunt made me not very picky. Preference is Dunkin Donuts; but, well, that is impractical to carry. And, if it were readily available, I would likely question my "survival" situation

Tea. Great hot, cold or lukewarm on a hot day.

Endless variety (am partial to Stash teas).

And unlike coffee, I can enjoy tea "black."

Was unaware tea is an antiseptic.

Coffee. It's what I drink almost every morning. Having a cup would in most circumstances help me feel better. Comfort food and drink is, imo, important, especially when someone might be stressed out. For that reason, I put Starburst in DW's BOB.

I've found this "3 in 1" instant coffee in some of the Asian stores around here. It comes in a little foil tube pack complete with sugar and creamer already mixed in. I think it's a Nestle brand. It's delicious, and all it takes is hot water. I find instant coffee seems to have more of the caffeine effect than brewed coffee for some reason. I even take it with me routinely when traveling.

Military coffee,

20 gal. pot, 5 lb. cloth bag of coffee, 15 gal. water. Heat for 3 days or until done. Sound familiar?

Both. For emergency kits its Folgers coffee singles and whatever tea I feel like packing. Car camping its fresh brewed coffee in the morning and tea in the afternoon.

Coffee for me. Don't even ask about my tab at the local coffee shop!!!

A buddy of mine was so into coffee, he bought his own roaster and sourced his own beans. Let me tell you, when you have complete control, you can make one heck of a cup of coffee!!!!

Why not both?

Cowboy brew every morning, once in a while some loose leaf herbal or a good darjeeling.

When really desperate to stay awake on guard duty, we would put a pinch of MRE instant coffee in like a dip of snuff. Nastiest thing I have ever tasted, but worked.

Tea. I can deal with the bitterness of it easier than coffee if I have to drink it without enhancers. Besides, I haven't heard of making herbal or natural coffees from wild products. Even though chicory is used as a coffee substitute by a certain constituency of the country. Anyway, tea is it for me.

Ah, fond memories! Field coffee!!

Coffee. Black, hot, strong and served by the gallon if at all possible. Pout in grounds, a pinch of salt and boil. Firmly tap the side of the pot to cause the grounds to sink. Use egg shells or pour through cheesecloth or one of the stainless 'permanent filters' sold as an alternative to paper filters in drip machines if you don't have the touch.

I like my coffee but I'm not particular about the blend, grind or how it is made.

Instant coffee is perhaps the single most convincing proof of the existence of evil in this world. Decaffeinated coffee runs a close second. But, being the fallen, perverse and self-contradictory creature humans tend to be I have sometimes resorted to using the abominable instant variety. But never the decaf. I have standards.

I also like tea. Late in the evening when the extra caffeine might interfere with sleep but a warming boost is just the ticket I like some tea. English breakfast tea is good but more often than not it is a nice green tea brewed strong and served hot.

In no case is any cream, whitener or sweetener ever required as they are tools of the devil and will distort your soul.

Hot Chocolate (winter), Knorr beef bouillon, Knorr Tomato/Chicken Bouillon, or hot tea with a bit of lemon in it are my favorite hot drinks. I like coffee but rarely drink it.

Four multi-day hikes, we carry coffee, tea and hot chocolate. Coffee is made in a 2 cup percolator over a backpacker stove or open campfire depending on weather and forestry fire danger ratings in warmer months.

This same percolator is used to heat water for the coffee or tea when needed.

Our usual usage:
Mornings and lunch: coffee
Dinner and evenings sitting around the fire: tea and hot chocolate.

For single day hike, coffee carried in a thermos (this was discussed in another recent thread).

Both. Coffee with breakfast, tea the rest of the time. Tea helps me relax and think.



Karma for putting tea in bags?

Coffee. If I do not have two cups by 9 o'clock my head will explode!

I'll take a look this morning and get back to you. I just picked up a fresh supply and it's out in my truck.

Since I started drinking Thai iced tea, I find regular tea pretty boring. In fact, Thai coffee, or especially Vietnamese coffee, is well worth a try also if you like strong sweet coffee with milk. It's the perfect accompaniment to VN food. I emphasize the "strong" part above in case you think it's a girlie man's drink.

they also sell instant tea that way..the WW2 Repo Rations people re-box it as part of a UK 24 hour meal pack.

Both

OK, I have a tube in front of me. It looks like a Korean product maybe since the website listed on the pkg is www.nescafe.co.kr. I actually get it through a friend but I believe it's available in some of the Asian stores around here. It's a red, yellow, and gold foil tube about 6 or 7 inches long that says "Nescafe" on it.

I will do both at home and tea in the field. Though my cousin has an espresso maker as part of his personal items so at some point I get a couple shots a trip.

I primarily drink coffee but also carry several (8-10) tea bags as well.

I carry instant hot chocolate w/marshmallows packets during the winter also.

We have that stuff here in New Zealand. I haven't tried the Nescafe one, but I have tried 'Gold Kili' brand (from Singapore). The 3-in-1 tea is almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea, and the coffee isn't too bad. There is also Gold Kili Espresscino, which is 2-in-1 coffee (instant coffee and creamer, no sugar).

