How To Make Great Campfire Coffee

August 1, 2018|Russell Volz|Brewing And Drinking

Have you every made campfire coffee? Unfortunately, it’s often not near as good as the coffee that you make at home and often it’s down right pretty nasty stuff. It’s doubly disappointing when you’ve become accustomed to Lake City Coffee’s fresh roasted, naturally sweet, whole bean coffee.

Let’s face it. After hiking, camping, playing all day, and perhaps not sleeping so well, by morning, you’re pretty much in the mood for a great cup of coffee. So, how do you make that same awesome soul satisfyingly smooth coffee when you’re out in the wilderness?

Recently, I faced the same dilemma. My son-in-law, Jonny, and I were going fishing to a high mountain lake in Northern Idaho. This was going to be a two hour drive on a Friday night, make camp at the trail head, then hike in the next morning for two days of glorious fishing.

Cold Brew Coffee

We planned to skip breakfast that first morning at the trail head, thus no campfire coffee the first morning. Instead, I decided to prepare cold brew coffee before we left home. I tossed a ¼ cup of course ground coffee into a quart Mason jar, filled it with cold filtered water, shook it twice, and stuck it in the refrigerator. The next day before we left, I used a metal coffee filter that comes with most drip machines to strain out the grounds. I then put the filtered coffee back into the Mason jar, added a touch of cream, put the lid on the jar, and put the jar into the ice chest. Easy-peasy, our cold brew coffee was ready for tomorrow morning.

By the way, if you haven’t tried Cold Brew Coffee, it’s perhaps the most naturally sweet coffee that you’ve ever tasted. Don’t even think about adding a sweetener until you’ve tried it naked.

As we broke camp the fist morning, we thoroughly enjoyed our cold brew, which was a relief after the “cold brews” that we over indulged on the previous night around the campfire. If you get my drift? After the coffee, we started hiking into the mountain lake. Don’t ask me which lake, because I’m not going to tell you. It’s Jonny’s and my secret lake.

Campfire Coffee

Traditionally campfire coffee is similar to cowboy coffee. And let me tell you, unless you like your coffee thick as mud and twice as bitter, then stay away from cowboy coffee, unless you’re looking to strip chrome off your bumper.

Otherwise consider the AeroPress method of brewing coffee. The AeroPress is very small, very light, and fast. In fact, I use the AeroPress every morning at home, and so do thousands of true, dyed in the wool, card carrying coffee snobs like me.

All you need to bring is:

AeroPress (6 ounces, 2.5” x 6” – Watch My Video Here)
Java Presse Hand Grinder (6 ounces, fits inside AeroPress – See our Brewing Equipment Page)
Whole Bean Coffee (2-4 ounces – See Our Shopping Page)
Sturdy Cup (See our Brewing Equipment Page) pagehttps://www.lakecitycoffee.com/whole-bean-coffee/

For hot water, we just placed our camp pot on the fire. Then we ground our coffee using the Java Presse and brewed the coffee using the AeroPress.

True Mountain Coffee

So, how was the coffee? After driving two hours, hiking two hours, fishing all day, and sleeping on top of a mountain with stars shining from heaven, I have to admit, the next morning, almost any coffee would have been good.

But I can honestly say the coffee was, at the very least, just as good as the Lake City Coffee that I make every day at home. And maybe even a bit better.

Oh, you might want to know that we did catch a few fish. 🙂