Washington Trails Association members share their backcountry coffee secrets  ...the Cowboy Coffee techniques sound pretty adventurous (amusing ;)...

http://www.wta.org/magazine/WA-TRAILS-01-08-FEATURE2.pdf

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Jane Garbisch - Site Sherpa

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"We are here on the planet only once.... might as well get a feel for the place."
- Annie Dillard

On the cowboy coffee dilema. We just strain the coffe trough a used sock to get the grounds out.

It also add a unique taste to it  ;-)

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"There is this to be said for walking: It's the one mode of human locomotion by which a man proceeds on his own two feet, upright, erect, as a man should be, not squatting on his rear haunches like a frog." --Edward Abbey

My mother made "cowboy coffee" both in the woods and at home. A little cold water added after the coffee has brewed settles the grounds. You also need to pour carefully, especially for the last cup in the pot. I wouldn't want to do it for one person, but it works fine for a group. At high altitude (like 10,000 feet in the Rockies), just brewing without a short boil produces coffee about the color of black tea. The trick is to get that pot off the stove/out of the fire just before it boils over. Let it sit a few minutes to brew and then pour just a little cold water into the spout of the coffee pot.

I found a halfway decent instant coffee, a German brand called "Mt. Hagen," at the health food store (Wild Oats, now being turned into Whole Paycheck). It saves packing out the coffee grounds, at least.

I prefer my coffee with hot milk (the French "cafe au lait" or, as they call it now, "cafe creme" even though they use milk. My problem is the dried milk I have tried a number of dried milks and they all taste uniformly horrible when heated, although they are OK cold (as on cereal). As a result I have given up drinking coffee in the mornings while out backpacking and, amazingly, don't miss it, even though at home I insist on my 2-3 cups.

Since while backpacking I eat cold cereal (meusli or granola) in the mornings, I stopped using my stove altogether for breakfast. It saves time and fuel. On a really frosty morning, I break down and heat just enough water for a cup of tea.

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May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view.--E.Abbey

My wife and I are coffee snobs -- a pretension very difficult to maintain in the woods.  We have the exact same plastic French press that is pictured in the article, and it's not good.  Probably because plastic expands and contracts so much more than glass, they could not make a tight-fitting screen for the press, so grounds always escape into what you're going to drink.  To compensate for this obvious flaw, the makers put a second, fine mesh screen at the lid to filter the remaining grounds as you pour.  The result: the thing is always clogging up so you can't pour your coffee.  You have to tinker and mess around a whole lot more than either of us like to do before we've had our coffee.  Admittedly, what you do end up getting to drink is excellent.

We do like the lightness and size of the plastic pitcher, which comes with a removable neoprene insulating jacket .  So on trips where weight isn't a huge deal, we tend to use that with our littlest Melita cone filter and paper filters, and leave the lid and press at home.  That method works really, really well. 

On trips where I'm trying to minimize weight (my wife never goes on those trips), I renounce my coffee snobbery and just use the Folgers "tea" bags, which do contain caffeine. 

I have a camp espresso maker that they mention.  It's a small device that uses steam pressure to heat up water and push it through the grounds.  It's kind of a novelty, and it makes something sort of drinkable that I would hesitate to call espresso.  They are right that it can be touchy- I had trouble at first succeeding with it while testing it at home.  Even trickier on a backpacking stove.  Also, if you get one, I would run it 5-10 times with just water before drinking it.  They are made from some cheap metal and it flavors the water.

I also have a mug with a built in french-press (and a place on the bottom to keep grounds), which doesn't weigh too much, but is a little bulky. 

The easiest/lightest way to get a decent cup of coffee mgiht be to just get a plastic filter holder, a filter, some grounds, and pour hot water over the grounds.

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Dan - Site Cartographer

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The easiest/lightest way to get a decent cup of coffee mgiht be to just get a plastic filter holder, a filter, some grounds, and pour hot water over the grounds.
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Once you get above 6-7,000 feet or thereabouts, just pouring the hot water over the grounds doesn't quite do it. It may be OK (if sometimes marginal) for the elevations we camp at in the Cascades, but in the Rockies you're going to have an awfully pale brew!

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May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view.--E.Abbey

GrannyHiker, did you notice in the article they specifically discuss cafe au lait:  

For those who drink their café “au lait,” you’re faced with some choices.
Milk is available in vacuum-packed boxes.

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Dan - Site Cartographer

It's not going to get better than this.

Read the customer reviews.  I use mine every day at home.