How to Make Camping Coffee: Everything You Need

If you’re going camping, you need to go camping with coffee! Anything less would certainly not work for us, and probably also wouldn’t work for anyone reading this article. But there are lots of good options for camping coffee.

Our purpose here is to set you up for success. There’s no need for bad campsite coffee, though I’m sure most of us have also had that a time or two. Without further ado, let’s start getting to running down the best ways to brew coffee camping.

Coffee is Better Outdoors

Let’s be honest. Many things are better outside, and coffee is one of those things. For your friendly snobs here, a highlight of the year is the beach coffee we make every year after a night camping in the Indiana Dunes National Park. Probably most people’s camping coffee has a little less sand in it than those cups can, but you’ve got to really appreciate all the benefits of outdoor coffee. It’s so nice to feel that fresh air encircling you, see things other than rectilinear lines of our so-called “civilized life.”

There are more than 100 answers to the question of how to make coffee while camping. And what I’m driving at here is that they’re all pretty great.

I’d rather have a bad cup of coffee while camping in a beautiful place in nature than have the absolute best cup of coffee of my life in a dingy basement. (I was gonna say “than a hip coffee shop,” but I don’t want to risk lying to you. 🤓)

Our favorite camping coffee maker: The AeroPress

The Foxlees/LKCS go-to campsite coffee maker for years has been the AeroPress. First the bog-standard one. And then as I mention in my comparison of the best AeroPresses, the AeroPress Go.

For the uninitiated, the AeroPress is a bit of a hybrid of the immersion style coffee you get from the French press, with a sort of espresso-like pressure system. It’s certainly not an espresso, but you’re making a concentrate and then adding water to get a classic American-style coffee (a la the famous Americano).

We love the AeroPress for its taste AND simple clean-up (so much better to press out its puck of coffee than that weird scoopy-rinsy situation that is classic for a French press). It’s one of the most portable coffee makers we’ve found.

But I feel like it offers a nice mix of richness and clarity compared with a French press. And it just packs smaller than any French presses I’ve ever seen.

Other Options for Brewing Coffee Outdoors

There is no single best way to make coffee while camping. There are lots of good ways though. Including not really brewing it. We’ll start there.

Instant Coffee

If you’re a practical minded person, and you want coffee for camping, I can’t really argue with the value of instant coffee. While a large jar of Nescafe is probably silly for an ultra-light backpacker, it’s fine for car camping. AND nowadays, there are lots of single-serve sachets of instant coffee which both taste better than Nescafe and allow you to have a pack size smaller than a pocket knife.

Those little packets are honestly what I’d do if I suddenly got into ultralight camping. Though I can’t say I really see that happening in, say, the next twenty years.

If you’re thinking of this, I really recommend Megan’s article on the cool innovations in instant coffee for snobs and wannabes.

French Press

Probably the most common and iconic campsite coffee maker in my mind is the French press. I’m not sure where that image came from. I didn’t grow up in a coffee drinking (or camping) house, but for some reason in my 20s, I think French press just became all the rage and has stuck in my head ever since. (This honestly might have been from the first cycle of “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.”)

Your home French press is probably reasonable to use for camping. But if your home French press is made of glass, I’d caution to think carefully before packing it for camping. You’ll be much better off with one made of stainless steel or plastic. In the latter camp, we recently bought this OXO Shatter-Resistant French Press and I’m quite happy with it from first impressions.

Like that can of Nescafe mentioned above, a French press doesn’t make a lot of sense for people backpacking into their campsite or especially those aiming for ultra-light packs. But for your standard car camping situation (which I’m off to this very weekend…), it’s a great option!

New Travel OXO Rapid Brewer

An answer really taking off as I write this article about how do you make coffee camping is the new OXO Rapid Brewer. Often positioned as an AeroPress competitor, it’s actually quite a different take as a camping coffee pot.

Read: Is cold brew the easiest way to make coffee while camping?

Overall, I’d say it’s even more like a portable espresso machine. It is also less compact than the AeroPress Go I love for camping. But it’s definitely a fun alternative, and makes great coffee. It can make hot coffee concentrate in 2 minutes or cold brew in 5 minutes. Not bad for a backcountry coffee option.

The Toddy Go Brewer is a nice alternative in this space, though it functions more as a portable cold brew coffee maker rather than specifically a “rapid” or “camping” cold brew maker.

My one piece of advice: try this brewer at least once BEFORE packing it on your camping trip. Don’t ask me if that advice was somewhat annoyingly hard-won because indeed it was. 😅

Even More Exotic Options

As I’ve said, there as many way to make coffee in nature as there are at home. Though I think people are a lot less likely to bring there basic Mr Coffee or Bonavita coffee machine out to a campsite.

What are the Best Coffee Brewing Methods and Their Differences? »

Moka Pot

One thing I’d expect a non-trivial number of people do is use the Moka Pot on just about any camp stove/burner. I’ve brewed in a moka pot only once or twice (when I’ve found myself both with good coffee & a grinder, and a machine in an Airbnb or similar). But if you love that little brewer, I bet it works plenty well over a fire or any other brewer.

