Summer is here and we are getting ready for our BIG family camping trip and I need to have coffee. I am not talking about just any coffee. I need my coffee that I roast at home.
I have tried to pre-roast coffee before going on trips and it just gets too stressful to roast 3 weeks worth of coffee for 2 people on my tiny make shift home coffee roaster. My solution to this problem is to bring along an old Westbend Poppery II hot air popper and a long extension cord. I mean it's only the size of a Coleman camping lantern. It can be used for making popcorn too!
I can remember roasting coffee outside the bathroom at Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah. I had a 10 foot extension cord snaking itself out the window. People were walking by and saying how cool it was to be roasting popcorn! I let these people know that I was roasting coffee. They were even more impressed. I tried to stay under the radar screen when roasting coffee. I usually roasted early in the morning. I am not sure what ranger Rick would have to say about 1400 Watts of precious electricity firing up my home coffee roaster. Maybe he or she would want a cup of joe since instant coffee really sucks!
There were times that I roasted outside a gas station bathroom! I am not desperate, just quality conscientious. I want my coffee fresh. Find me an electrical outlet and I will roast coffee.
Now that I have the issue of fresh roasted beans solved, brewing was another issue. My coffee always seemed to get cold when drip brewing in a cone filter. It always seemed to take forever too! I found 2 plastic French press brewers at REI. They are far from the high quality that I experience from my Bodum press at home. The coffee always tasted gritty. Cowboy coffee.
My problem of cold coffee and slow brewing time was due to the 1 hole in the Melitta cone. Maria at Sweet Marias solved my problem by selling me a 4 hole cone filter. An Einstein moment!
For those of you that need to drink your hot coffee check out this drip free stainless coffee tumbler made by Contigo. It will keep your coffee hot for hours. Not that I ever take that long to drink a cup. Give me 20 minutes and I will finish my coffee while it's still fresh. I can always brew another cup 4 hours later and drink again.
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