It is a wonderment that folks lug elaborate hardware into the bush for the simple joy of coffee. I have had the great pleasure and opportunity to enjoy all kinds of coffee at locations around the world.
The best coffee joy I remember was from a packet of instant Sanka that I brought with me to the interior of communist China in the early 1980's. On a damp and rainy day in a mountain village, having not had any coffee for three months, that packet preciously reserved instant coffee brought to me a familiar comfort I shall never forget.
However, under less stressful circumstance and with a better perspective, the very best coffee a person might have would be found at the train-track cafe in Jahore Baru, Malaysia. The name of the cafe is not "Train Track", but it is a dusty shack of occassionally whitewashed boards built alongside a live railroad track. For what purpose this location was chosen for a cafe, I cannot tell, but there it is and the coffee is excellent. It is boiled and strained through a cotton sock. You can have it with sweetened condensed milk if you prefer; straight from the can, I might add.
I have had coffee at charming cafe's in France, mountainside villas in Italy, and have paid $30.00 for a single cup of coffee in Tokyo. None of them compair to the cotton sock coffee at that dusty railside stall in Malaysia made by a brown-skinned man standing on a pair of densly compressed foam flip-flops.
Of course, most people don't have the travel opportunities I have had, so they quest for a better brew with materials and techniques close at hand. From this journey has sprung the great proliferation of expensive coffees and hardware all promising to make a barista out of the common shuffler. In the 1960's, I remember watching my mother's shiney chrome coffee pot belching angry tannic brew into the glass dome of the lid. Somehow the lid managed to hold onto the pot despite the violent volcanic action of the coffee spitting up from within. I thought it was a magnificent contraption and an important convenience to the daily ritual of my parents coffee and cigarette inhalation.
When percolator technology became boring, it was determined that drip coffee was a better method. Then, home ownership of expresso machines came into vogue, then the French press was re-introduced. I am certain from my trips to the thrift stores that there are technologies from the fifties that have yet to be resurected, but surely will be.
With all the misadventures of coffee-oligy for the past half century, I believe it is time for coffee brewers to get back to our real roots. Rewind past any technology that uses electric or gas heat or any coffee produced with hardware that has more than one removable piece.
Let us, outdoorsmen of the world re-discover an absolutely delicious coffee nearly forgotten. This is the art of boiled coffee. I have had boiled coffee many times and can assure you from a world of experience that it rivals the coffees of proud baristas everywhere. Boiled coffee is a simple thing in principal, but much better enjoyed if you can add some details and complexity to it. I found a video on YouTube presented by the fascinating bushcrafter Mors Kochanski. Watch this video to gain a full understanding of how it is done. Do listen to Mors as his dialogue is eloquent and adds charm to the detail.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX91Nj0uItI
The best coffee joy I remember was from a packet of instant Sanka that I brought with me to the interior of communist China in the early 1980's. On a damp and rainy day in a mountain village, having not had any coffee for three months, that packet preciously reserved instant coffee brought to me a familiar comfort I shall never forget.
However, under less stressful circumstance and with a better perspective, the very best coffee a person might have would be found at the train-track cafe in Jahore Baru, Malaysia. The name of the cafe is not "Train Track", but it is a dusty shack of occassionally whitewashed boards built alongside a live railroad track. For what purpose this location was chosen for a cafe, I cannot tell, but there it is and the coffee is excellent. It is boiled and strained through a cotton sock. You can have it with sweetened condensed milk if you prefer; straight from the can, I might add.
I have had coffee at charming cafe's in France, mountainside villas in Italy, and have paid $30.00 for a single cup of coffee in Tokyo. None of them compair to the cotton sock coffee at that dusty railside stall in Malaysia made by a brown-skinned man standing on a pair of densly compressed foam flip-flops.
Of course, most people don't have the travel opportunities I have had, so they quest for a better brew with materials and techniques close at hand. From this journey has sprung the great proliferation of expensive coffees and hardware all promising to make a barista out of the common shuffler. In the 1960's, I remember watching my mother's shiney chrome coffee pot belching angry tannic brew into the glass dome of the lid. Somehow the lid managed to hold onto the pot despite the violent volcanic action of the coffee spitting up from within. I thought it was a magnificent contraption and an important convenience to the daily ritual of my parents coffee and cigarette inhalation.
When percolator technology became boring, it was determined that drip coffee was a better method. Then, home ownership of expresso machines came into vogue, then the French press was re-introduced. I am certain from my trips to the thrift stores that there are technologies from the fifties that have yet to be resurected, but surely will be.
With all the misadventures of coffee-oligy for the past half century, I believe it is time for coffee brewers to get back to our real roots. Rewind past any technology that uses electric or gas heat or any coffee produced with hardware that has more than one removable piece.
Let us, outdoorsmen of the world re-discover an absolutely delicious coffee nearly forgotten. This is the art of boiled coffee. I have had boiled coffee many times and can assure you from a world of experience that it rivals the coffees of proud baristas everywhere. Boiled coffee is a simple thing in principal, but much better enjoyed if you can add some details and complexity to it. I found a video on YouTube presented by the fascinating bushcrafter Mors Kochanski. Watch this video to gain a full understanding of how it is done. Do listen to Mors as his dialogue is eloquent and adds charm to the detail.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX91Nj0uItI
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