Single cup coffee makers

K-cups aren’t just for camping. I have one in the house and love the ease of making coffee. The big downside is they only last a couple years. I usually will buy a new one each year for the house and then regulate the oldest ones to campers and the garage.

 

IMO, the best thing about the aeropress is the ease of cleanup compared to the mess of a French press at a campsite. Just pop off the puck of coffee, wipe it off a bit and rinse with a minimum of water.

 

I admit I’m way too far down the coffee snob train tracks for my own good. That said, K Cups are not allowed in the same zip code I drink coffee in!

 

I am a huge coffee snob and even roast my own beans at home. But while camping I want easy and convenient. I use a “manual Keurig.” No mess, no fuss, just add boiling water, press the plunger and throw out the pod. It actually makes a decent cup if you select your pods carefully (single origin, no Doughnut Shop crappy blends, ha ha)

https://a.co/d/9UTzObd

 

8 pages to go back through...Aeropress is the bomb! And it appears they started making "real" size cups as opposed to the little European cups they made when we bought ours. They are really easy to use, easy to clean, and make a reasonable cup of coffee.

cleanup is usually just a wipe with a paper towel....the hardest part is waiting 4 minutes for the brew

https://aeropress.com/

 

I also roast my own beans! I hear you on the simplicity part, and I’ve leaned that way in the past. The Keurig system, to me, commits me to too many coffee “sins.” I can count five right off the top of my head, and the manual version only corrects one of those (water temp).

I’ve gone back and forth over the years on various methods. For camping or Army field experiences, I have tried and given up on:

Making pre-ground coffee “satchels” like tea bags - poor extraction

Cowboy coffee - makes a decent cup but prone to a mouthful of grounds and a pain to clean up

French press - very good cup if executed well. I find that cleaning out the grounds is a pain when camping because the volume of running water I have access to is reduced and I’m trying to avoid too much paper towel trash. Also a little silty, but some people favor that mouthfeel.

Aeropress - I enjoyed the coffee I got out of an aeropress but I don’t care for making “americano-style” coffee from a concentrate. I find that loses a lot of the special nuances AP brings out - sweetness, silky texture, and bright acidity. Since I don’t care for the coffee-from-concentrate method, the AP is limited to a smaller cup and doesn’t scale up well to multiple cups. I used one off and on for years but finally took it to the thrift shop just a few months ago.

Instant Starbucks Via packets - the easiest and simple alternative to all of the above. But also not the greatest cup.

I have not tried a mokka pot, and we usually camp away from shore power so anything that plugs into 120v power is off the table.


After all that I’ve finally settled on exactly the same thing I do at home / office for the majority of my Army and camping coffee: manual pour over brewing. I’ve got the equipment pretty well figured out and can make a single cup or 3 cups pretty quickly. It’s consistent, it’s super high quality, and it makes every day better. I also like that cleanup is dead simple because the grounds are contained within the filter, just like an auto-drip machine’s cleanup.

The Kit:
- Goose neck pour over kettle
- Thermal carafe for making multiple cups
- micro scale for weighing beans and water to the tenth of a gram
- hario v60 metal filter cone
- hario v60 02 filters
- hario slim stick manual ceramic burr grinder
And the over the top winning item is:
- a hario battery operated USB rechargeable motor attachment that fits onto the grinder

I also bring a JetBoil under the galley storage bins (and when doing Army stuff) to provide the hot water in the event the cast iron stove top isn’t free. That could be when breakfast is occupying both burners or when we pull over for a roadside barista cup mid-drive.


This setup all fits within one section of one of the CI Galley bin trays with the exception of the beans/goose neck/carafe. The carafe and beans ride up in the galley upper storage shelf and the gooseneck kettle rides inside the sink when traveling. With this setup, I can adhere to all the Laws of Coffee with no compromise.

The Laws of Coffee (breaking these amounts to Sins against Coffee in my book)
- water temp
- dosage
- extraction time
- roast freshness
- storage
- grind freshness
- grind quality / consistency

 

Great primer on what makes good coffee!

 

On the subject of boiling water, I can’t recommend the STS Olicamp Pot highly enough, one of my favorite pieces of gear. Boils water twice as fast as a regular pot and the handles stay cool to the touch. Use it a lot. Pays for itself in propane savings.

Randy

https://a.co/d/eXTyfx2

 

That’s a nice piece of kit

 

Ya that looks handy.
Randy:
Does it fit the jetboil? (If you have one)
Work better than a jet boil pot on CI stove?
Work heating on a campfire in a pinch? ( the jetboil pot insulating foam doesnt do well with licking flame around it...ask me how I know...)

Saving on time and propane is worth it, if so.
And I can stop buying the different fuel and lugging the jetboil along.

I'm with dirty6; Coffee is in the category of "One is none and two is one" survival gear, but now I'm practicing my Marie Kondo carry less crap evolution in CI user learning...as per past forums advice here..."lighter is better"...

