Wolfgang wrote:

Yeah, I've messed around with all sorts of brewing methods for a long long
time. The French Press method looked appealing, and I still know a lot of
people who prefer it, but it does nothing at all for me.....too much sort of
in between and undecided in terms of get the grounds out or leave them in.
Percolators are an abomination, no need to equivocate. My favorite is the
drip method.....through unbleached paper, thank you very much, none of the
reusable (reuseless, if you ask me) wire mesh crap. Second
best.....surprisingly.....is cowboy coffee, which pretty much rapes all the
conventional wisdom about brewing coffee.

Did you ever get one of those little Ikea espresso maker thingies
like I had at my campsite?

Background: I ran across a cheap (~$20?) espresso maker from Ikea
which I thought might work for camping. It's a basic design; fill the
base with water to just below the vent, put your grounds in the little
metal filter cup that goes on top of the water chamber, screw on top and
place on fire/burner.

When the water starts to boil, the coffee is forced up through the
grounds and a nozzle in the top chamber. Remove from fire when all you
hear is a hissing sound and no more coffee is coming from the nozzle.

It makes a pretty good cup of coffee, and is fast.

Now if Wolfgang can just forgive me for using Starbucks (aka,
"Charbucks") in the thing. :-}


Chuck Vance (who admits to knowing next to nothing at all about
coffee, except it goes nicely with a cig when sitting by the Little
River on a cool morning)