How to Make Cowboy Coffee That Tastes Great

If you enjoy spending time in the great outdoors and sitting around a campfire you have to try Cowboy Coffee at least once. Cowboy Coffee is as much a part of the Wild West and American history as saloons, gold panning, and gun shootouts. It feels pretty cool throwing ground coffee into a pot of boiling water and making some coffee just how the cowboys did.

If you want to know how to make Cowboy Coffee I will say right away that there are two ways. The first way is to make the coffee how it was made in the 1800’s, which although this will give you an authentic coffee as drank in the Wild West, it’s not enjoyable to drink.

The other way is to take lend of some of the knowledge we now have and brew up some tasty coffee the cowboy way. By this I mean you are only using water, a pot, and ground coffee, but you’re going to make sure it tastes great.

How to Make Authentic Cowboy Coffee in 5-Steps

If you want to make authentic cowboy coffee don’t say I didn’t warn you how bad it tastes. But you deserve a high-five for trying it out. Just follow these 5-steps;

1. Add some coffee grounds to a coffee pot and fill the pot with water. There are no hard rules on the amounts of coffee and water, just add to the strength you want.
2. Place the pot on the open fire and bring it to the boil. The coffee grounds should rise to the top.
3. Once boiling move the pot somewhere not so hot so the coffee can simmer instead of frothing over the top of the pot,  let the coffee sit like this for a few minutes.
4. Remove from the fire and give the pot a stir, some grounds will float on the top of the water, this is normal.
5. Now you can pour the coffee, a tip here is that whichever cup your pour first will have less grounds floating in it.

This may seem crude, but think about it, cowboys had little more than coffee grounds and a means to boil water and made the best of the situation.

How to Make Cowboy Coffee You’ll Enjoy in 8 Simple Steps

If anyone tells you this process makes less than authentic Cowboy Coffee they can drink the coffee made with the above process, and you can drink this coffee and discuss who is right afterwards! All you are doing here is tweaking the recipe to make drinkable coffee, but still doing the cowboy way.

1. Bring some water to boil in your pot on your fire.
2. Remove the pot from the fire let the water sit for 30-60 seconds. This allows the temperature to lower slightly which will make a huge difference to the taste of the coffee. Boiling the coffee gives it that bitter taste and horrible aftertaste that you’d get using the above method.
3. Now you add your coffee to your pot, aim for 2 tablespoons of coffee per 8 oz of water. Use quality, finely ground coffee, might as well kick back and enjoy a nice tasting coffee.
4. Stir the coffee grounds gently and you’ll see them dissolving and some will float to the top.
5. Leave the pot to sit for another 2 minutes before giving it another stir.
6. Leave the pot to sit again for a further 2 minutes. (these steps are really important)
7. Now sprinkle a bit of cold water onto the grounds that are floating on the surface, this helps them to settle to the bottom of the pot.
8. Serve up the coffee! There should be very few grounds floating and making their way to the cup, enjoy!

The timings are really important to the taste. Leaving the coffee for any longer than directed above will make it bitter and leave an unpleasant lasting taste in your mouth.

All you’re using is a pot, water, and coffee. It’s actually a really fun and quick way to make coffee around a campfire. Using the tips here will also mean you’re serving up coffee that tastes great.

Best Camping Coffee Pots for Making Cowboy Coffee

Granite Ware 3-Quart Coffee Boiler

What you see is what you get here. This is a simple coffee pot that can be used over open flames or on an electric burner. If you want to make coffee the cowboy way, then this is very similar to what they would have used.

The lid is attached to the main body of the pot so you don’t need to worry about losing it or it coming off while boiling. It’s large enough for 4 good servings, and is pretty well insulated to keep water hot for a decent amount of time.

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OuterEQ Outdoor Camping Coffee Pot

If you prefer a pot with a lower centre of gravity so it’s more stable I don’t blame you. This style of coffee pot is a little easier than the last one to use and the handle makes it easy to pick up and pour.

It holds around a quart of water and the large lid opening not only makes it easy to fill, but you can store some items in here when it’s in your backpack.

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Coleman 9-Cup Aluminum Coffee Pot

Coleman make some of the best outdoors equipment on the market and I’ve reviewed a number of their products. This is one of their coffee pots, a no-frills, aluminium, huge 9-cup pot.

Perfect for Cowboy Coffee, but aware that aluminium becomes a mess when used on open flames. It will be covered in soot and discolor, it’s not easily damaged though.

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Tips to Make Better Tasting Coffee While Camping

Making some Cowboy Coffee is fun and you can make some decent tasting coffee following the points above. It’s not for everyone though and there are some ways you can make some better tasting coffee without too much fuss.

Here are some options:

Use a Percolator – You can pick up a coffee pot with a percolator built in. All this really means is that there is a small mesh basket in the coffee pot to hold the ground coffee. The result however is a much smoother cup of coffee, less bits of ground coffee floating in your cup, and an easy to clean pot.

Use a Coffee Maker – If nothing less than a great cup of coffee will do and you’re willing to carry some extra kit then think about investing in a coffee maker. You sit coffee makers on a stove and the water slowly filters through the coffee and drips into the pot.

Use a French Press – A French press helps you to make an excellent cup of coffee. They are pretty easy to take camping too as they are lightweight and all you need to do is press the top down to press the water through the coffee and keep the grounds at the bottom.

In Summary

After reading the above I hope you will try a pot of Cowboy Coffee, it’s one of the rights of passage to camping and making coffee. It has a bad wrap because when made as the cowboys did it’s a bitter and dirty coffee. Follow the steps above to make a cleaner cup the modern way and you’ve got yourself a quick and easy pot of coffee that tastes great.