Cowboy Camp Coffee
When you talk to some people about camping, they start rattling off a list of comforts they simply couldn’t live without. We have noticed that coffee, and I mean good coffee, is ranking higher, and higher on that list. It’s a great movement to see small coffee shops popping up, but how do you continue to fuel that addiction to quality coffee while you are roughing it? There are many ways to brew a great cup of coffee in the woods, but today we want to talk about Cowboy or classic camp coffee.
What you will need:
1. Your pre-ground coffee of choice (We love Ethical Bean Coffee, a Canadian based company- the coffee bags are traceable, right back to the co-op the beans originate from!
2. A pot (ideally with a handle on the top)
3. Fire protectant gloves
The essence of camp coffee, or as its sometimes called, cowboy coffee, is that you boil water then dump the grounds straight into the pot. This leaves you with a simple method, without the need to fuss around with percolators that add weight, or coffee-specific gadgets allowing you to make great coffee with minimal effort. The downside is that the grounds are loose in your water and unless you like your coffee chewy, you have to use some techniques to try to get the grounds to settle before you pour. Some people have very strong opinions about the efficacy of one technique over the other, and often devolve into quite the debate around the campfire, but in our opinion they all work, so use as many as you’d like and make your own ritual.
It all starts by brining water to a rapid boil in your pot. If you are using treated or filtered water, just let the water come up to a boil. If you are using unfiltered water, for example, water straight from the lake, you may want to let the water boil for a few minutes before adding the grounds. OK, here is where it gets tricky. Once your water has boiled, turn down your stove, or move your pot off the fire. Depending on how much water you have, add the according amount of ground coffee straight into the pot. Now, either turn up your stove, or put your pot back on the fire just long enough for the water to boil again, which turns over the coffee and integrates the grounds into the boiling water. At this stage it is important to watch the coffee, as an over boil leads to coffee grounds down the side of your pot, not to mention hot grounds on your hands- use gloves! Now this is where things diverge. Check out the strategies below:
1. The Stir – Try stirring in the grounds with a stick. The theory is that it is better than a metal or plastic implement for some reason…
2. The Tap – Vigorously tap on the side of your pot. This both helps release any air bubbles on the grounds that are making them float to the top and also announces to your camping buddies that the coffee is nearly ready.
3. The Splash – Take your water bottle or any “good” cold water and splash a few tablespoons onto the top of the pot. This cold water supposedly sinks to the bottom when added and draws some of the grounds down with it.
4. The Swing (our favourite) – This is why I’d recommend having a coffee pot with a handle that goes over the top of the pot. This strategy uses physics to force the grounds down to the bottom of the pot by vigorously swinging the pot like a big arm circle you may have done as a warm up in gym class. No you won’t spill a drop if you swing it fast enough, but it is a little tricky to master this manoeuver. We recommend practising with cold water first.
5. The sacrifice to the “river gods” – No matter how good you are, there are almost always some coffee grounds clinging to the sides of the pot. The final step before you start pouring for yourself is to pour a little splash out of the spout as an offering to the river gods for the day.
That’s it, pour and enjoy!
Have your own techniques already? We’d love to hear about them. Use the #spruceroutes to tag us in pictures or video of your cowboy coffee ritual.