A

We had a guide make "river coffee" for us one morning camping on the Penobscot River in Maine. (We were on a multi-day white water trip, first day included some Class V rapids, and we all needed something to kick us into gear for day 2.)
-ground coffee is dumped into a boiling pot of water on the campfire coals and cooks for a while
-the pot is removed from the heat, sits for a minute so the grounds settle to the bottom.
-an egg is cracked into the pot, which settles to the bottom, and "cooks" the grounds in place
-carefully, you pour off the liquid into your cup, mostly the gounds stay in the egg

It's strong, powerful stuff, perfect for kicking off a day on the river. (The first few cups are best, the last couple are a little scary)

Coffee is the Nectar of the Gods

I am by now means anything other than a peasant when it comes to coffee. Maxwell House/Folgers/whatever works fo me just fine.

That coffee would be Korean alright, I see it all over the place here. I didn't know it had the creamer and sugar already in it though, since I don't really drink coffee. I don't usually need a caffeine boost to get through the day.

I usually drink hot chocolate in the winter time. Very comforting and requires no acquiring of taste. But its also bulkier to carry then tea or unadulterated coffee and it leaves a bigger mess to clean up.

I've just recently gotten into drinking tea, partly for the relaxation of making it and partly because, well, I'm in Asia. I'm even starting to enjoy it . But tea also has several advantages over coffee. One is that if you're drinking loose leaf tea, it doesn't go stale as quickly as ground coffee. It can last up to two years. A good thing if you're planning on leaving it in your kit. The same doesn't hold for tea bags though. Tea also contains less caffeine and some other chemicals. It gives you a lower, longer high. The other thing I like is rose hip tea or herbal teas that contain rose hips. They're usually pretty tart which I like, and rose hips contain a lot of vitamin C and iron which might be useful.

Coffee, hot and black. Nothing else needed, no cream, sweetners, or any of that candy @#$ stuff. I hate tea...

I've posted about this before, but back in Oz I found a source for real coffee that would go in my EDC just like a tea bag. It was from a company called Robert Timms, and basically was italian Espresso in a single serving bag in a foil pouch. Brews up pretty much like a cup of lipton tea, but tastes tons better than instant. I brought a bunch home cuz you can't seem to import it (I have scoured the web looking for a source here in the states). Anyways, I keep it around for just in case, and it is holding up nicely in the foil pouches. I wish I could find a way to order it stateside. This is far, far better than the folgers or maxwell house packets. I struggle to drink that stuff down.

Coffee. I normally drink 3 cups of Nescafe Instant a day, made with 50% milk in a microwave and 2 spoons of sugar. The closest I can get to that in the wild are the Nescafe Cappuccino pre-packaged sachets. These include a milk powder that provides some froth, and some sugar. I carry extra sugar.

I also keep these sachets in the house to drink when I run out of milk. That way I have a chance of getting through my stockpile before it expires, and they taste good enough that I can put off buying milk a day if I need to.

I pack both. I find that coffee tends to make me thirsty after drinking, which tea doesn't.

I have a few different teas that I pack with me. Some of them give me a better caffeine boost than coffee does without the jitters.

Tea is what one drinks when there is no coffee anywhere to be found...unless it's iced tea of course...;^)

JohnE

I was in an Asian grocery store in Chinatown in LA today. They had 3 different "3-in-1" instant coffees including the Nescafe one in the foil tube.

Cafe Americano - 4 shots of espresso topped off with hot water. They're... addicting. My usual black coffee seems like puddle water now. But I love coffee - everything from cheap stale office coffee in a styrofoam cup to freshly roasted grounds out of a french press, and everything in between.

Tea is great (if there's nothing else in the house to drink).

agree... its my addiction and i'm not afraid to admit it!

"...styrofoam cup..."

Yuk! I always have a Aladan insulated mug hidden away somewhere, just in case...

I'm a coffee guy, though I love tea too. I should switch to tea, or at least have that available in my BOB. Hmmmmm.... into the BOB.

I'll have to test my Google-fu later and see if I can find some. If you find a source please let us know. It sounds pretty good.

I'm normally a coffee drinker. When backpacking/etc I drink instant because any other type of coffee is IMO just too much trouble. I keep coffee and tea in my backpack that lives in the car.

There were a lot of interesting answers.

My turn now.

When I am in the woods it is loose tea.
It is very light to carry and gives me a reason to boil my water, and the tea leaves seem to trap any silt that might be in the water.

If I am a bit turned around stopping to brew a mug of tea lets me think and figure out what to do next, after a mug of tea things always seem better.

Also when hiking with small groups in the cold a small fire and mug up of tea every hour or two is a good way to take a break and warm chilly fingers.
I have not found a really good whitener for it yet, but the little pouches of coffeemate are not too bad.
I enjoy trying different flavours of tea, but tend to only carry one at a time.

