Ultralight Camp Coffee

April 8th, 2008 Wade

I used to hate coffee. I loved the smell, but just couldn’t understand how people drank it like it was going out of style. Enter marriage. My wife absolutetly loves her java. So I began experimenting with foo-foo coffee at Charbucks and other coffee shops. Now I actually like coffee, and drink it most days. Granted, it is about 20% sugar and cream when I partake.

So I’m planning a solo backpacking trip for a week this summer and got to thinking, can I have coffee? Is there such a thing as ultralight coffee? After a little research I found that there are several methods for camp coffee. These include bringing a small percolator, using brewing bags, or making cowboy coffee. The percolator isn’t exactly ultralight. I read some bad reviews on the brewing bags, saying they were pretty crappy when it comes to taste. Then cowboy coffee is where you bring some water to a boil, drop your grounds in, wait til they settle, and try not to get a mouth full of sludge toward the end. This isn’t exactly what I had in mind.

So I went into my kitchen and started playing. The solution I came up with worked pretty well. I’m sure this has been done plenty of times before, but I didn’t find anything about this method, so I’ll just pretend like I’m the first person to think of this.

Wade’s Ultralight Coffee

Equipment Needed
- Coffee Filter
- Coffee
- Nalgene or other heat resistant bottle
- Nalgene sipper
- Boiling Pot
- Camp Stove

Step 1 - Put your coffee grounds into a coffee filter.
Step 2 - Place the filter into the top of the bottle.
Step 3 - While holding the filter in place just inside the bottle, slip the sipper into the opening to secure the bag.
Step 4 - Slightly tilt the sipper so the drinking side is lower (causes a slide for the hot water to fall down)
Step 5 - Slowly pour your boiled water into the bottle. It will drip down over the grounds making the coffee.

Okay, so this isn’t rocket science. And BlowSnow will most likely point out that I’m nowhere as great as his hero Eli Whitney. But, this is an effective way to make coffee and the only extra items you probably wouldn’t have had with you in the first place are the filter and coffee. Weighing in at practically nothing.

Just be sure to put the sipper in snuggly. If it falls… you get cowboy coffee anyway.

Entry Filed under: Adventure Travel, Backpacking, Camping, Food, Gear