PS: I used to keep a little jar of Folgers instant crystals stuffed away in my bugout bag as critical survival gear, but the Starbux VIA is better, lighter, easier- esp with a jetboil- I just keep a sealed baggie with a handful in the pot packed up; Good to go.

Edit: NVM, I ordered it and will test it out.
Savings on the fuel alone will pay for it...ya, thats the ticket!

 

Kevin,

Don’t have a jet boil so not sure. Works perfectly on the CI stove, don’t see why it wouldn’t work on an open fire.

Randy

 

Thanks brother. Went ahead and ordered one!

 

Hmmm. Thank you sensei.
Been paying very close attention to this coffee mentorship in CampInns, and now resonating esp to the ease of cleanup on pour over.

In years of backpacking, car camping, tent trailering I have about got the French Press by manual grind down, and the time to grind just right...("Its all about the grind, Sarnt"~Jonesy, in Blackhawk Down)

My monkey on the grind ending time now just matches time to boil on the stove...old fashioned one pot to do it all-
And I find the jet boil is wayyy too fast; that it interrupts my morning zen monkey meditation..which of course disturbs the exquisite timing needed to heat/cool to just right temp to add the ground beans...

But yeah, the heck with that mystical mumbo jumbo;

Just saving wasting CI tank water rinsing or saving cleanup wasting paper towels to get messy grounds out of the stainless German made french press
(That I bot on your mention here, iirc)

Fulfills my KonMar ethic...less is more, simplify...
Gonna have to think on this pour over gear. Haro is the bomb ya say, US Army field tested...good enuff for gubmint work, good enough for me...

I still have my old USN cup from the mess- as the Old Chief teaches the newbies - you rinse but never wash it out completely...building and that heat tempered dark varnish like coating is crucial.

USB grinder? Wait! Isnt that sacriligious?
That might open a dark worm hole to another parallel universe. I'll need MOAH POWAH!
Agghh, bigger newer sogen!

 

PS: have we done the
"how to roast your own beans from green"
using a lodge cast iron covered skillet on CI stove, yet?

 

The battery powered grinder stick is not a power hog, it’s a pretty small battery in there. And, the great thing about it is that if the battery stick is dead/dying, I can always just get the hand crank out and still manually grind the beans. I don’t take the battery stick to the field *edit - I don’t take it to the field any longer. I used to, but it’s not as durable and I think the field time is what banged up my first one.* I am on my second one now, the first one lasted about 4 years but started to develop a strange rattle and was misfiring a lot. I am hopeful the second one will last longer since it’s not going to be exposed to the rigors of going to the field in my coffee kit, just a pleasant life in the galley of the camper. Much less … kinetic.

Metal coffee cone, survives travel better than my old ceramic one or the glass ones I have at the house/office.

Thermal carafe, useful for making two cups at once.

Gooseneck kettle with a built in thermometer (that silicon sleeve around the base didn’t survive its first encounter with the powerful CI cast iron range)

Battery powered, USB rechargeable grinder “stick”

I’m not sure if the listing for the power stick comes with the actual hand grinder or not. Also, reviews seem to suggest the motor overpowers the plastic of the grinder and breaks it. I haven’t had any issues with my grinder in over 4 years of usage. Just the motor itself that got damaged, presumably from being banged around.

If the listing doesn’t include the hand grinder, the power stick is compatible with:

This fella

And the chonky version // I went with the smaller version since I was building a portable coffee kit

 

No, the roasting all happens at home. I have read about folks trying to roast coffee in cast iron, but it’s challenging to not scorch the beans too much. Lots of gas used to make a lot of smoke and chaff and probably whittle a wooden spoon down to nothing … I roast at home, not on the road. If we run out of the good stuff on the road, we find a boutique roaster that puts an age statement on their coffee. And only single-origin beans for us. Preferably central america or eastern africa, with a columbia kicker.

 

I use the Behmoor 2000 roaster in my garage. A great personal use roaster for up to a pound of beans per roast. Has smoke suppression but not recommended for in the house. Joe Behmoor, the inventor, provides great CampInn level customer service.

Behmor 2000AB Plus Home Coffee Roaster

 

I know a handful of Behmor users and I’ve never met an unhappy one.

I started out with an appliance roaster and then when it conked out I switched to DIY methods. First, a lot of pop corn poppers. Then I got into using a whirly pop. It’s not perfect but it does what I want and with minimal trade off. And it cost me 50 bucks. I’ve been using this method for about a decade now.

 

Great info, thanks dirty, pour over is next for me.
That roaster looks like quality manufacturing, Randy. When the zombies come over the fences from HelLA if will be bugging out to wherever you are in desert..

Srsly, I can see the value in it, if you drink a lot of coffee.
And, Light roast is just right for me.

 

I haven't read the previous 7 pages of coffee info but number 8 is wonderful! It feels like finding 'my people'!

I've been down the same process road and have come back around to my first process which is what y'all described. I just don't roast beans but I do want to grind right before the water gets poured. I have a manual grinder but I prefer an elec one but can't find one that lasts very long.

My coffee gear lives on the cupboard on the galley counter so I can make coffee without totally opening the kitchen.