Tips For Brewing Coffee While Camping

The sounds of birds chirping gently make their way through your subconscious. You stretch trying to easy the kinks from your body all the while sniffing for the familiar smell of coffee brewing from your programmed coffee maker. Rubbing your eyes, you realize that you are in the middle of the wilderness the aches in your body are from sleeping on the ground in a sleeping bag. You further realize that there is no coffee waiting for you. Without an electric socket or a Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks in sight you will have to make do with coffee on a campfire.

Just because you have to forego the brewed coffee that you are used to it does not mean that you have to resort to instant coffee just because you are camping. Of course, if you like instant coffee then you are all set with boiling some water over the campfire and making a quick cup of what some people believe pass as coffee. If you are more sophisticated in your coffee tastes then you are going to need to learn the basics of brewing coffee over an open flame.

The easiest way to brew coffee over an open flame is to employ the traditional campfire or cowboy method. This is simply boiling water with two tablespoons of coffee per each 6 ounce cup. After it comes to a boil remove from heat and let the coffee steep for five minutes. Then add a quarter cup of cold water to settle the grounds and serve. Even though the cold water settles the grounds I do pour the coffee through a fine strainer into the cups. It isn’t as necessary for the first few cups, but you’ll be glad you did it when it comes to the end of the pot.

Other ways of brewing coffee over a campfire include the use of a percolator and a French press. The percolator is probably the most common method of the two, but you get a better cup of coffee with the French press and that is the method that I recommend if you are going to brew your coffee any other way than the campfire method while camping.

To use a French press you will need to have two tablespoons of coffee per 6 ounces of water just as you do in the campfire method. The coffee should be of a medium grind. Put your coffee into the French press and set aside while you boil the water. Add the boiling water to the French press and allow the grinds to steep in the water for three to five minutes. Be sure the plunger is on and down just far enough to eliminate any air in the pot. After steeping slowly press the plunger down to the bottom of the pot and serve. This method is very much like the campfire method with the addition of a plunger to keep the coffee grounds in place.

No matter which method you choose to brew your coffee there are a few tips to keep in mind to have a great cup of coffee.

-Bring your own bottled water with you. You do not know what the condition of the water will be where you are camping and a good cup of coffee starts with good quality water.

-Use fresh coffee. While it may not be practical to grind your own beans while camping you can ensure freshness of your grounds by storing them in an airtight container.

-Use a good quality coffee. You can’t make a good cup of coffee if the coffee itself isn’t good to start with.

Now you are ready to make coffee in the great outdoors. You can wake up to the sounds of the birds, stretch out any kinks from sleeping on the ground, make your campfire, and within no time you will smell the familiar aroma of brewing coffee.