Your camping trip or weekend outdoor adventure wouldn’t be complete without a nice, warm cup of coffee. And as electricity or power is scarce in the ‘great outdoors,’ coffee pots or coffee percolators are usually used and will be your best friend. Fortunately, making a good coffee or merely boiling water with a coffee pot fire is easy. Besides using them on camping trips over a campfire, you can also use them in-house via a stovetop. However, no matter how simple its uses may seem, there are some drawbacks to using one. Here are some of the things you should consider in getting one.
Coffee Pots as Percolators
A coffee percolator is basically a type of pot used for brewing coffee by constantly cycling the boiling or almost boiling brew through the grounds utilizing gravity until the essential strength is reached.
Coffee percolators started over a century ago by an American soldier and scientist Count Rumford and were adapted to stove-tops by a farmer named Hanson Goodrich in 1889. So this handy tool had been an American staple for quite a long time already, long before drip coffee makers arrived.
With a percolator, you will get a strong but bitter-tasting coffee due to the combination of constant boiling and the range of time a percolator runs. The water at the bottom of the pot can make to a rolling boil, and the brewed coffee cycles through grounds multiple times.
Because of this, you must continuously babysit your percolator to manage the correct temperature and brew time. Otherwise, your coffee won’t be pleasant. Once you get the hang of it, this process can brew a decent cup of coffee.
The main strength of this process is its versatility. These coffee pots come in self-heating and non-self-heating options. You can use it in-house on a stove-top or in a microwave oven or on camping trips over a fire.
If this sounds like it will suit your needs, we suggest this affordable yet versatile option.
Things to Consider
The Brew’s Strength and Flavor
The common consensus is that a coffee pot fire brews stronger coffee because you are like basically getting a double brewed coffee on the first go.
This means that you will be getting a stronger, bold coffee as the coffee will be likely over-extracted, which means you won’t get much depth of flavor.
The Brew Size
When you are gathered around the campfire and wanted to keep yourself warm, a good cup of coffee should do the trick. But, if you are going to make coffee for a lot of people, a coffee pot fire may be a disadvantage.
Burning the Coffee
When you leave a super hot coffee pot fire in an open fire, you may get a very thick or, worse, burnt coffee. The steam that rises from the hot coffee is water that’s leaving in vapor form. This will cause the coffee to be stronger and thicker and can add a burnt flavor, making your coffee taste super bitter.
Burning the Pot
One of the expected consequences of leaving your coffee pot in an open fire is a burnt pot. This is possible, especially if you have left little to no coffee in the pot. When the coffee begins to evaporate and thicken, the fire will eventually burn the bottom of your pot. Though you may scrub off the burnt marks with baking soda, lemon juice, and salt, you may throw your coffee pot and get a new one if the burn was able to warp the bottom of the pot. It may be permanently damaged when left without anything inside.
Conclusion
Coffeeholics or coffee lovers no longer need to doge camping trip invites from friends or family. If you are the type who can’t start the day or can’t function without your morning ritual, a cup of coffee, you will be glad to know that there is a way to brew a hot pot of strong and steamy coffee as soon as you unzip the sleeping bag. You just need a coffee pot fire or a coffee percolator, a stash or few ounces of your trusted and favorite roast, and a hotbed of burning coals or an open fire. Within minutes, you will be able to enjoy a hot cup of joe and get started with your day. As much as you would enjoy your camping trip with your cup of coffee, consider some of the things in bringing a coffee pot to your camping trips. Find out more about coffee pots.