Campfire Coffee: Pour Over Like A Barista

One of our favourite moments of an excursion into the great outdoors is taking a well-earned break and enjoying a freshly brewed coffee. The ritual of sitting down and preparing your brew, without a doubt, makes it taste all the better. 

We joined our friend and barista, Euan, the owner of award-winning tea & coffee shop Moo & Two - located just a stone's throw from our own store, for a walk around our local woodlands and a midway coffee break. Like us, Euan enjoys camping, hiking and getting into nature. So, for our first collaboration, in a series of tutorials on brewing great coffee on the go, Euan walks us through creating the perfect pour-over campfire coffee. Here's what he had to say:

The ratio for this filter coffee is 60g of coffee per litre of water. This is a very solid recipe, and once worked out can be a useful way of making great coffee with most pour-overs.

The cup used was a YETI Rambler 10oz mug, which converts to 283 mls. This means in order to stick to the above recipe of 60g/1L, we need to grind 17g of coffee for this mug.

When making coffee somewhere without scales to hand, it helps to have a starting point—for instance, knowing the YETI mug's exact capacity and the marker for 17g on your grinder. If you plan on making campfire coffee, back yourself and pre-measure your coffee, or at least know your quantities. This will give you a better chance of making a delicious coffee every time.

Next, prepare the set-up, get your water boiling and your items laid out before you. This will ensure you can prepare your coffee quickly and efficiently. Preheating the dripper and initially wetting the filter paper is good practice. Preheating will give you a better chance of consistency, and having an already wet filter paper will slow down the initial pour and give the coffee the best chance of first bloom. Position your coffee dripper, prepared filter paper and ground coffee over the mug.

To get the most out of your coffee, I recommend grinding the beans as and when needed. Ensuring the grind is as fresh as possible. Another great way to access the freshest grind is to use beans from small local roasteries. These smaller batches will spend significantly less time on the shelf before reaching your cup and be the better for it.

I'm using a Snow Peak grinder, which is set to a good grind for this light-roast coffee. We could go coarser for a darker roast, but I prefer a light roast. 

The initial water pour and bloom are more effective at a hotter temperature; subsequent pour-overs will drop in temperature as the water cools. As we are making this coffee in the wild, you will have to eyeball your quantities (but that's the joy!)

The first pour and initial bloom should fill around one-third of your mug and take about 30 seconds to fully filter through the paper. The second pour should hit the two-third mark and take roughly 1 minute. The third pour should take you to the top of your mug. Allow all water to fully percolate through the paper and grounds to fill the mug. Your coffee should now be ready to enjoy!

We hope the campfire coffee brings you the same satisfaction, enjoying every step of making the perfect outdoor brew. 

Creating the fire, boiling the water, grinding the beans and the inevitable pour-over. The campfire coffee can be a source of warmth, comfort and energy. It can be shared with others (just adjust your ratios) or enjoyed alone as you sit back and take in the nature around you.

Follow Euan's coffee shop here: Moo & Two