Yesterday morning the latest YouTube video by Chef Corso on his outdoors eats channel dropped. It was about a subject very close to my heart and I take very seriously. Coffee.

I’ve been on a very long coffee journey.

I grew up drinking instant coffee, Camp coffee. I even remember vaguely that my folks had a coffee percolator. They were a thing at one time in the seventies.

But let’s jump forward a few decades to the noughties, and married life. That’s when I started to take coffee seriously. I made a pretty mean latte.

When I was able to get out I tried lots of different solutions for coffee whilst out on the trail. Instant, liquid coffee, coffee grinds in a MSR Mugmate coffee filter (which is still an option).

In the years since moving back to my home town, caring duties, my coffee knowledge widened. I really like getting my coffee from small coffee roasters. Beans are described liked fine wines. Being single source and a higher grade they taste amazing usually. I find that these better quality beans I can also drink black.

I love my Aeropress. But now days my preferred method of making a coffee is using a Hario V60 pour over. It produces great consistent cups of coffee. I also make my own cold brew. Which I tend to make during the Summer. It’s so refreshing on a hot day.

Now the options for a really amazing coffee whilst out are numerous. Below is a brief summary of the ones I currently have and used.

Obviously no matter what way you decide to make your coffee you need to start with a quality bean. You will taste the difference. So splash out and treat yourself.

I prefer taking beans (less messy if the bag bursts) and grinding the beans myself. For this task I have a Hario Mini Mill Plus.

As a camping option for making large quantities of coffee I have a Hellery Camping Coffee Percolator Pot. It makes a reasonable coffee. I get that nostalgic glow when using it.

I also have a mocha pot for possible camp use. They are fine. There is definitely an art to getting a great cup of coffee out of them.

You can take your Aeropress (if you have one). It makes great coffee and is easy to clean.

Along similar lines you could take a cafetiere. Or like I have for the Jetboil (and a rival) the coffee press accessory. It makes fine coffee as long as you use the correct grind and seep it correctly. Pain to clean.

My preference at the moment is the MERMOO YILAN Collapsible Pour Over Coffee Dripper Cone. It comes with a storage bag that you can fit some filters in to. There are other brands that do their version of a pour over cone. You could even use a V60.

You can make cold brew coffee whilst camping or on the trail. I have a 32oz wide neck Nalgene water bottle for this and cold brew filter bags that hold the coffee grinds.

At a push and in a hurry I’ll use coffee bags. They are better than instant.

If you take your coffee seriously one of the above options that I have briefly mentioned should get you a great coffee fix away from civilisation and out in nature.