Coffee/Espresso While Camping

With the warmer weather coming, there's ample opportunity to check out the woods and NOT leave behind the caffeinated comforts of home. The range of coffee makers is pretty huge, from cowboy rough to futuristic machinery, and everything in between.

You pretty much have four styles to choose from for coffee/espresso on the trail:

Percolators - Your great grandfather used these and so did John Wayne - they work and they can turn out some hot-brown that does the trick, just might not taste that great. I used one camping and believe it or not, the body developed in the coffee through perking outweighed the negatives and all things considered, it wasn't bad. These are cheap, bulky and can make a lot at a time.

French Press - There are a ton of these on the market specially designed for away from home use. Shatter resistant plastic, a plunger and a splash proof lid all add up to a good package. Don't forget to plan for hot water though.

Tiny Espresso Moka Units - these are cute and make some decent stuff; just not the high pressure that you are used to on your 15-bar pump driven machine at home or the machine at the local cafe. On the plus side, they are small and pack well, on the minus side, they are small and may need a few of these to kick start the morning.

Handpresso Wild - New and different, this space age bike pump can crank out the high pressure that you need to get some decent extraction. It uses ESE pods which are easy to pack in and out, but again on the downside the unit only makes a shot at a time. It still won't pack the pressure of a commercial machine, but you won't be packing that and a 220 volt power supply into the wilderness to get quality that good. Read more about the Handpresso here are SingleServeEspresso.com