Coffeeontheroad

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What's the best way to make coffee on the road?

Some people may say, "Just bring instant. Better yet, premix instant, sugar, and creamer in a baggie." This page is not for them. That's not coffee. According to a Turkish proverb:

Coffee should be as black as hell, as strong as death, and as sweet as love.

That's coffee. So how do you make coffee like that on the road?

First you have to decide what kind of coffee you want. Do you drink espresso? Or are you a drip perk kind of person? Or perhaps the old-fashioned percolator? Or a John Wayne type? Read on.

Making coffee on the road or trail involves compromises. The Westy (or your backpack) is a place with limited room and weight carrying capacity.

====Turkish Coffee* ====

Also known as cowboy coffee, the simplest way to make true coffee is the John Wayne way - take coarse ground coffee, put a teaspoon or two into your cup, pour boiling water on top. The only problem with this method is that you end up using your teeth as a coffee filter. There are various ways of getting the grounds to settle - stir your cup gently, or perhaps add a dash of cold water. While the resulting coffee is quite good, I really don't care to pick coffee grounds from my teeth for the rest of the day. And I seriously doubt that John Wayne ever drank coffee like that either.

For the brave of heart, here's a variant on the above.

When I was a counselor at Girl Scout camp we used to make a version we called "slung coffee." The key to this version is a pot with a long bail -- we made our own from a can with holes punched on each side below the rim, then poked the ends of a straightened-out wire clothes hanger through the holes to make the bail. Put the coffee and water in the pot, set on or in the fire, bring it to a boil, let it brew and then -- here come the "slung" part -- whirl it around so that the centrifugal force settles the grounds. It really works; the coffee is grounds-free so long as you don't get greedy and try to pour off that last little bit. Takes a little courage to try it the first time, but it's actually pretty safe, so long as you make sure you're not standing under low branches, etc.

I also have a variant on this, born of the need to drink several cups of real coffee in the morning.

Make turkish coffee as above in a pot.  Then use a pour through filter (see below) to filter out the grounds into a thermos bottle.  Now you have 3 or 4 cups of coffee ready to go.  One word of warning:  if you use instant creamer, add it while the coffee is hot - directly into the thermos.  Otherwise, the coffee will be too cool to dissolve the creamer.

====Espresso* ====

Yes, you can make true, wonderful espresso on the road. GSI makes a 1 and 4 cup stove-top espresso maker:

[1]

The 4 cup version makes wonderful coffee. Its has two drawbacks: you have to watch it like a hawk, since coffee will silently begin to issue forth and spill all over everything, and at the end, it will spit coffee and steam everywhere. Best used outside on a camping stove, not inside.

These come in a 1 cup and a 4 cup version; the one cup is really too small unless you just want espresso. I use the 4 cup version to make a cup of regular coffee. See

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====Drip Coffee* ====

This is probably the most often used method in the US. As with many things in the US, we have succumbed to a bizarre need for complex gadgets to do something that is very simple - pour water into a cup. All a drip coffee maker does is boil water, then drip it through a coffee filter into a carafe or cup. If you want this, look at teh Black and Decker line of personal percolators. These are single cup percolators. They work just fine, but you need to be plugged in.

[2]

See APPPERSON&CATbeverage&.

But.... There really is no need for the percolator itself. If you can boil water, all you really need is the filter and a holder for the filter that fits over a cup, like this one:

[3]

Just spoon the coffee in, set over your cup, pour water over it slowly, and you have coffee.

I've disposed of my Black and Decker personal coffee maker, and now just use the filter and holder. Melita makes filter frames of various sizes for their paper filters. or you can buy the one pictured above at:

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Here's another filter holder - this one apparently collapses flat:

[4]

If you fish around backpacking stores, someone makes a folding filter holder that's held on the cup by a couple of tent pegs. Folded up, the holder takes almost no room and weighs just an ounce or so. I've lost the link and I can't find the store. Anyone know what I'm talking about?

There is a stove-top drip coffee maker that looks intriguing, but I have not tried one. Here's a link: 5008-700&categoryid5180

There are also 12VDC coffee percolators - the kind that plug into a cigarette lighter. I have never tried one, but I'd guess they would be slow. The one I saw draws 17 amps; at 12VDC that's only 200 watts. A 200 watt heater would take a long time to boil water.... If anyone uses this kind of coffee maker, please let me know how it works.

====Traditional percolator* ====

What more can I say? Put coffee in, boil water. I really don't like the end product of this method - too acidic for my taste - so I won't say anything about it. Of course, others differ; read on.

We've been using a good ol' percolator on the stove top for years. It's simple and easy and the smell of coffee perking in the Westy in the morning is hard to beat. It's small and makes enough for two large servings with a bit left over for a refill, if desired.

====French Press* ====

This one is an improved way of making Turkish Coffee. You spoon coffee into a pot, pour water on top, then use a press to hold down the grounds while you pour. Like this:

[5]

Works fine. My sister uses it on her sailboat. You can get glass ones but you can also get Lexan (unbreakable plastic) for travel. They can be a pain to clean unless you have lots of water.

They come in various sizes; here's a personal size one:

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====Instant coffee bags* ====

Blechhhhhh.

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