How to make coffee when camping

There are few things in life better than a freshly brewed coffee in the wild. If we were to sell an album of “TOP 40 CAMPING SOUNDS!” then the gentle rolling boil of a kettle, the whirr of a coffee grinder, and the sleepy unzipping of a tent would be in the top 10 for sure.

But you’re reading this blog because instant coffee just doesn’t cut it, even where you’re travelling light, but you need to find that balance between embracing the limitations of nature and making sure your cup isn’t under-extracted, ashy rubbish. So read on for the Field Blends team’s favourite ways to brew coffee on the campsite, with a few bonus tips to getting the best cup possible at the end!

The Best WAY TO brew coffee when camping:

1) The Aeropress

The Aeropress is an exceptional method of brewing on the go. It takes up minimal space, is super hardwearing, fairly cheap, and brews a really great cup. (There’s even a whole international Aeropress Championship dedicated to finding those brewing it best, and back in 2018 our very own Sam took a rather respectable 2nd place in the UK Championships!)

In addition to the above pros, the bonuses of the Aeropress are that it’s quite forgiving and flexible on grind size and water temperature. You’ve ground your coffee too fine? - Just steep it shorter. Too coarse? - Leave it in a bit longer.

The biggest drawback to the Aeropress is it’s brewing capacity, it’s probably best suited to solo campers or maybe brewing for two if you brew a strong concentrate and top it off with some hot water! Here’s our recipe for both:

1) Screw on the filter cap and set your aeropress over a mug
2) Pour in a little boiled water to rinse the filter and warm up the cup, discard.
3) Add in your medium-coarse ground coffee, if you’re weighing it then it’s 17g, if not then a generous scoop will do.
4) Fill with hot water leaving an inch at the top, give it a little stir, and then insert the plunger to create a seal.
5) Leave it for a few minutes whilst you get the stove on the go for breakfast, or relax and listen to the birds.
6) Remove the plunger, give it another quick stir, and then reinsert and plunge it all the way through into the cup.

If you’re brewing for two then double the amount of coffee and leave it to brew for a little bit longer, then top off with hot water in each cup after sharing it out.

2) The POurover

Pourovers while camping can seem a little ridiculous, but hear us out… It’s usually the reserve of those who really love putting the time and attention into their morning brew, the types to get the scales, thermometers and gooseneck kettles out getting it juussttt right. If you can relinquish a little bit of control and embrace the unpredictability, pourovers can be a delightfully slow and mindful way to get your coffee fix in the morning whilst camping.

There’s a plethora of different brands, materials and sizes available but we’d recommend avoiding glass and going for metal, plastic or wood. The bigger size is always going to be more flexible if you’re brewing for two or more but the drawback here is that you’ll need a decanter/thermos big enough to hold the whole brew; something 500ml or bigger. A stainless steel Kalita 185, or a plastic Hario V60 02 is a great shout, but Snow Peak do a rather nifty collapsible dripper if space is a concern!

For 2:

1) Pop your filter in the brewer and rinse it with some hot water over your decanter/thermos, discard the water
2) Boil 500ml of water
3) Get 30g, or a good couple of tbsp, of quality ground coffee and add to the brewer
4) Add enough water to cover all of the grounds and quickly stir to make sure there’s no clumps.
5) Continue to add the water slowly, in circular motions. If you need to take a break to stop it overflowing thats fine.
6) Once all 500ml is in, give it one last little stir and a little swirl of the brewer.
7) Let it all continue to drip through. If it takes longer than 4-6 minutes then your coffee may be ground a bit too fine.

3) The Cafetiere

The humble cafetière is oft maligned in the world of speciality coffee, but with a little bit of thought, and some good quality beans, the Cafetiere probably takes the crown for lowest effort vs highest reward when we’re out camping.

