I already carry an AeroPress and I am trying to decide whether a dedicated hand grinder earns its weight. Trips are two or three nights, two people, so about six brews. The all in one camping grinders look sturdy but heavy, and the cheap plastic ones look like they would not survive the trip.
I carry a compact hand grinder and the honest numbers are that it adds a few hundred grams, roughly the weight of a small water bottle, and about ninety seconds of work per brew. That is nothing on a three day trip and it matters on a long thru hike. What sold me was not freshness, it was that beans survive being crushed in a pack and pre ground coffee turns into a compacted brick that brews unevenly.
The compacted brick problem is real, I found that out with a bag that spent two days under a tent pole.
Unpopular answer, but the specialty instant sachets have got genuinely good and they weigh nothing. I still take the AeroPress when the trip is about the coffee and I take sachets when the trip is about the walking. Two of my hiking group switched entirely and neither has gone back.
I own one of the rugged all in one camping grinders and I would buy it again for car camping and never carry it on my back. It is beautifully built, the burrs are fine, and it weighs about what a full water bottle does, which for a two person three day trip is a lot of grams for six brews. The stainless housing is the reason it survives being kicked around a truck bed and also the reason it should stay in the truck.
My cheap plastic grinder snapped its shaft on a cold morning at altitude, which is exactly when I wanted coffee. Steel shaft or grind at home.
@tiny_launch_tess · 4mo ago · 3 replies
For three days, grind at home and seal it properly, and you will not be able to tell. Staling is mostly oxygen exposure, so what matters is squeezing the air out and keeping it cold in the pack, not the calendar. I use a small screw top jar filled to the brim, and by day three it is very slightly flatter and still better than most cafes. The grinder makes sense at a week or on a trip where you are carrying beans for other people.
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@streak_sol · 4mo ago
That rolled bag is a bellows, it pumps fresh air in every time it gets squashed in your pack. Rigid container, no headspace.
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@tarp_and_quilt · 4mo ago
Filled to the brim is the trick I have been missing, I have been using a half empty bag with the top rolled over.
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