Brewing Beyond the Kitchen: Your Guide to Incredible Coffee While Camping

Many of us love our morning ritual of a cup of coffee to start the day. When you’re camping and aren’t at home to make it just how you want, and without a coffee shop nearby, usually the standards tend to slip when you’re on-the-go. Yet, with a bit of planning and the right equipment, you can enjoy coffee that is equally good while you’re embedded in the great outdoors. These tips also apply if you’re backpacking too! From the equipment you need to the best brewing methods and some essential tips, we’ve got you covered.

Essential Gear For Great Coffee While Camping

A good cup of coffee always starts with the right equipment, and luckily, you don’t need too much of it.

• A portable brewer: we’ll get onto the details of this later in the blog!
• A portable grinder: freshly ground beans are absolutely essential in maintaining the great flavour that you achieve at home, we’ll also cover this in more detail in this blog
• A fuel source: we want our coffee to be hot! So, a portable stove or campfire is a must for your boiling water.
• Water: clean water, ideally filtered.
• Coffee beans: bring along your favourite coffee beans, making sure they’re whole
• A mug or thermos: depending on whether you’re enjoying your coffee at the campsite or on the move, bring along a mug or a thermos
• Milk and sugar: Making sure you’ve got your milk and sugar on hand is key if either are your preference.
• Travel milk frother: if you’re not a fan of black coffee and want to do something a bit more interesting, then you can get travel milk frothers, although this will add some equipment so weigh this up.

What’s The Secret To Good Coffee While Camping?

Whilst there are plenty of things that combine to result in a great cup of coffee, the absolute secret is to make sure you’re grinding your beans freshly for your coffee! Buying pre-ground coffee, or grinding at home and taking in a sealed container, just won’t replicate the magic of coffee that you’re used to experiencing at home or in coffee shops.

Flavour and aroma are maximised with freshly ground beans, as they retain their natural oils, aromas and flavours, enhancing the taste of the coffee significantly. When you’re out in the wild, away from your home comforts, this elevated cup of coffee will just taste 10x better, so the additional effort of equipment and fresh ground coffee beans are so worth it.

So, whilst you may have an electric grinder at home, you’ll need a portable hand grinder for your camping trips. Depending on your budget, both the zeroHero grinders are great for this on the lower end of the budget scale, or the Pietro hand grinder is a true innovation. Once you take freshly ground coffee with you on your camping trips, your standards for out-of-home brewing will hit a whole new level.

What’s The Best Method For Brewing Outdoors?

You’ve got all your equipment, now we need to think about the brewing method. As with home-brewing, each technique brings out something slightly different in the beans. Here’s a few of your options, the pros and cons, and the equipment you’ll need for it.

Pour-Over

Pour-over is a timeless choice that delivers a great cup of coffee. It’s also really well suited to camping because you just need a dripper and a filter. The filter provides a sediment free brew, and a medium-coarse grind is best for this. This is because it sits right in the middle to allow enough time for flavour extraction, without over-extracting and causing any bitterness.

French-Press

Next up we have French press, which provides a more full-bodied and bold flavour profile compared to the cleaner and brighter flavours that you’d get through pour over. The con of this is that the coffee may have some sediment, however some people don’t mind this and are happy to take this considering the depth of flavour achieved. French presses can be slightly bulkier than pour-over, but you can get ones that are designed for travel and to be portable, so there are ways around this if a richer cup of coffee is to your taste.

AeroPress

Lastly we have AeroPress, a great option to recreate a very strong espresso style coffee. It works by using air pressure to force hot water through the coffee grounds, and the most important element here is that it’s compact and portable, making it the ideal solution for camping. If you love a strong coffee, then definitely give this a go!

Top Tips For Good Coffee While Camping

Last but not least, now you’ve got your equipment, it’s time for some tips to help you maximise your wild brewing experience:

• Grind freshly: making sure that you grind your beans just before brewing is key, as the flavour and aroma can change when exposed to air. The extra equipment is worth it if you value great coffee on the go!
• Get your water right: the water you use can directly impact the taste of your coffee, so make sure you use filtered water, or bottled if that’s easier.
• Temperature: without a kettle, water can often get too hot and this can cause bitterness as the grounds will be scorched. If you don’t have a thermometer, then once your water has come to a boil, leave your water for 60 seconds off any heat before pouring.
• Cleaning: coffee grounds can attract animals and don’t decompose quickly in many scenarios, so make sure to take them with you and dispose of them where it’s safe to do so, to keep pests away and to leave the space as you left it

Final Thoughts

Drinking great coffee while camping is possible with a bit of preparation! Starting your day out in the wild with a good cup of coffee makes a world of difference.