Camp Press Coffee
Ground coffee, a plastic press, and one pot of hot water. Twelve ounces of actual coffee at 6 a.m.
- calories
- 130
- weight
- 1.1 oz
- cal / oz
- 118
- protein
- 3 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 2 min
- cook
- 4 min
- total time
- 6 min
- water
- 300 ml boiled
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Drink
- Breakfast
- Canister stove
- Alcohol / Esbit
- Liquid fuel
- Campfire coals
- Backpacking
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Bikepacking
- Winter / snow
- Vegetarian
- Gluten free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Medium-fine ground coffee | 18 g | about 2 tbsp heaped; grind at home the morning you leave |
|---|---|---|
| Water | 300 ml | 250 ml through the press, 50 ml to dilute |
| Whole milk powder | 2 tbsp | skip for black; nido or similar dissolves without lumps |
| Sugar | 2 tsp | optional |
| Salt | one small pinch | only if the water tastes off |
Method
- Boil water and pull the pot off the flame. Wait a minute. Water straight off a rolling boil scorches the grounds and you taste it.
- Put the press on the mug, drop in the filter, and add the grounds. Level them with a finger so the water runs evenly.
- Pour to the top of the chamber, roughly 250 ml. Stir ten seconds with the handle of your spoon.
- Cap it and press down slow. Thirty seconds of steady pressure. When it hisses, stop.
- Stir the milk powder and sugar into the concentrate first, then top up with the remaining hot water. Powder clumps in a full mug and dissolves in a half one.
Instant coffee is lighter and faster and nobody drinking it is happy about it. A press earns its six ounces on trips where mornings are slow anyway — basecamps, car camping, any day you are already boiling water for oatmeal. The paper filter and the short contact time are what make it worth carrying: you get the clarity of a pour-over without standing there holding a kettle in the wind for four minutes.
The two-stage pour matters more than the grind does. Pressing a small volume of strong concentrate and then diluting means the water is hot enough to dissolve milk powder, and it means a spill in the chamber costs you a third of a cup instead of all of it. Grind at home; a hand grinder is another half pound and it does not make the coffee better than a fresh bag does.
Packing
Weigh grounds into one snack bag per morning at home. Filters go in a film canister or they turn into confetti in your pack. The press nests a fuel canister and a lighter inside it, so it costs less volume than it looks like it does.
Variations
- Cold brew it: grounds and cold water in the chamber the night before, press in the morning, no fuel spent.
- A square of dark chocolate melted into the concentrate covers up mediocre grounds.
- Double the grounds and halve the water for an espresso-ish shot you can pour over powdered milk.
https://www.cleverhiker.com/camping/aeropress-go-travel-coffee-press-review