Prep Time: 5-10 minutes
Total Time: 10-15 Minutes
Are you a lonesome cowgirl looking for a kick to your morning? Do you want to know how to make coffee without a coffee pot? This recipe is for hot desert dwelling, wild people with minimal tools—or just people going camping. You may have heard of cowboy coffee, which requires only a mug and a pot to make, but I’m going to show you how to make coffee if all you have is a mug and a kettle. You can also make this with a pot in place of the kettle—it will just be harder to pour.
What is Cowgirl Coffee?
Cowgirl Coffee is a rugged cup of coffee that has coffee grounds in the mug. This is because it is made very minimalistically with very few tools. There is no filtering process, so you might get some coffee grounds in your swig. This kind of coffee is good for when you’re out roughing it and don’t want to carry anything that isn’t absolutely necessary (but you still need your coffee).
Tips for Cowgirl Coffee
Because the coffee grounds just stay in the mug, this works better with a lighter roast as opposed to a darker one. This is because over-extracting darkly roasted beans can create a very bitter, unpleasant taste. That is less likely to happen with a lighter roast, which tends to be less bitter in the first place. However, it will be more acidic, so balance this to your taste with the beans you choose.
Recipe for Cowgirl Coffee
Tools:
- Kettle – This recipe assumes that you’re outdoors and don’t have an electric kettle, so we’re also assuming you’ll be using a traditional teakettle that whistles
- Mug (this recipe uses an 8 oz mug, but you can scale it as needed)
- A heat source, such as a campfire or a portable stove
- Grinding tool if coffee is not pre-ground (a mortar and pestle or a handheld burr grinder is a great option for camping)
- Extra tip: You can bring pre-ground single servings of coffee in separate baggies or tins. This is a great option if you don’t want to deal with the hassle of carrying a grinder and manually grinding your beans while you’re on your trip.
Ingredients:
- 2 tbsp of coarse ground coffee (2.5 tbsp of whole coffee beans)
- 8 oz of safe drinking water
- Extra tip: If you aren’t able to bring actual water with you, you can bring a purifying method. This can be iodine tablets or a backpacking filter. Out of the two, I would recommend a filter, since that will make the coffee taste better. Of course, tablets or a filter will only work if there is an actual water source where you’re camping. There are also some pathogens, like the cyanobacteria in Utah’s Virgin River, that cannot be filtered out or treated with iodine.
Steps:
- If your coffee isn’t ground already, grind it coarse. A coarse grind is best for immersion brewing because of the prolonged contact with hot water. Since it’s in the hot water for so long, less surface area of the coffee is needed. Too fine of a grind would result in a very messy, muddy cup. It could also make the cup very bitter. If you don’t have a grinder, you can use the two rocks method.
- Put the coarse coffee grounds straight into your mug.
- Measure 8 oz of safe drinking water into the kettle. You can do this by filling the mug with water, and pouring its contents into the kettle. For each serving, use one mug of water.
- Put the kettle of water on the heat source and wait for it to boil.
- When the water boils, take it off the heat.
- Cool the water down, aiming for 197 F or 91-92 C. Any of these following methods can help get your water near the appropriate temperature:
- Just let it cool for about 30 to 60 seconds with the lid off.
- Move the kettle in a spiral, swishing the water, for about 10-30 seconds with the lid off.
- If you’re near a cold body of water, you can dip the kettle in for about 10-30 seconds. Make sure you do not let any of the cold water into your kettle as it may contain pathogens. If there’s any chance of letting unsafe water into the kettle, don’t use this method.
- Put it in a cooler filled with ice for about 10-30 seconds.
- Which method you use, and for exactly how long you use it will depend on what’s available to you and the temperature of your environment. If it’s freezing outside, you may not even need this step.
- If needed, this is an important step, because water that is too hot will over-extract the beans. This is especially undesirable for this recipe because the beans are not removed from the water. That is, they will be steeping until you’re finished with your drink. For Cowgirl Coffee, it’s best to err on the side of “a little too cool” than “too hot.”
- If you’d like a more certain way of measuring the temperature of your water, you can bring a small portable thermometer.
- Allow your coffee to brew for about 4.5 minutes, or until it is cool enough to drink. This is not a luxury recipe; it’s just a way to get your caffeine while you’re camping, so don’t stress about perfection.
- You are now ready to drink your coffee!
Now that you know how easy it is to make cowgirl coffee, you can bring only the bare necessities with you on your next camping trip. This recipe makes it so simple, especially if you are bringing dehydrated meals where you “just add water.” In this case, you would be bringing a kettle anyway. Otherwise, you may want to look into cowboy coffee, which uses a pot instead of a kettle. At any rate, you now have another recipe that you can try, and you might find that you love the ruggedness of cowgirl coffee!
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