In my emergency packs there are a few teabags, pouches of whitener and sugar instant hot chocolate and instant coffee pouches.
Instant hot chocolate and instant coffee make instant Mocha, and that gives you sugar and caffeine at the same time, a real energy booster.

I find ground coffee is just too heavy to carry in the woods, so it is for a special treat at the cabin.
I know people who are just the opposite. They mug up on boiled coffee brewed with a big handful of grounds for each cup and one more for the pot.

I have found small boxes of indivdual coffee bags in the grocery stores.

I also find many coffee-mud drinkers are here in south Lousy-anna.

I personally prefer to drink my coffee, anywhere I go, WITHOUT using a knife and fork!

Yum, Turkish coffee, would you like one lump or two.

I have a fairly broad palate when it comes to different flavors and textures, but I was unable to acquire a taste for strong coffee with Cardamom mixed in it (ala Turkish Coffee). No matter how many times I tried it, I found it so revolting I had to wretch on every swig. It just doesn't work for me.

I can understand this completely.

We were invited into coffee with a group of Muslims in a land far, far away. To refuse their hospitality would have been a detriment to our mission. Yaking up the coffee onto their rugs would have been almost as bad. The group of soldiers I was with warned me it was strong, but I almost lost it any way.

I must have brushed my teeth 5 times after we left, and still had the after taste that night when I went to "bed".

Oh, the memories...I still go into spasm thinking about that first big gulp.

The secret to Turkish or for that matter Armenian coffee, which is ironically, very similiar, is to add copious amounts of sugar and drink it fast to get rid of it as fast as possible.

If anyone has ever seen the quality of the beans that are roasted to be used for Turkish/Armenian coffee, you'd never drink it. I'm talking small pebbles, sticks, dirt, etc.

I used to own a coffee cart business and the roaster I used had contracts to roast private batches of beans for some local Armenian/Middle Eastern restaurants. Truly horrible stuff.

JohnE

Turkish coffee is definitely, umm, err... different...

Got to watch for the grounds at the bottom of the cup too! I knew someone who chugged it all. Not smart.

How strange. It doesn't do that to me. Reports of it being diuretic are wildly exaggerated.

It affects everyone differently.

How much coffee do you drink per day?

I guess it is all about building up tolerance.

Just adding more info. I currently have the "Pine & Crane" and the "Aik Cheong" brand 3-in-1 coffee packets. I got them in Chinese grocery stores. I doubt the Nescafe is really any different as I have the Nescafe instant coffee packs as well.

And for anyone interested, I also have a bunch of 'instant teas' in similar foil packets. That's for those who want to have some orange tea or ginger tea with ya out in the middle of nowhere.

And to answer the OP's question. Both, cause I like mixing them. :p

3 cups. Which isn't excessive. But your body does get good at extracting water out of whatever you regularly consume.

2 pots, 1 pot per watch. That's down from the 10-12 pots per day that I'd do when assigned as Ops Boss on a USCG Cutter!!

Retirement is good for the body!!!!

You have to be careful with coffee.
A cup of that stuff in the morning might keep you awake all day.

Turkish coffee is fine once you've developed a palet for it.
But then, I watched a cowboy fish a dead kangaroo mouse out of our blue speckleware camp pot, toss it into the darkness and pour us a cup.Coffee and water can be precious sometimes.
The WELL prepared survivalist has both to succor all tastes in his party.
I once worked for a cockney car mechanic. I set up a tea mess with an old Brown Betty, a few tea classics and walked every few days next door to the brit import shoppe for digestives.One day, a lady arrived in deep despair with her vintage Jag-U-ar a bit bent after tangling with a Audi. Just as she was explaining what happened, the spanish Heinkle 111 brought over after movie use flew overhead.She saw that shadow, looked up and instinctively ran inside sobbing and cursing Hitler. My boss grabbed the SMLE I had brought by to show him and I sort of pointed it skyward until the old plane passsed. Then we brewed a cuppa Earl Grey and she drank it like medicine- which culturaly it is.
I think it was @ 10 minutes later the cops showed up asking about 'some guy pointing a rifle at airplanes' while sweeping the tiny shop for guns.
We let the Smelly sit submerged in the degreasing drum until closing time.

I knew an old English lady who's answer to everything was a cuppa tea. Nothing that could happen was so bad that a nice hot cuppa wouldn't make it much better.

I knew a guy who trapped by Algonquin Park who had the same answer.
He told me something once, about what to do if I ever managed to get myself turned around and confused about where I was in the woods.
He said the proper response was to immediately and without delay build a small fire and brew a cup of tea. Then after drinking the tea put the fire out and walk back to the last place you knew where you were.


This was a surprisingly good thread. I really enjoyed reading all the different answers.
I must remember to compliment whoever started it!

I'm lucky if I get one cup of coffee a day. Ditto goes for tea. I'm typically drinking water most of the day.

But, to relax and take a moment, definitely a cup of mint tea for me.

If I want to get going... a cup of coffee...