3 Ways to Make Coffee in an RV or Camper

Making coffee sounds simple, right? You turn on your Keurig, put the little pod or K-Cup into the holder, push down the mechanism, put your cup under and push the button. VOILA! Hot cup of coffee right at your fingertips!

But no…that’s not how we do it. Well, that’s not how we do it ‘now’. Four years after starting our RV adventures, we’ve been through a slew of different methods of making our daily coffee rations.

Our first coffee maker…

When we first moved into our previous toyhauler, we ordered a smaller Keurig because our big one that was in our S&B didn’t fit in the tiny corner on the counter by the stove. Off to Kohl’s we went looking for not just any Keurig; it had to be red…to match our new interior design decor.

Our Second…

When we traded our toyhauler in for our Landmark luxury 5th wheel, I wanted to upgrade from the one-cup Keurig to a multi-cup so either of us doesn’t have to keep refilling the water reservoir. So, we bought a bigger one.

While that was really convenient, it wasn’t really conducive to even small storage and it took up valuable counter space. We had no room to store boxes of K cups or pods and we faced another issue once we started boondocking.

Keurigs, being electric and using a lot of electricity to produce the heat, were absolutely inefficient when living off the grid. Unless we wanted to fire up the generator, it (and other electric coffee makers) totally useless. Those suckers take 1900 watts of electricity just to give you a hot cup of awesomeness.

If you notice, whenever we boondock, I had to keep a thermos’ on hand so I could make our coffee up ahead of time when Dan would light off the generators so we didn’t have to do it early in the morning. That wasn’t ideal because it degraded the taste having it sit for very long.

Also, being conservation minded, we didn’t like the idea of all the K-Cups ending up in landfills. They don’t biodegrade because they are plastic and foil.

We had to think of another way.

We were introduced to the ‘French Press’…

When we attended our first Xscapers Convergence in Quartzsite in January of 2017, it was our first long-er term boondocking experience. It was quite nerve-racking to have to wait until Dan woke up so I could have my coffee as I wasn’t yet familiar with running the portable generator(s).

Emily from OwnLessDoMore, who was parked next to us, introduced me to this glass contraption called the ‘French Press’. She said ‘it makes the best coffee’ so I gave it a try. She was right! The coffee was more flavorful and so much richer and bolder than from those silly little K-Cups. I was hooked.

However, I ran into a little problem. While it made terrific coffee, I wasted a lot of water cleaning it out for the next use. I also had to toss the grounds and water outside because we didn’t want any of that going down the drain. Adding to that, using a spatula or paper towel to clean it out was just a huge pain in the rear.

Our third…

I was still hooked though, because seriously, there is nothing better than a good cup of Joe to get my morning started right and this was just the ticket.

So I went to Walmart and bought one just like Emily’s and returned hers.

Uh-oh!!

While we were in transit, my French Press broke and so did my coffee-loving heart. It was glass. I guess I didn’t do a good enough job of storing it for transit. But before I headed back to Walmart to buy another one, I asked some of my RVing friends what they used.

Our dear friends, Camille and Bryce from More Than A Wheelin told me about this awesome double-walled stainless French Press that they bought at Amazon. I was intrigued because I still could keep the French Press method of producing a damn fine cup of coffee but also, this new find would accomplish two things; it’s double-walled stainless so it’s going to keep the coffee hot longer and it’s not glass therefore will not break going down the road.

So, what’s a girl ta do??

Let’s go shopping!!

As soon as I learned from them about this awesome French Press, I logged onto our Amazon account searching for the SterlingPro…

VOILA!!

It was only less than thirty bucks which was way more affordable than any decent coffee maker.

But then that got me thinking again about the whole water conservation and cleaning while boondocking. I wondered ‘if only they made filters for that thing’.

*tap tap tap tap tap* on my keyboard again seeing of there was such an animal.

and….*drum roll*

I found these Caffi Coffee Press Filters

So, I bought them too.

Our cup of awesome…

Once they arrived, I just had to see if they’d work and I was absolutely IN LOVE with them though the price made me shudder, it was something I could deal with.

So, here’s our simple directions using the Caffi Filters:

Our Quick Option: the Pour-Over…

We also have our ‘quick option’ of making coffee when we only want one cup or don’t want to use the French Press. It’s called a ‘Pour Over’. We got this collapsible cool pour-over on Amazon.

Its amazing because it squishes down and stores neatly in a drawer or with our coffee. Its also nice because we can take it with us if we go on an overnight camping trip.