Different options on how to make a good cup of coffee when out camping.
Show Notes:
- Making Coffee In the Outdoors
- Ultimate Guide to Camp Coffee
- Ultralight Java Drip (Amazon)
- Minipresso GR, Portable Espresso Machine (Amazon)
- Farberware Stainless Steel Percolator 12-Cup (Amazon)
- Starbucks VIA Instant Pike Place Roast Medium Roast Coffee (Amazon)
- Nescafe Instant Coffee, Single Serve (Amazon)
Transcript:
I’m not sure why coffee and the outdoor experience goes together so well, but I like 2-3 cups a day while I’m camping.
One of my fellow Woodbadge patrol mates put it best when talking about having coffee, simply having it hot and in reach, no cream, no sugar. Over the last few years I’ve taken it to have that way as well.
There are lots of ways to make coffee in the outdoors. I will relate a few of them I have seen but there are more you can view in the show notes. Some folks are so obsessed with their coffee that they even go to the extreme of grinding their beans seconds before brewing.
While I’ll admit this is probably best, I’ll save that discussion for another time.
The first way of making coffee I’ll talk about is called cowboy coffee. Cowboy Coffee is where you take a coffee pot, and place your grounds in the bottom of the pot, and boil it up over an open fire.
There are some tips and variations. The first is to beat up an egg, mix it with the grounds and boil it up, once it’s boiled up add a cup of lukewarm water and let it sit for about 10 minutes.
This adds texture, giving the coffee a round richness. The second variation is to also add the eggshell to the coffee. The eggshells are supposed to clarify the brew. An alterative method of separating the grounds from the coffee is to whip the pot around in a windmill motion; this forces all the grounds to the bottom of the pot.
Another method, that is for the minimalist in the group is to get some instant coffee. These instant coffee single packets are easy – just add water. Granted, the purists in the group will be aghast in horror with even including this, but it’s easy, and you can keep it in your pack forever as part of your just-in-case plan.
Another good method of making single serve coffee is a drip method I learned in Costa Rica.
These windsock type brewers can be placed in your coffee cup, and slowly poor ½ a cup of hot water through, let it sit for about 3 minutes and then pour another ½ cup of hot water through. The sock part can be simply rinsed out, by inverting it, dumping the grounds and washing it out. While the coffee will stain it brown, you can reuse this for about 6 months. It’s made out of Reusable Flannel with a handle. A 3-pack costs only $14.
For a man-made variety of the same concept this Outdoors Ultralight Java Drip from GSI clips to your coffee cup and you put hot water through your grounds into the filter, which weighs less than half an ounce. But, this is what works for us.
For our last variation on coffee is our standard camping percolator quickly brews up to 12 cups of coffee on a camping stove or grill. This method will contain most of the grounds, but as an added tip, if you cut a triangle out of a Scotch-Brite Heavy Duty Scurb Sponge you put in into the spout as you pour it will catch most of the remainder.
Take what you like and leave the rest, and as we say in Woodbadge, feedback is a gift, leave yours below in the comments, with the hope we can all learn together.
I’m Scoutmaster Dave, and this was a bit on camp coffee.