Outdoor Coffee Percolator

There are also outdoor coffee percolators to be sure. I have nothing more say about that. Or about your drip coffee pot for camping.

Hario V60 (plastic)

If you’re the sort of person who packs a scale for camping, the Hario V60 might already be in your bag. A simple plastic V60 weighs almost nothing, takes up very little space, and can make an excellent cup of coffee with just a few paper filters and a kettle. It’s admittedly a bit fussier than an AeroPress or French press, especially if you’re trying to brew while someone is asking where the marshmallows are, but for coffee nerds who love clarity, it’s a great campsite companion.

Cold Brew

And then there’s cold brew, which might be cheating (but in the best possible way). Its simplicity is making me start to think it is the best way to make coffee while camping, though. Make it at home, pour it into an insulated bottle, and you’ve got excellent coffee ready the second you unzip your tent.

No stove, no cleanup, and no waiting for water to boil before your brain starts working. On hot summer mornings at the campsite, I could make a pretty strong case that it’s actually the best camping coffee of them all.

Grinding: Not a Static Situation

The other half of the equation about how to make coffee while camping is how you get that coffee itself. Obviously bringing coffee is necessary. But how you get it GROUND APPROPRIATELY is kind of a whole other thing.

Pregrind!

Usually looked down on by snobs like us, I think pregrinding coffee for camping is 100% reasonable. Coffee snobs can admittedly laugh at people getting their coffee preground from a store, or even fresh ground when purchased at the local coffee shop. This is because many of the volatile compounds that make coffee tasty quickly degrade when it sits around for days or weeks after grinding. (The logic is very similar for why people love pepper mills vs pre-ground pepper sitting for weeks/months/years inside a shaker.)

Anyway, I wouldn’t look down my nose at someone who pregrinds for a camping trip. It’s much easier to get up and dump ground coffee into your AeroPress etc than it is to break out a grinder.

Mobile (probably hand) grinding

That said, there are lots of pretty good and pretty compact hand grinders. The advantage of a manual grinder for camping is that you don’t have to find a power outlet and/or pack in one of those big battery banks. (Though we did just get a Blueetti one of those and find it pretty fun.)

Personally, I’ve been using this mid-tier knockoff of the semi-iconic Hario manual grinder for years. The glass (ours is glass, which is admittedly risky but hadn’t bitten us yet) has broken a bit in a few places, but it works well.

That said, if I were to buy a single hand grinder, especially exclusively for camping or other on-the-go activities, I’d probably buy this little Hario one. We also recent got and are trying out the OXO manual grinder. I like that it’s got numeric ticks for dialing in your grind settings, but it is a little big for traveling.

Take your home grinding with a battery bank

As I mentioned, you could also take you take your big battery bank, or an extension cord for a campsite with power and run your home coffee grinder like our Baratza Encore.

This is truly and intentionally a silly idea I don’t recommend. But just to get your gears turning, I’m throwing it in. We did add a Bluetti Portable Power Station to our camping kit this year, so maybe it would be possible…

Other Camping Coffee Brewing Matters

In the quest for the best camping coffee, it’s worth also mentioning that you need to heat water. I assume most people will have a solution for that because they’ll also want to eat some warm food. And basically any camping burner, even those with hotspots, etc., can boil water. But it’s not a totally trivial concern.

Neither is the quality and mineral mix of the water you’re boiling. And since coffee is mostly water, I won’t fault you for hauling in your own water, or buying a fancy filtration system.

As I’ve mentioned intermittently above, another big consideration when it comes to camp coffee is how you’re packing. If you’re doing what we most often do and drive up to a camp site with full access to all the too many things we stuffed into our vehicle, you’re going to be a lot less space-and-weight sensitive than someone with a backpack and 5 miles of hiking to where they’re making camp.

If I were an ultralight hiker, I’d probably settle for Starbucks VIA or other similar instant coffee solutions. But as a mostly-car-camping person I’ve been very happy with a simple off-brand hand grinder and the AeroPress Go for years.

The best instant coffee even coffee snobs can get behind »

What’s Best is What’s Best for You

Let’s be honest, basically all campsite coffee if great. And the more remote you are, the better the coffee is, and the less it matters how you made it. But with a thoughtful mix of what fits the situation you’ll be camping in, and what you value in the experience, I trust you’ll find the right thing for you.

Here’s a quick punchy summary of who I think needs what. Feel free to completely disregard this list as too simplistic and a bit insulting. That’s what we’re going for:

• “Don’t Talk to Me Before I’ve Had My Coffee” types should probably just do instant. Unless they’re camping alone, in which case they should probably use AeroPress Go and some pre-ground coffee.
• Fussy people with opinions about the best coffee beans should either invest in a portable pourover system, or just use the AeroPress Go & a camping coffee grinder/hand grinder.
• Middle of the road people who like nice coffee but don’t have fussy opinions (yet) should also use an AeroPress Go. But maybe just opt for pre-ground coffee, whether from your home or a favorite coffee shop.

Happy sipping!