Who doesn’t love the great outdoors? With peak camping season right around the corner, people are starting to pull out their tents and dust off their hiking boots in anticipation. When you’re putting together your camping list, however, don’t forget your coffee!
Making coffee when you’re camping can sometimes be difficult, especially if you don’t know how to make coffee without a coffee maker. However, when done correctly, camping coffee should be simple and portable without sacrificing the taste you love!
Before you hop on the trails this summer, read through our list of the five best ways to brew in the woods and figure out what coffee will work best for you. We’ve ranked our favorite options for all types of coffee drinkers, and hopefully, you’ll find your new camp coffee brewing method.
1. Instant Coffee
The first coffee on our list might be the most convenient, even if it’s not our favorite choice. Instant coffee is lightweight, doesn’t require a whole lot of preparation, and makes a cup of coffee “instantly.” Additionally, you can find large batches of instant coffee for relatively cheap, making instant coffee one of the more affordable options on this list.
Though it is convenient, instant coffee tends to have less flavor and balance, making it less popular than other choices. Instant coffee will probably be best for backpackers and campers trying to maximize their space!
To Make:
- Pour your instant coffee mix into a mug of coffee.
- Add boiling water, and sit until the coffee has fully dissolved.
- Let it cool, and enjoy.
2. Single-Serve French Press Coffee
The following coffee-making method on our list requires some more time and effort but makes some tasty hot coffee for camping! If you’re a French Press user already, you know the great brew you can get from French Press coffee, and thankfully, you can bring it with you on the trail.
Bringing your home French Press will probably be too bulky for most campers, but for relatively cheap, you can pick up a single-serve French Press. Of course, using this method requires coffee grounds, so make sure you grind up that dark roast before you leave!
Single-serve French Press coffee is best for car campers, casual campers, or campers looking for a taste of home.
To Make:
- Pour coarsely ground coffee into the bottom of your empty French Press.
- Boil your water, and add to the grounds until you have your desired amount of coffee.
- Let the coffee steep for 5 minutes, then depress the plunger slowly.
- Press the plunger to the bottom of the French Press, and pour carefully.
- Let your coffee cool, and enjoy.
3. Cowboy Coffee
The next coffee brewing method we want to share with you is one of our favorite camping tricks, and unlike the previous techniques, it can be done without a camp stove! Named for its inventors, cowboy coffee has a long tradition and an excellent reputation for outdoor coffee. If you’re looking for the most potent brew you can make in the woods, this is your kind of coffee.
Thanks to the cowboys who knew how to make coffee while camping, we now have one of the best, large-batch coffee brewing methods out there. Cowboy coffee is excellent for large groups of people and families.
To Make:
- Heat water in a stainless steel coffee kettle in the coals of your campfire.
- Once the water is boiling, remove the kettle from the coals, and add your coffee grounds.
- Return the kettle to a cooler part of the campfire, and let the coffee grounds slowly sink to the bottom.
- Once the grounds have fully sunken, pour your coffee, let it cool, and enjoy!
4. Cold Brew
While we might be a little biased, cold brew coffee truly is one of the best ways to make coffee in nature. This second-to-last method on our list takes very little effort and produces a smooth-tasting, ready-made coffee for you every morning. Even more importantly, you don’t need heat to make it!
Quick Cold-Brew Facts
For those who haven’t yet had cold brew, it’s important to note that this is not iced coffee, which is hot coffee that has been cooled down. Similarly, cold brew coffee is not made with cold water, despite how it sounds!
Making cold brew is very different from regular coffee, but it has a lot of options. The most crucial factor to cold brew is the coffee ratio. The coffee to water ratio for cold brew is normally about 1 part coffee to 8 parts water, but if you want to make a much stronger version (called cold brew concentrate), you can use a 1:4 ratio.
Cold brew coffee is perfect for any style of camping and requires minimal preparation.
To Make:
- Before leaving for camping, make sure you grind your coffee using a coarse grind, similar to the French Press method.
- The night before you need it, pour room temperature water into a large jug or bottle.
- Spoon in your coarsely ground coffee, making sure to get the correct ratio (see above).
- Let the grounds sit overnight, or between 12-18 hours (24 hours or more will over-extract the coffee).
- Pour the mixture through a fine mesh to filter out the cold brew coffee grounds, and enjoy!
There are plenty of coffee brewing methods out there, and this list certainly isn’t complete! From people who love the pour-over method to the die-hard coffee machine fans, there are brewing methods out there for you! It’s just a matter of finding the best plan for you.
Of course, if you want cold brew coffee with even less effort, just bring along some cans of High Brew! We specialize in portable, high-quality, cold brew, that’s perfect for any camping trip or expedition into the woods. Why go through the trouble of making coffee every night, when you can crack open a can in the morning and get going?
5. High Brew Heat-Gen Cans
The last coffee method on this list isn’t really a method, but as far as convenient camping coffee goes, we think it’s hands-down the best option! Take the ease of High Brew’s cold brew coffee, mix it with some revolutionary self-heating technology from HeatGen, and you get our favorite camping coffee, hot out of the can. Now you can have hot coffee without a stove or campfire, saving you time and space on every camping trip you take.
To Make:
- Turn the cap on the bottom of your High Brew self-heating can.
- Wait 2 minutes for the coffee to heat up
- Pop the tab of the can, and enjoy!
High Brew
Camping coffee shouldn’t be any harder than coffee at home! If you want an easy coffee solution for your coffee needs, come on over to High Brew. We offer a variety of options, including Nitro Cold Brew, tons of Cold Brew flavors, and our new Self-Heating cans!
