These Coffee Tea Bags Will Give You a Perfect Cup of Joe While You're On the Go
Courtesy of Wildland Coffee
As the expression goes, desperate times call for desperate measures. For camping enthusiasts, frequent flyers, and van lifers, those desperate times often involve lacking access to a reliable drip coffee machine or even a one-cup percolator. A typically nasty, yet often necessary solution? Tiny packets of instant coffee.
ICYDK, instant coffee is made by roasting and grinding whole coffee beans and brewing the grounds for coffee, which is then dehydrated through processes such as freeze-drying, according to a review published in the Journal of Food Science and Technology. Since the dry java is usually created to satisfy the need for quick and cheap coffee, some producers may not put as much TLC into the bean selection or brewing temperature as first-class makers would, Food & Wine reports. When those dehydrated powders of often low-quality coffee dissolve in hot water, you're left with a sippable — albeit bitter- or bland-tasting — cup of Joe.
Thanks to Wildland Coffee's Coffee in a Tea Bag (Buy It, $18, amazon.com), however, the days of sipping on java that tastes like burnt bean juice are long gone. Just as the name implies, the brand's Coffee in a Tea Bag product is a compostable tea bag filled with ground — but not pre-brewed and dehydrated — coffee beans. The beans are sourced from sustainable, ethical farms in Brazil, then they're roasted, ground, and packaged in sachets in San Diego before making their way into your favorite mug. (Related: The Health Benefits of Coffee Will Make You Feel Good About Pouring That Second Cup)
Buy It: Wildland Coffee Coffee in a Tea Bag, Medium Roast, $18 for 10, amazon.com
The tea bag brewing method is similar to the French press coffee-making method, in which ground beans soak in hot water for a few minutes. In this case, specifically, the coffee-filled sachet is placed in a cup or travel mug of piping hot water, steeped for roughly eight minutes, then tossed in the trash or compost bin. The result: a perfectly brewed, cup of coffee that lends notes of chocolate, caramel, and nuts and packs 160 milligrams of energizing caffeine, according to the company. (FTR, a standard 8-ounce cup of coffee offers 80 to 100 milligrams of caffeine, according to the Food and Drug Administration.)
Despite the differences between the instant stuff and these coffee tea bags, they both do share one must-have quality: an extended shelf-life. Each of the individually packaged coffee tea bags is "nitro-flushed," meaning the oxygen in the container is replaced with nitrogen, which prevents the oxidation process that causes your coffee to taste completely flavorless, according to Wildland Coffee. Thanks to this innovative technique, the coffee tea bags will stay fresh for at least a year, so rest assured, that pouch you left in your hiking bag last summer should still have the same mellow, sweet flavor profile today.
Given the coffee tea bags' convenience, portability, and straight-outta-the-roaster flavor, it's no surprise Amazon shoppers are obsessed. "The individual bags are easy to pack and stay fresh, and it's much less messy to brew and clean up compared to a french press or pour-over," wrote one five-star reviewer. "Their medium roast is slightly nutty and not too acidic — much more pleasant than instant coffee granules. The bag seems sturdy and [the] string [is] well-attached — no worries pulling the full, steeped bag out of the mouth of my Hydroflask."
Another coffee fanatic and camping lover even went as far as calling it "love at first sip." "The aroma of freshly brewed coffee wafts from the cup while it's steeping, and if you stand close while waiting for the steep to conclude, you may just relive falling in love for the first time all over again," they wrote.
Buy It: Wildland Coffee Coffee In a Tea Bag, Medium Roast, $33 for 20, amazon.com
A perfectly portioned cup of coffee that'll make you swoon? Sold. Head to Amazon to stock up on Wildland's coffee tea bags now so you can get the caffeine fix you need on your next big adventure.
