Sugar advice

[Aaron l]

How did you all carry sugar for coffee/tea on your thru hike? I have found that ziplock is less than ideal because the sugar always messes up the zipper and humidity ends up gumming the whole thing up. I'm considering just not bringing any but it is an important morning ritual of mine, any suggestions?

[colorado_rob]

What about cubes? I wonder if they would hold up better.

Editorial add on: Or, just lose that sugar ritual/habit... why ruin one of the tastiest drinks out there with sugar (or cream, for that matter....)?

[Puddlefish]

I'm thinking cubes might wear through the zip bag, or just crumble and cause the same mess. A salt type shaker might work, unless it hardens into a solid block. Sugar straws might work, but I'm hesitant to recommend such overpackaging and waste.

[Old Hiker]

I just put hot chocolate mix into my instant coffee, plus a little powdered milk for a mocha. I mix up a one pound sized peanut butter jar at a time. I've played with it and this gives me about 10-12 1/2 liter mugs of coffee.

I've also carried pink lemonade mix for a hot drink at night without the caffeine.

Haven't had to carry sugar.

[Aaron l]

This sounds kinda funny but have you all ever heard of someone using a lolly pop type thing, you know stir your hot tea which would dissolve some of the sweetener and re wrap the pop for later, just thought of this haha

[rafe]

Double-bagged in ziplocs, rubber band around the outer bag. Or a small plastic bottle with wide mouth and screw top (get 'em at REI or EMS, etc.) I'm with you, I must have my evening tea... with real sugar.

[swjohnsey]

I make up baggies (Ziploc) with 1/4c of ground coffee and 1/4c sugar and make cowboy coffee. Any kind of sugar will work including brown and powdered.

[johnnybgood]

Pill bottle in a ziplock.

[Rain Man]

When I carry sugar I carry it in the little paper individual-serving-size packets that it comes in at most restaurants. Put those in a zip-lock bag. If it's going to be humid, I might even put a desiccant packet (I make my own) in the zip-lock.

But mostly on the trail I switch to hot chocolate. Simple.

[Bronk]

http://www.amazon.com/DOMINO-SUGAR-PACKETS-3-54g-Packs/dp/B0005ZXKX4/ref=sr_1_4?s=grocery&ie=UTF8&qid=1455379577&sr=1-4&keywords=sugar+packets

[Silverking]

little squeeze bottle of liquid sweetner

[Blue Mountain Edward]

Plastic soda bottle full of sugar for coffee, tea and koolaid. Yes it is heavy but I bring enough to share.

[MuddyWaters]

If sugar packets is too easy and you are just dieing to make things complicated:
You can fill plastic drinking straws with the amt you want to use, then heat seal them with an iron. You can make several segments per straw. Waterproof as well.

[bigcranky]

Sugar packets work. Buy them from minimus.biz or ask at a restaurant.

[Christoph]

I too tried the freezer bag ziplock and artificial sweetener (only because it was so much lighter) thing. Had the exact same issues. I think next time would get a small plastic jar like an instant coffee sized jar to carry. Resupply is so easy so you wouldn't need to carry much either.

[TexasBob]

Sugar packets work. Buy them from minimus.biz or ask at a restaurant.

Grocery stores sell them, no need for Minimus.

[nsherry61]

The most awesome sugar container I've ever used is a simple Whirl-Pak sample bag (https://www.enasco.com/c/whirlpak/Whirl-Pak%26%23174%3B+Bags/). You'll need to find a lab at some university to get these in quantities of less than 500, but they totally rock! They seal air tight. You can carry liquids in them if you want. They come in all kinds of sizes, including very small. They work like a mini starbucks coffee bag with essentially a twist-tie type roll-top closure. They are tough enough you don't need to double bag anything. Powders don't screw with the roll-top seal. They are many times over reusable.

[RockDoc]

Use stevia and save yourself from rotting your teeth and insulin spike/T2D.

[Mtsman]

a screw top anything with rice added as a desiccant should do you just fine.

[lisaj825]

I use the little stevia tablets. One little tablet is more than enough for a cup of coffee. You can get them in a small tin. Simple.

[Tennessee Viking]

Sugar packets w/ sponge in ziplock bag.

[Gonecampn]

I carry the individual packets or I use my empty nicotine tablet bottles ( perfect size ). I found out by mistake that they are water resistant and don't leak :) I fill one with instant coffee and the other with sugar when I'm on the the trail. I have a stash of them now and use them for many things when traveling lotion, shampoo, small items, etc. If you aren't using tablets find a friend who is and collect them, they're great :)

[Venchka]

Agave Nectar. Available in single serving packages. 1 teaspoon per 16 ounce mug. I gave up sugar 3-4 years ago. I promptly lost 40 pounds of skin out trail weight, and it has not returned.

