You can’t beat a good cup of coffee while you’re camping. From Stove Top to AeroPress, we’re sharing the best ways to brew a great cup while out in the wild. We’re even going to tell you our favourite coffees to do it with.

AeroPress 

This is our personal favourite way to make coffee in the wild. The AeroPress delivers incredibly rich and smooth coffee. Its quick brew time, unbelievably simple clean-up, and compact size have made the Aeropress our camping must have.

Grind Setting: Medium to fine

Brewing Time: Around 2 minutes 30 seconds

Brewing Ratio: Generally 6-8g coffee per 100g water (1ml water = 1g water) unless brewing an espresso-style beverage with the AeroPress.

Recommended coffee: Colombia La Estrella del Ostro

Step by Step process

1. Prepare all equipment before grinding and brewing. Weigh your coffee dose, and ensure you heat more than enough water to brew with. We recommend pre-dosing your coffee before you leave just to make sure your brewing experience is as smooth as possible!
2. Place filter paper in AeroPress cap then attach to bottom of AeroPress. Place the AeroPress on your cup, ensuring that the AeroPress sits on top of it on a flat level.
3. Rinse the filter and brewing equipment with some heated brewing water. Discard rinsing water from your cup.
4. Grind coffee and carefully add it to the AeroPress chamber. Distribute evenly and settle the bed of coffee in the filter cap. Tare scales and start timing.
5. Gently pour water over the coffee until you have added all the brewing water according to the weight in your brew recipe.
6. Stir gently for a few moments then carefully place the AeroPress plunger into the top of the AeroPress, ensuring it sits as flat as possible. Press down with a vertical motion to push the brewed coffee into the cup. Remove the AeroPress and serve.

Shop the AeroPress Go

Stove Top

The good old-fashioned Stove Top has been a go-to for camping coffee drinkers for years. This method is great at making lots of strong coffee over a camp stove or campfire.

Grind Setting: Fine 

Brewing Time: Dependent upon Stove Top size and heating element used

Brewing Ratio: Varies according to Stove Top model. Typically 1g coffee per 11g brewing water. Experiment with water dose and grind setting.

Recommended coffee: El Salvador Chelazos

Step by Step Process

1. Wipe clean and dry your Stove Top’s filter basket before brewing. Place bottom section of Stove Top on scales and tare.
2. Add cold water according to your brew recipe in line with equipment capacity (normally until the water level sits just below the outlet at the top of the bottom section of the pot) Weigh your coffee dose according to your water amount.
3. Place the filter basket into the bottom section of the Stove Top. Add coffee dose carefully. Gently knock the pot on a flat work surface to level the coffee dose in the basket. Gently distribute it using gentle tapping if further distribution is needed (or if a flat surface cannot be found!)
4. Place the top section carefully onto the bottom, and screw in place. Be careful not to impact the distribution of the coffee dose.
5. Place over a low-medium heat on the stove. Choose the heating section most suited to the size of the base of your pot.
6. Start your timer to track your extraction time. The time it takes for water to begin appearing in the upper chamber will be dependent upon your dose, grind setting, the size of your Stove Top, the heat provided by your stove, the initial temperature of your water, and the material that your pot is made from.
7. In a sink/small basin or bowl, run cold water to a depth that equals around half the height of the Stove Top’s bottom section. Placing the Stove Top in a cold bath will allow you to stop the brewing process at a faster rate before brewing begins to extract undesirable flavours from your coffee.
8. Remembering how much water you added to the Stove Top, watch for the liquid rising out of the bottom chamber due to the steam pressure pushing it up through the filter basket. Remove the pot from the stove when most of the water has been pushed up into the top of the pot.
9. Place the Stove Top in your cold-water bath to stop the brewing process. Due to the thermal mass of the Stove Top and the steam pressure being contained in the bottom brewing chamber, it can be the case that the coffee continues to brew after it is removed from the stove. Placing the pot in a cold bath will immediately reduce the chance of this occurring.
10. Remove the pot from the cold water, dry the outside and serve.

We advise pre-grinding the coffee before your trip, but if you want to take your own hand grinder then we have some great suggestions at different price points.

1. Hario Bloom Mini Mill PLUS Ceramic Coffee Grinder (£39.00)
2. Rhinowares Coffee Hand Grinder (£45.00)
3. Comandante C40 MK4 (£249.00)

We would absolutely love to see your North Star brews in the outdoors so please tag us @northstarroast using #NorthStarWild and the most adventurous entry will receive a 3 month subscription of coffee.