Tea at 10K
So I’ve harassed other peoples threads long enough, I reckon it’s time I start my own.
A little about me, I’m an avid backpacker, and take my backpacking as serious as I do my tea. And I’m a light-weight packer, by this I mean I can spend a week in the back country with a back that weighs 30lbs or less, yes that includes food and 56 oz of water. I tell you this so you keep in mind I don’t like packing anything beyond the necessities, even for tea.
Now my problem is that I’ve never been able to combine my love for fine teas and backpacking, too many logistical challenges and its not like their is a huge market for that kind of tea-ware. So I take bagged tea, one of the few times I willing drink tea from a tea bag, and like it :).
So I was pleasantly surprised when I walked into my local REI today, shopping for a 3 day trip I am going on this weekend, and saw four different tea brewing products designed for backpackers. Needless to say the other customers probably didn’t understand singing “celebrate good times” and did a little dance.
So I was curious if their are any fellow backpackers here on steepster, how do you get your tea fix when your in the backcountry? And a side question what is the highest elevation you’ve enjoyed a cup of tea at?
Mine is 10K, now this is probably not fair since I used to live at that elevation.
Cheers and Have a Great Weekend!
STS
I am a very clumsy backpacker. The only thing I like about backpacking is it can take me to places where I can’t get by other means. But all the walking and carrying (and no bath room no shower…) is quite tough for me. So I’ve never carried tea with me on backpacking trips, not even coffee. My fellow backpackers are not tea drinkers. So far what’s seen on the campground is only alcohol :-p
But I will see what interesting methods people would use! So far the easiest I could think of is cold brewing. I don’t really feel like to take tea after three days no shower :-p But it’s just me. I feel I wasn’t born for backpacking, but just got dragged into it.
My highest elevation of tea drinking is in Yunnan, Lijiang. I guess it’s sort of 9-10k. But I guess the tea was boiled on stove-top, and it was sort of puerh+herbs, as I later figured out.
Can I ask what the products that you saw in REI were? Are they on the website? My tea obsession is only a little over a year old, so I haven’t spent any time trying to enjoy my tea in the wilderness yet. I’m not a backpacker, but I do camp for ~2 month stretches when I am on paleontological expeditions, and your topic has gotten me to thinking what I would do about tea during that time. I have drunk tea during expeditions, but usually just the crappy local tea bags (even worse than American), and I’m not sure I’ll want to go back to that next summer. I’m not limited by weight, but I would need some quick and non-fussy method. Of course my other problem is heat: any tea I brought with me would inevitably be subjected to very extreme heat during the day, so I’m probably better off sticking to not my favorites!
The highest elevation that I know I’ve had tea is only about 2k
When I went camping, all I could figure out was that matcha shaken vigorously in a water bottle actually tastes decent, and does foam up a little as well.
It’s good to know there are options out there besides that!
I think these are what STS mentioned about REI tea gears?
http://www.rei.com/search?query=tea&button.x=0&button.y=0
And for Canadians, here are from MEC (a lot of them are actually for coffee though)
http://www.mec.ca/Search/search.jsp?N=10&No=0&Ntt=tea
Yep those are them, I find it mildly amusing that msr sticks their name on a finum filter and doubles the price, oh well.
old topic i’m drudging up!
i enjoy trail running which means i tend to camp overnight, and then run, and then camp overnight, and then run… you get the idea.
but since if i do hike in, it’s not usually very far, i am not necessarily a lightweight packer.
i will still find room for the tea essentials no matter what. and i usually have a mini stove with me for heating water. that way i can make some tea quickly first thing in the morning, and then start a fire for lunch and relaxation after i get back from my long run. i guess tea is part of running for me.
(also i will admit, when it comes to trail running, sometimes the mountains and hills make it much more like a hike than a run hah)
When I saw the title of this thread I thought it was about drinking tea before or after a 10k (6.1 mile)race!
I don’t climb but beside running, I do sometimes hike and travel a lot. In many restaurant supply stores you can find small (10z, 3-4 in) stainless steel teapots imported from China. Before heading out, I fill a plastic baggy with leaves of my tea of choice, scrunch it into the metal pot and put it into my pack or luggage. Then I always have a portable, indistructable tea pot with me so that I’m never reduced to using bags when hiking or traveling.
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