Heading to a campsite or bach for summer shouldn't mean mediocre coffee. Photo / Getty
Heading to a campsite or bach for summer shouldn't mean mediocre coffee. Photo / Getty
A good coffee can be hard to find when travelling during the summer holidays. Instead of hunting down cafes or resorting to mediocre instant sachets, Sarah Pollok shares the most simple, affordable and easy ways to make a perfect brew while camping, tramping or travelling.
As fun as it is to travel around Aotearoa in summer, one can miss their creature comforts. Specifically, a perfectly brewed cup of coffee.
While we may have the perfect setup at home or in the office, the situation can quickly turn dire when we escape to baches or campsites, DoC huts or friends house. Before you resort to driving to the nearest cafe, paying marked-up prices at coffee vans or reaching for the large tin of instant coffee, try these simple alternatives.
A staple in any Italian home, a Moka (also known as a stovetop espresso maker) is a metal jug with two cylinders and a metal filter basket between. After filling the bottom cylinder with water and the basket with ground coffee, you pop it on a stovetop then wait until it whistles, which means the water has pushed up through the coffee to the top chamber.
Pros: Uncommon in Aotearoa, it’s a surefire way to look classy and cultured. Plus, large Moka pots can make several cups at a time, you’re guaranteed a super strong brew and you don’t need any filters.
Cons: This won’t work on your fancy inductions stovetops at home, but it does work on camping stoves, regular stovetops and even a BBQ in a pinch. We also recommend watching a YouTube tutorial as it can take a few tries to master.
AeroPress
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An AeroPress involves three main parts; the filter cap, chamber and plunger. After popping a disposable paper filter inside the filter cap, you fill the chamber with ground coffee and then boiling hot water, place it over a mug and slowly press the plunger down.
Pros: Using a filter and a slow pressure means you’ll get a smooth, rich flavour with lower acidity than a French Press. It’s also the size of a soda can and extremely robust, which makes it perfect to toss around a campsite.
Cons: You do need to buy specific Aeropress filters, which are cheap (around $11 for 350 of them) but can be a nuisance.
High-quality Instant Coffee
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While it’s fun to scoff at instant coffee, not all freeze-dried caffeine is made equally. Sure, some instant coffees taste like burnt tar and exhaust fumes, but fortunately beloved Kiwi coffee brands such as Flight Coffee and Supreme have stepped up and made products you’ll look forward to brewing.
Pros: Forget the complicated equipment or time-intensive brewing. Just grab a teaspoon and some hot water and you’re good to go. However, we do suggest following the measurement instructions to ensure it tastes as best as possible.
Cons: Great coffee doesn’t come cheap and these top-self instant coffees will average around $2 per cup, compared to the cheaper supermarket brands which are approximately $0.60 per cup.
Minipresso
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If you love fancy gadgets and espresso coffee with a golden layer of crema, consider a Minipresso; a hand-held, manually powered portable espresso machine. Kiwi company Presso make several different types but we recommend the Minipresso NS2 which uses Nespresso coffee pods, or the Minipresso GR2, which uses ground coffee. After loading the coffee, just add hot water then use the built-in pump to create pressure that extracts the coffee into a mug.
Pros: This is one of the only ways you’ll get creamy, espresso-style coffee while off grid or away from a cafe or big coffee machine. Plus, it’s lightweight, sleek.
Cons: Like a traditional coffee machine, it only makes one cup at a time. Plus, the minipresso GR2 does involve several parts and steps including the recommendation to weigh coffee grinds using a scale.
French Press
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Old Faithful, the French Press (or plunger if you want to be casual) is the perfect way to make enough coffee for the whole campsite using just a boiling jug of water and some ground coffee.
Pros: One 1.5L French Press produces 12 cups of coffee, which is brilliant when everyone has just woken up and desperately needs caffeine. It also only requires hot water and ground coffee and is easy to adjust how strong it is by adjusting the water-to-coffee ratio.
Cons: The final cup or two of a plunger inevitably has a little coffee sediment, especially if it’s an old one, so you’ll need to watch that final cup or use a filter for a perfect pour.
Enjoy the taste of French Press but don’t have space for it in your bag? No trouble, just grab a pack of coffee bags. Sold by dozens of different coffee brands, coffee bags are like tea bags but filled with ground coffee. Simply toss a coffee bag and boiling water into a mug, allow it to brew then voila, coffee.
Pros: It requires zero equipment or ground coffee; just the coffee bag, boiling water and a mug. Plus, you can adjust how strong the coffee is by how long you leave it to brew.
Cons: Like the French Press, there can be a little sooty residue at the bottom of the cup.
Love frothy coffee?
It can be tough for latte lovers to get something good outside the city. Aside from befriending the bach-owner with a fancy machine or finding a cafe, your best bet is to heat some milk in a pot or pan and then give it a hearty whisk using a portable milk frother found at any homeware store.
It’s also worth noting that frothy milk tends to suit strong, espresso-style coffee best, such as the kind you make using a Moka or Minipresso.