Wayne


Sent from somewhere around here.

[Dogwood]

Two packets of Sugar in the Raw in a 20 oz Via Columbian, 100% Kona, or real Blue Mountain w/ 2 oz of real H&H swirled with a wooden swizzle stick four times in a clockwise direction rather briskly. If swirling counter clockwise it tends to make me hike backwards. Stevia makes me gassy.

Seriously, before coffee drinking became an Epicurean art form imbibed lounging in faux Brazilian leather or Eames ergonomically correct recliners while studying pretentious reading material as Architectural Digest, Elle, New Yorker, or WSJ later to be pricey slippery TP we just used sugar carried in anything IF we were fortunate AND we were happy. H&H was a rarefied luxury.

[Sass]

have to drink coffee like me COWBOY style black no nuttin

[Miel]

If sugar packets is too easy and you are just dieing to make things complicated:
You can fill plastic drinking straws with the amt you want to use, then heat seal them with an iron. You can make several segments per straw. Waterproof as well.

Please, no. It is too easy for them to end up in the waste stream, killing sea animals (sea turtles are veeery prone to inhaling these through their nostrils, then die) including cetaceans, who mistake them for food. It clogs their digestive system, they beach themselves, then die.

Unless, of course, you carry said straws out with you, and appropriately recycle.

Plastic straws are nothing less than an environmental hazards (as are those plastic grocery store bags - Brookline, Mass., among other communities, has banned them.)

[Miel]

But, like the OP, I must have my coffee with sugar, and have gone the bottle route when on more than a day hike. (Sugar packets also contribute to the waste stream.) The extra weight it worth it to me. I have so few vices these days, sugared coffee is one of them. I hate anything with milk in it, so cocoa is out. And I don't get the energy from it. YMMV.

[Platypus2016]

Buy a small jar (maybe one that had relish, or bulion cubes) empty it out and fill with sugar 😀

Platypus

[Han Sobo]

I love coffee, safe to say I am never far from it. So sugar is always near as well as powdered milk or creamer.

I have gone over to individual sugar packets they cost a bit more then buying a larger quantity of sugar. I have found that the paper waste makes a great fire starter. So that the waste materials and weight becomes negligible next time I cook on a fire. These packets do well in a plastic ziplock, or in any other recycled plastic packaging bag. I have not ever done the rice or sponge method for sugar. I do put rice in with my salt.

I was mixing up a pre made instant coffee mixture with sugar, powdered creamer. Packed into a screw top plastic container. The problem is you get stuck with the same mix till it runs out. Some days I just want it black.. Or stronger. Another problem with this method is having a kitchen set up to make this mixture is not always available.. I would end up with more waste materials when traveling usually left over sugar / creamer powder.

Now I buy these individual packets of instant coffee (toss the cardboard packaging asap.) Same thing with the Individual sugar packets, all of which I put in their own outer plastic wrap.. These all do good through weathering, just don't fall over in a stream. This is more expensive then making up a mixture but far less work. Over all waste material is also noticeably less. Well I guess technically more in individual small bits of plastic packets from the coffee. They just weigh less and compact more.

I like to have sugar separated, because I also like to hit my instant oats with some. Harder to do (er' swallow) if you have a pre mix coffee/sugar blend.

Another problem is not every time I have stopped in a store do they carry individual sugar packets, or those small instant coffee packs. So Sometimes I do end up carrying around a small bag of sugar.

Anyhow I try to stay flexible and so I also have a smallish percolator I take with me on longer voyages. Comes in handy just for boiling water sometimes. Not a piece of equipment most hikers like, what with trends leaning to the Ultra light.

I do like that straw idea not one that could easily be done while doing a resupply stop, but for heating a piece of metal up fire side I suppose.

[Odd Man Out]

I'm not an Agave fan

https://authoritynutrition.com/agave-nectar-is-even-worse-than-sugar/

[dudeijuststarted]

if you're drinking coffee just put a piece of chocolate bar in there...

[AlyontheAT2016]

You could do what I did a few years ago for my health: wean yourself off of sugar, and it's one less thing to worry about packing in and out :)

[wannahike]

If you have to have it you could get some of these, cheaper at an Asian market.

http://www.amazon.com/G7-3-Instant-Coffee-Sachets/dp/B008KZAFZM