Jiva Coffee Cubes

I love good coffee. I normally start the day with a couple of cups of freshly brewed strong coffee, and one of the things I miss when out hiking is a decent cup of coffee to get me going in the morning. Sometimes I take a small stovetop espresso pot, but there was no way that I had space or weight for that on the Big Wales Thing trip. I know there are the real coffee pouch/sachets that you add water to, but they were just too bulky and expensive. What I needed was some sort of instant coffee that had the taste and kick of the real thing.

So I was very interested when I came across a review of Jiva Cubes in an outdoor blog. Good tasting instant coffee cubes?  Sounds perfect!

Jiva Cubes are the brainchild of Natalia Rodriguez and Allen Gomberg, who use a traditional Colombian recipe of high quality coffee and raw refined sugar to produce solid cubes that dissolve in hot water (or milk) to produce an instant brew. You can read their whole story and learn all about Jiva Cubes at jivacubes.com. As you can see in the picture the cubes are a bit bigger than a sugar cube and come individually wrapped, which is great for packing in a hiking food bag. 

I got a sample pack from Jiva, and found that they were just what I was looking for. A couple dropped into a mug of hot water makes a delicious brew. The cubes are not as compact as a hotel room coffee sachet, but there is no comparison for quality and taste. 

I don't normally take sugar in coffee, so the taste is a bit sweeter than I am used to, but that makes up for the fact that I would normally take milk, and I didn't have any with me on this trek. (I'd fill a small nalgene bottle of milk if I was in a B&B, but it would be off within 12 hours.)

Jiva cubes come in a range of flavours, including mocha, caramel, vanilla and hazelnut, but I soon found that I preferred the basic coffee and the mocha. I stocked up with these and packaged them up to take with me in my food bag.

My daily or twice daily brew of Jiva coffee became a real highlight and was a treat in the early mornings as I sat pondering the day ahead, or in the evening as I relaxed after a long day's running and walking.

Many thanks to Natalia and Allen. Having a handful of your cubes is now a permanent feature of my walking brew kit!

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Meet me for coffee.

We shall sit where poets sat

and talk of life and love and art,

For in this dark brew swims music and words and thoughts.

Annamaria Murphy

Seen at the Eden Project, on a coffee cup