Last time I talked about all the wrong ways to make trail coffee so now I'm due to talk about how to do it right.  I'm not sure I'm an expert but I do have a lot of experience.  I have three approaches that I recommend to making trail coffee.

The first is a coffee Bistro. Sometimes people call it a French press but it's basically a container that you mix hot water and coffee grounds together and then use a wire plunger to push the coffee grounds to the bottom.  The result is good, strong coffee.  I have one similar to this one that is a tall lexan cup with a plunger built right into it.  My only beef with this approach is the trail weight.  These little french presses are usually as heavy as a Nalgene bottle, roughly 1/2 pound.

The second approach that I have had good luck with is manual coffee filter holders.  These little plastic contraptions are just big enough to sit on top of a cup and hold a coffee filter.  You dump the grounds in the filter and then pour the boiling water through the filter just as if you, yourself, were the drip coffee maker.  I searched around the Internet to find one like I have and the closest I got was this #2 Cone Melitta Perfect Brew Coffee Filter Holder for $3.99.  What I like about these is that they are small, light (like 1-2 oz), the price is right, and they make good coffee.

The third and so far my favorite approach is Turkish Coffee. This little blessing from heaven was introduced to me just a few years ago and I have enjoyed it on almost every trip since.  Turkish Coffee is very strong and extremely finely ground columbian coffee.  The advantage of this stuff is that you can make cowboy coffee with it without the problem of grounds in your teeth. It is so strong that it can be almost undrinkable. Unless you buy the right stuff. I recommend a blend called Cafe' Najjar Green that includes the spice cardamom in it.  The only place I've found to purchase it is through Natasha's Cafe on the Internet. I mix the grounds with sugar and salt in a sandwich baggy prior to my hike in the proportions recommended on Natasha's Cafe site:

6 level teaspoons of sugar
8 heaping teaspoons of Turkish blend
1 pinch of salt

On the trail I fill my pot with about 21-24 oz of water and dump the contents of the baggy in.  Then I boil the pot and watch closely.  When it boils the first time it wants to go right over the top and make a mess so you want to pick it up off the burner as it starts to boil.  After you let it boil for 15-20 seconds you can set it aside for a couple minutes to cool and settle.  Then you're ready to serve.  This stuff is REALLY good, although a bit strange at first. Every coffee lover I've hiked with in the last few years has enjoyed it.

One last note.  I tried replacing the sugar with a sugar substitute called splenda.  Don't do it.  Splenda works in many situations but not this one.  This one calls for regular sugar.  Another thing to know is that the cardamom spice in this coffee is very strong and seems to work it's way into everything nearby.  Double bag the grounds when you hike and store the extra grounds in something impermeable to prevent smelling this stuff all the time.

As much as I like Turkish Coffee, I'm not done searching for the ultimate trail coffee solution.  Let me know if you have an approach that works well for you.