It’s probably fairly obvious but we’d avoid glass cafetieres. A simple plastic one will last you ages, or they come in stainless steel if you want to avoid the plastic! Some camping stove manufacturers like JetBoil and MSR even make a specific coffee press attachment for their camping stoves, saving on pack space and providing a neat all in one solution!

The Cafeteire/French Press/Coffee press (whatever you want to call it) is an ideal way to brew for 2 to 4 campers. Here's how we brew ours:

1) Add 30g (approx 2 heaped tbsp) to your cafetière
2) Fill it with boiled water up to 500ml (If your cafetière is bigger then just go by the 60g / L rule)
3) Give it a stir and leave it alone for a few minutes
4) Seriously. Leave it alone for a bit longer. (I often leave my cafetière brewing for up to 10 minutes! I’ll explain briefly below…)
5) At this point you can either gently plunge before pouring out, or even better leave the plunger mesh at the top of the brew and pour through it like a strainer.

Why leave it? As the coffee is extracted, and the water becomes less efficient at extracting the tasty bits, you run very little risk of overextracting the coffee. Over time the little particles of coffee will sink to the bottom and stay there, keeping them out of your cup. If you plunge the whole way you’ll stir these all up again, so it’s best to just sit the strainer at the top and pour through it!

4) Cowboy coffee / kokekaffe

This one is perfect for the ultimate back to basics coffee experience, or if you’re just short on kit!

Favoured by cowboys out in the old west, and apparently by the entire nation of Norway (they even have specific kettles just for it!)

You might have come here looking for a refined camping/coffee experience but we urge you not to overlook this one.

Very simply put ‘cowboy coffee’ is a bit of a caveman cafetière. You throw some coarse coffee grounds into a vessel of boiled water and leave it to do it’s thing. The difference here being that you’re relying on the grounds settling to the bottom as the only means of straining the brew. We’ve done this is in jetboils, saucepans on a fire, and enamel kettles but if you can boil water in it you can brew coffee in it! Here’s some incredibly detailed and in-depth instructions:

1) Boil some water
2) Remove from the boil and add your coffee (again aim for 60g / L)
3) Give it a stir and leave it to sit and settle right down
4) Pour out, enjoy!

5) Go Local

Exploring the local food scenes of wherever we end up is a huge part of why we love travelling and camping. And coffee is no different. On a trip to Norwich last year we stumbled across Kofra, in a tiny village a couple of miles from our campsite. When we got there we were absolutely stoked to find not only great coffee, but an amazing selection of natural wines, deli produce (including our fav duck rilette), and excellent hospitality to boot.

1) Buy a coffee from a local coffee shop
2) Enjoy your brew and pat yourself on the back for supporting localised economies.

BONUS TIPS

1) Pre-weigh your beans before heading out. We’ve all got kitchen scales at home, so weigh out a handful of 30g doses to take the guesswork out of your brewing ratios. It just so happens a field blends tin is perfect to hold 30g, so make sure you’re reusing those tins!

2) Grind fresh if you can. The difference in flavour between coffee ground just before brewing, and coffee ground a couple of days ago, is pretty noticeable. A little hand grinder will go a long way! If not then just grind what you need to take on a trip with you.

3) Use good coffee. This sounds obvious but honestly good ingredients, prepared simply, is the key to anything tasting great. We love Field Day and Wood St just to name a couple! We even have our own collab roast with Field Day that you can order here.

4) Water matters. It makes up 98.5% of a cup of coffee after all! Soft, tasty water is going to brew you the best cup.

5) Relax a little… The whole point of getting out camping is to get away from the strictures of the every day, so don’t be afraid to give yourself the day off from weighing everything meticulously and heating your water to exactly 96ºC. Half of the fun is working within your limitations and eyeballing it sometimes!

And that’s our favourite ways to brew coffee, with a few bonus tips to boot. Hopefully that gives your next coffee-camping experience a little boost!

Is there a brilliant brew method we missed? Have you tried those little tea-bag style coffee bags? Are they any good?! Drop us a comment and let us know!