There is a simple, serene joy in a nice cup of coffee by the smoldering fire after waking up at your campsite. There's no rush to start your day and you can calmly enjoy the delight of a freshly brewed cup of joe. Learn the top methods of making coffee when camping with the best outdoor coffee makers.

Outdoor activities have always been at the core of American life. Just take a look at outdoor organizations like the Boy Scouts, for example. They were formed to promote self-reliance and patriotism at a time when people moving from farms to cities were seen as a danger to the American way of life and its values.

Hiking, camping; whatever it is you do, it is always better to accompany it with some of life’s greatest pleasures. For us, that is none other than good coffee—veteran made coffee in our case, which can make any activity better with just one sip.

Best Outdoor Coffee Makers for Camping

Making coffee outdoors can get tricky, though. It’s not like you can take your Nespresso with you! So we’ve put together a list of some of the best coffee makers that you can take with you on pretty much any kind of outdoor activity.

The AeroPress

The AeroPress is hands down the best, most convenient camping coffee maker. It is made of plastic, so it’s very light and easy to carry without the fear of breaking any of its parts. The plastic is of very high quality, too, so it never actually breaks or bends.

Furthermore, the AeroPress is incredibly easy to use. It’s very intuitive and it doesn’t really have any confusing steps: pour grounds, pour water, then press down. Your coffee is ready to drink!

This coffee maker is designed to make an espresso-like coffee, so it’s quite concentrated, unlike many other manual coffee makers. We strongly recommend a dark roast, as the AeroPress really brings out the flavor in dark roasts. Try Proper Patriot's own dark roast Morning Bite on your next camping trip!

French Press

The French press is number two on our list for many reasons. It makes arguably what is the best black coffee you can get thanks to the absence of paper filters and it’s also quite easy to use.

Photo credit: Flickr/John Beans

The one downfall? It’s usually fragile, made of glass, which makes it really hard to take with you on a camping trip and such. It would break right away. So what can you do?

Well, you can get a stainless steel French press! They look amazing and are the perfect choice for outdoor activities. They are not too heavy and virtually impossible to break. Sure, they’re a little more expensive than a regular French press but very much worth it. Imagine drinking your favorite coffee outside, in nature: priceless.

For a French press black coffee, we recommend you use a light roast coffee blend.

The Wacaco NANOPRESSO

Here is a camping coffee maker that seems to have been made exactly for people like us. Wacoco's Nanopresso is an espresso machine made into a tiny little black box that needs just hot water and coffee grounds to get going. It’s amazing.

This thing makes actual espresso, much like the one you would get at a coffee shop. The only reason this isn’t placed at number one on our list is that it can be a little hard to learn all the ins and outs—chances are that, for the first few attempts, you won’t be getting good coffee from it.

It can also be hard to clean and overall a little inconvenient. Although it was made expressly for outdoor activities, and it certainly makes espresso easy, it can be annoying to keep clean. And a dirty coffee maker means bad-tasting coffee in the future, we all know that!

Once you've learned the features and maintenance of this coffee gadget by Wacaco, it makes for a compact, durable coffee maker to take on your camping adventures.

Conclusion

Our conclusion is simple: outdoor activities are better with coffee. And thanks to the new products and ways to make coffee nowadays, it’s actually quite easy to make coffee outdoors.

Also, if you like your coffee freshly ground, you can always get a small manual grinder to enjoy even better coffee outdoors. This adds another step in making coffee outdoors, but what's the rush? Nothing like freshly ground coffee!

Proper Patriot offers the perfect coffee blend to try for your go-to camping caffeine source named Crackling Campfire (it even has a campfire on the package!).

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