How to Make Campfire Coffee

One of the best parts of any camping trip is waking up in the cool morning air and watching the sunrise, only made better by a hot, fresh cup of coffee in your hands. While tea and hot cocoa are a little easier to pull off in the wilderness, if you're a die-hard coffee-drinker, there's a good chance you'll be willing to put in a little extra effort to start your morning with a delicious cup of joe.

While there are a wide variety of ways to make coffee over a campfire, many of them require that you bring extra gear specifically for coffee-making. Here, we'll teach you how to make a delicious cup of coffee over a campfire without having to pack any additional gear. For this method, all you'll need to make a great cup of coffee over your campfire is the ground coffee itself -- or if you're a real coffee aficionado, whole beans and a grinder -- potable water, a pot in which to boil your water, and a fire on which to boil it.

So roll out of bed, wipe the sleep from your eyes, and start your day with this great, simple method for brewing old-fashioned campfire coffee.

MAKE THE BEST CAMPFIRE COFFEE BY BUILDING THE RIGHT FIRE

The first step toward your delicious cup of campfire coffee is to build a suitable fire for coffee-making. Just like when it's time to cook at the campsite, the ideal fire for making coffee is small and hot. Once you've gotten the fire started, allow it to burn for a few minutes without adding more wood so that you can gather a small bed of hot coals. Try to gather the coals glowing most brightly into a small circle so that their heat rises directly into the pot.

STEPS TO MAKE CAMPFIRE COFFEE

Once you've got a good bed of glowing coals, it's time to start making coffee. Determine how much coffee you'd like to make, and add the appropriate amount of water to the pot. Place the pot on your circle of the hottest coals, and leave it there until it reaches a rolling boil. Once your water water is boiling, remove it from the fire, give it a few seconds to stop boiling, and add your grounds. How much of the grounds you add will be up to you, depending on how strong you like your coffee, but a good rule of thumb is to add about a tablespoon for every 6 ounces of water. Once you've added the ground coffee to your hot water, allow it to steep for about 5 minutes, and you've got old-fashioned 'cowboy coffee.'

GETTING THE GROUNDS OUT OF YOUR CAMPFIRE COFFEE

Now, if you go ahead and pour the contents of your pot into a mug for drinking, you may notice upon sipping that your coffee is a bit? gritty. Because there's no filter in your pot, all those grounds that would normally end up in the paper filter in a drip coffee maker, or in the bottom of a french press separated by its screen, are right there in your cup. For some people, this is no problem. Believe it or not, some avid campers actually enjoy the grit of their 'cowboy coffee.' For those of us accustomed to a slightly smoother coffee-drinking experience, there are a few ways of getting rid of those grounds, or at least minimizing how many make it to your mouth.

If you've got a pair of large spoons, you can 'skim' the surface of your coffee after it's done steeping, removing many of those grounds floating on the top, as well as getting rid of the bitter, reddish, oily froth that sits atop your coffee. To do this, hold one spoon in each hand, and simply scoop the visible grounds and red froth from the surface of your coffee, taking care not to waste too much of the coffee itself. After you've skimmed your freshly-brewed coffee, pour it into mugs and serve.

Alternatively, a slightly easier but also less effective method of dealing with the grounds in your campfire coffee is to add a little bit of cold water. To deal with the grounds this way, simply add a small amount of cold water to your already-steeped pot of coffee, and give it about 30 seconds. You'll notice that the majority of the grounds floating in and atop your coffee sink to the bottom. After the grounds have stopped sinking, gently pour the contents of the pot into mugs for drinking, taking care not to disturb the grounds that have settled on the bottom.

And there you have it. A delicious cup of campfire coffee that didn't require you to pack any more gear. The next time you go camping, get in touch with your inner cowboy and give this coffee-making method a try.

TWO MORE WAYS TO MAKE CAMPFIRE COFFEE

Instant Coffee

I'll be the first to say this, I hate instant coffee. It's wholly a matter with flavor for me. I find instant coffee to produce a bland, weak flavor. But I am someone that likes really strong coffee. There are some good things with instant coffee. The packages of instant coffee take up almost zero room, they're very durable, and it only takes a minute to make; simply add hot water. Recently there has been a lot of improvements with instant coffee, most companies have begun to use a micro-ground process that takes high quality coffee and grinds it to a super fine consistency, but I still find it a little weak.

If you're someone that does not like very strong coffee and you don't want to spend a lot of time making coffee, and space packing materials and gear for coffee, then Instant Coffee might be perfect for you. A lot of brands come in different flavors, too.

French Press

For me, the French Coffee Press is the way I make coffee while camping. It's more material and gear to bring than if you were making Instant Coffee, but it's easier than Cowboy Coffee, and a little bit more forgiving. The first thing you need is a French Press (weird). Most of them have a glass cylinder, but that is not a good idea for camping. Finding a BPA-free plastic French Press is easy to do and much better for camping.

A French Press requires ground coffee to be added to the cylinder and then add boiling water to it. You let it seep for three or four minutes and then press down on the plunger, which brings a flat, metal disc down over the water, separating the grounds from the water. I find this produces a great cup of coffee without too much in need for supplies. If you make it wrong, while it may not be great, it won't be as bad Cowboy Coffee that is made poorly. After some practice, some of you may find the French Press to be the best way to make coffee, even at home.

There are many more ways to make coffee while camping than just these, but I think these three are the most popular. No matter what kind of coffee you want to make at the campsite, the important thing is that you become practiced with it, comfortable with it. That way you're sure to start each day with a good cup of coffee.