No Normal Coffee Paste

You may be this person. If not, you have been around this person. The need-good-coffee-right-____ing-now! kind of person. Such needs, if not met right then and there, could result in anarchy or mutiny, or at the very least, a partner (or yourself) lacking the stoke to move. This is particularly critical on an overnight or multi-day traverse. The least of which might be good-coffee-withdrawal headaches. Ok. Here’s the lede: No Normal coffee paste might be your answer (or your partner’s answer) to instant coffee. And let’s get straight to it—it might be your answer to fine-tasting coffee in the backcountry. As critical as tech bindings are to our multiday backcountry touring efficiency and joy, coffee ingestion, for some, is just as, or more, critical.  

No Normal is as advertised: It is not normal. It is a coffee paste stored in a resealable tube. The tube resembles a short, girthy tube of toothpaste. The paste is a dark-coffee hued paste with a higher viscosity—it flows from the tube (which seems, at first, to be under mild pressure) a bit like cold honey. 

But it’s a paste, so let’s dive into the tube, so to speak. The paste is simply the remaining extract from No Normal’s roasted beans after the water has evaporated. Once the extract is derived, No Normal adds coffee powder to the extract. This powder consists of microground, whole-roasted beans added to the extract, resulting in an enhanced scent profile. Other ingredients include thickeners (listed as xanthan and arabic gum) and beet sugar.

Alexander Häberlin, one of No Normal’s co-founders, replied to our email asking for production details. He replied:

“We use coffee concentrate, which is essentially brewed coffee from which we extract the water, leaving us with a 20 times concentrated coffee syrup. This is then mixed with microground (as fine as flour) coffee beans and natural emulsifiers, which then results in the paste. If you had the dark roast or the sweet black, there is also some beet root sugar in there, which is grown just a few kilometers away from our production site in Bern, Switzerland. The beans 100% Fair Trade Arabica beans sourced from Colombia.”

No Normal claims its tubes of coffee paste have a shelf life of 15 months. My tube, which probably is/was an older batch, claims a 12-month shelf life. However, once you open the tube, they recommend consuming the paste within 14 days. I ordered the tube in early September; it arrived a few days later, and I cracked it open on September 10. My documentation includes a “best before” date of November 2025. What happens to the flavor, the paste, or your GI tract after November 2025 will not be part of this review. 

No Normal is a Swiss company. The Swiss are known for yodeling, badass mountains, some pretty fine cheeses, and café crème. And now, perhaps something less sexy but definitely flavorful and tasty: coffee paste. 

How To

Using the paste is basic. No Normal recommends 1tsp/3.5 ounces of water. People’s tastes vary, so add more or less paste to hit your coffee-strength sweetspot. I added the paste to piping hot water and stirred to ensure proper mixing. 

If you are a cold-coffee person, do the same, but you will need to stir and likely shake the solution to get a thorough mix.

 

How much is in the tube? No Normal claims 20 1tsp servings are in a single tube. 

Cost: I purchased a tube of their Dark Roast on the No Normal site for $19.99, plus $5.90 shipping, for a total of $ 25.89. This equates to $1.29 per serving. The price adjusts accordingly if you prefer stronger/weaker coffee. My guess is that if you are going the coffee paste route, you prefer strong coffee. 

Yeah, cool, paste: So how does it taste?

I’m going to take a moment here to discuss coffee in the backcountry. I’ve read plenty about the soothing rituals of coffee prep and consumption. And I’m not going to deny that. But oftentimes, or actually all the time, I’m waking in a backcountry mid, my intentions are first to consume coffee, then calories, then pack up, and get on the move. So for me, and all the partners I’ve been with, we place a premium on efficiency, not necessarily the flavor profile of our essential morning joe. 

Which means that the French press and all sorts of bougie methods of coffee making are way way way off the table for our usual touring pursuits. (I prefer the get-out-of-camp faster ritual over the coffee ritual in the backcountry.) No pour-overs. No backcountry espresso makers. No French presses. Just a hard no. We do accept varieties of instant coffee (yeah, the dehydrated kind), which include single-serve coffee bags (think like a tea bag), and now coffee paste.  

As a paste, No Normal offers a few options to get your caffeine hit. You could make a cold brew; you’ll just need to stir more vigorously. Or you could simply dab the paste on your tongue for a jolt, or use it as a spread on a bar.

So…the coffee paste. I like it. I am actually somewhat of an aficionado of cheap instant products. I can tolerate it, often enjoy it (I am outdoors drinking it after all, which makes most things better), but those often have notes of tin and aluminum, which may be the bitterness dancing on my tongue. No Normal elicits none of those tasting notes. The No Normal notes sing less bitter and a whole lot smoother, and a bit more full-bodied, which is how I like my coffee. The tradeoff is that I’m squeezing in more than the recommended 3.5 ounces per serving to make the coffee sing a desirable tune regarding flavor strength. Which means I’m going through the tube faster.

I will add that the paste packs a caffeinated punch. At the recommended portion (the 3.5 oz. serving), no matter how strong you like your cup, you will be buzzing.

In short, No Normal coffee paste tastes better and more complex in a good way than your average instant. The dark roast I ordered comes with a bit of added sugar. I’d say those who prefer their coffee black have nothing to fear regarding being too sweet. No Normal does offer a Sweet Black paste, which has more added sugar. And as an instant coffee snob—Folgers vs. Trader Joe’s, Trader Joe’s for the win—I have experimented with adding just a dab of Trader Joe’s instant to a cup of No Normal, and it tastes great. This method, the addition of the instant, might earn the scorn of Swiss coffee elites, but it will make the tube of coffee paste last longer.

Fears     

It’s not winter yet. And I tested this in my home. Which means above freezing temps. The tube, with routine use, I assume, could wear and crack. Keep it in a Ziploc. And the paste, which contains water, will become more viscous when it freezes. So maybe if you plan on using it first thing in the morning, sleep with it in your bag.

You do have to stir the paste to dissolve it. (No Normal says stir in hot water for 20 seconds. That’s a lot of seconds.) Make sure your cup and stirring method are spill-proof. 

Upsides

A coffee paste offers a reasonably low-fuss way to get a better cup of coffee than basic instant. No Normal coffee paste is a step up in flavor. And a whole lot less bitter. And, yes, a whole lot more versatile than regular dried instant. In desperate times, you can squeeze it in your mouth or on a bar. Once upon a time, maybe 15 years ago, on a desert trip, where we rationed water, I spooned dry instant into my mouth (I was desperate), and I gagged and dry heaved. This would have been a different experience with the No Normal paste. I imagine those tougher than me on an overnight could fully embrace the fast and light and forgo the ritual of hot coffee before the day’s ski/ride objective. In that case, No Normal (warmed in the sleeping bag) dabbed on the tongue might be the best way to start your day. Dry instant on the tongue—yeah, that’s a hard no.

Further, high-end single-serve coffee bags are pricey, averaging around $2.50 per serving. Although I am willing to drop more money on a pair of skimo boots, the cost/serving of the single-serve coffee bag option is too high. I have to draw the line somewhere. No Normal offers a tasty and more cost-effective workaround.

As the season progresses, we’ll conduct further low-key coffee analysis. Part of that analysis involves placing an emphasis on low cost, tolerable flavor (with an emphasis on tolerable), and a very very low fuss factor. 

Overall weight with packaging (the tube): 118g