Cowboy Coffee, the most popular way to make coffee in the past: a truly American way of making true, American coffee.
The reason it’s called Cowboy coffee is that this way of making coffee was most prevalent in the wilderness, where there were little or no commodities. Cowboy Coffee is the simplest way there is to making coffee: You heat water with the grounded coffee in that same water, and then try to pour yourself a cup as best you can without too many grounds making their way into your morning coffee.
The flavor of Cowboy Coffee is not as uncouth as its name can lead you to believe, because brewing coffee this way gives you a full flavor, with a lot of aromatic tones and, on top of all of that, a really strong coffee. None of the coffee is lost during this process because 1) The grounds never reach a point where they could be burnt and therefore lose any of their properties and, 2), there are no filters in which oils or fluids could get stuck.
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Step by Step Guide to Making Great Cowboy Coffee:
- Bring water to a boil and let sit for just under two minutes. The heat source should be turned off or on a very low setting.
- Using two tablespoons of ground coffee per serving (about 200ml of water), add to water.
- Stir and let it stand for two minutes, then stir again and let it stand again.
- When coffee sinks to the bottom, you can pour yourself a coffee.
While it seems simple and easy enough, there’s more than meets the eye to cowboy coffee. We’d like to share with you some tips and tricks that we’ve learned over the years to make better cowboy coffee.
Check out “Definitive Guide to Coffee Antioxidants” as well to see some benefits to drinking that cup of coffee in the morning.
Eggshells
Some people like to add some eggshells (white or brown, doesn’t matter) to their water while the coffee brews, because it helps make the grounds sink faster and more evenly.
Interestingly enough, not only eggshells help with sinking the grounds better: they also reduce the level of acidity in your coffee. This is great because it improves the taste of your coffee and minimizes the risk of getting acid reflux. Strong coffee tends to induce acid reflux, so eggshells are very practical (and natural!) way to counter this effect.
Use a Sock
Since cowboy coffee is traditionally made outdoors and with nothing to act as a filter, getting the coffee grounds can be almost impossible. In these cases, any piece of cloth is a good substitute for a filter so you don’t have to ingest coffee grounds, which is really unpleasant.
The most suited piece of clothing, because of its shape, is the sock. We recommend you use a clean sock, but that’s really up to you. Maybe you like your coffee spicy; we don’t judge anyone here by their taste in coffee.
If the coffee grind is too fine, use the thickest piece of clothing you can find to retain as many of the coffee grounds possible. You can also add two layers or filter the coffee more than one time to achieve better results.
Use a Coarser Grind
If you use a fine for cowboy coffee, you’ll probably be done faster and have less trouble pouring. But if you’re in a situation where you don’t have a filter, then coarse is the way to go because then you could wait a bit for the grounds to sink to the bottom of the pot. With a fine grind, that would be completely impossible as fine particles will get stirred up with the slightest movement and thus make their way into your coffee.
Use Two Kettles
If the need should arise for making coffee without a filter and you cannot get your hands on anything else but finely ground coffee, then there’s still one choice left before you start drinking coffee with grounds in it.
Use a kettle (or pot) for brewing the coffee, and have another one empty next to it. When your coffee is brewed, pour gently into the second kettle all you can. Dump the coffee grounds, then pour the coffee from the second kettle into the first, and dump the coffee grounds left in it.
Keep repeating this process until your coffee is reasonably free of grounds, and then serve into your mug.
Make sure you also check out “5 Most Popular Coffee Drinks in America” to see how far the coffee game has come with these amazing coffee drinks.
Now you’re ready to make coffee by a campfire in the wilderness (or your backyard). Thank you for reading with us today! Be sure to also check out related content like “Aged Coffee Explained” or even “9 Gifts for Coffee Lovers“. Find a gift for your cowboy at home!
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We’ll brew ya later! ☕️
