Best Camping Coffee Makers: Percolators, Presses and Pour-Overs for Camp and Hunting Trips

Best camping coffee maker overall

KingCamp: $39.99, in stock · Capacity: 5-9 cups · Weight: 1.65 lb · Owner rating: 4.93 from 27 reviews

A stainless percolator is the classic camp coffee maker for a reason: it needs no paper, no electricity and no fussy technique, it brews for the whole group, and it doubles as a pot for boiling water. KingCamp's 9-cup version is the one we'd point most people to. It costs about $40, it's made of 304 stainless steel, and 25 of its 27 owner reviews on KingCamp's site are five stars.

KingCamp gives it a few touches the cheap percolators skip: a wire bail so you can hang it over a fire, a wood-grip D handle, a glass top knob so you can watch the coffee "perk," and an external fill scale marked from 5 to 9 cups. It weighs 1.65 pounds and measures about 8.3 x 4.9 x 7.9 inches, so it fits in a camp kitchen bin or a truck box without trouble. KingCamp lists it for cassette stoves, grills and fire pits.

Owners keep it simple. One calls it an excellent percolator for the price. Another says he uses it every day, one or two pots a day, and it's holding up with good-tasting coffee. One owner bought it because she didn't want hot coffee running through plastic. Her only gripe was size: a full pot fills only half of a 12-cup drip carafe, so heavy coffee drinkers or bigger camps should look at the KingCamp 12-Cup Percolator ($59.99, 2.3 lb), which was KingCamp's #7 best seller the day we checked.

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Best French press for camp

Sportsman's Warehouse: $39.99 for the 40 fl oz size, in stock, ships to home (GSI lists it at $39.95) · Capacity: 40 fl oz · Sales signal: #1 best seller in GSI's coffee collection on November 11

Most camp French presses make you heat water in one pot and pour it into another. GSI's Glacier Stovetop JavaPress cuts out the second pot: the carafe is all stainless steel, so you boil water right in it on the stove, take it off the heat, add coffee, wait and press. GSI says it's tough enough for open-flame cooking, and it was the top seller in GSI's coffee collection the day we checked.

The 40-ounce size brews about six and a half 6-ounce cups, plenty for two or three people, and GSI also sells a 20-ounce version. It comes with a stainless French press filter, a multi-position lid for controlled pouring, silicone-insulated folding handles that fold flat for packing, and a silicone trivet that doubles as a pot gripper. When you're done brewing it's just a stainless pot, so you can heat soup or water for dishes in it too. GSI covers it with a limited lifetime warranty.

The catch: it's new enough that neither Sportsman's nor GSI shows owner reviews yet, so the sales rank is the signal here. And like any French press, expect a little sediment in the last pour; a medium-coarse grind helps.

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Best ultralight and budget pick

Fire Maple: $17.95, in stock · Weight: 1.6 oz · Packed: 3.0 x 2.5 in · Owner rating: 4.81 from 32 reviews

If you hunt out of a backpack or just want real coffee without a pot to clean, this is the cheapest and lightest way to get it. The Antarcti is a double-layer stainless mesh cone with three arms that fold out and rest on your mug. Put in ground coffee, pour hot water from whatever pot or stove you already carry, and lift it out. No paper filters to pack out. It weighs 1.6 ounces and folds to 3.0 x 2.5 inches.

Owners like it a lot: 29 of 32 reviews are five stars. One says the double mesh leaves less residue than his home French press, another says the grounds don't pass at all, and a backpacker calls it one of his few luxury items on the trail. The complaints are small. One owner says filtering is slow, and one wishes it were a bit bigger. Fire Maple says a little fine sediment can get through any metal filter and suggests a medium to medium-coarse grind, and warns to check that all three arms sit securely on the rim before you pour.

It brews one mug at a time, so it's a solo or two-person tool. Prefer paper filters? Fire Maple's Orca Pour-Over Dripper ($24.95) is a stainless cone that holds small paper filters and fits mug rims from 2 to 3.8 inches.

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Best for a big hunting camp

Sportsman's Warehouse: $99.99, in stock, ships to home free · Capacity: 28 cups (5-6 fl oz each) · Size: 8 x 8 x 9.75 in · Owner rating: 5.0 from 2 reviews

Deer camp, elk camp, a church campout or a family reunion at the lake: when you're pouring for a crowd, you want one big pot, not three small ones. Stansport's 28-cup stainless percolator is the biggest camp coffee maker Sportsman's had in stock, and at about $3.57 per cup of capacity it's the cheapest per cup in this guide.

It's a classic three-piece percolator (pot, stem and basket) in stainless steel with an attached flip-top lid, a wooden handle and a pour spout. Stansport says to use it on a camp stove or on a grill rack over an open fire. Note that Stansport rates "cups" at 5 to 6 fluid ounces, so 28 cups is roughly 140 to 168 ounces of coffee, or about 12 to 14 big mugs.

Only two owners have reviewed it at Sportsman's (both five stars, one calling it a "great big percolator" of quality material), so the record is short. Plan on a two-burner stove or a solid grill grate: a pot this size full of water is heavy and needs a stable base. Stansport doesn't list the weight.

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Best for keeping coffee hot

Sportsman's Warehouse: $49.99, in stock, ships to home (GSI lists it at $49.95) · Capacity: 33 fl oz · Weight: 21.5 oz · Owner rating: 4.0 from 2 at Sportsman's, 5.0 from 3 at GSI

Cold mornings in a blind or at a trailhead are when coffee goes cold fastest. GSI's Glacier Stainless JavaPress is a French press built into a vacuum-insulated, double-wall 18/8 stainless carafe, so the second and third cups stay hot. GSI says its silicone-ring plunger virtually eliminates coffee "blow-by" for mud-free coffee, and the pour-through lid and non-slip foot keep it steady on a tailgate.

It holds 33 fluid ounces (about five 6-ounce cups), weighs 21.5 ounces and measures 6.3 x 4.4 x 8.8 inches. This one is not a stovetop pot: heat your water in a kettle or pot first, then pour it in. That makes it a good partner for any of the stoves in our best camping stoves guide.

At Sportsman's, one owner calls it a "really great press" with a sturdy fine sieve, but took off stars because the plastic handle snapped when it was dropped. Another says it makes excellent coffee once you line the lid's "POUR" label up correctly.

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Best pour-over kettle

Fire Maple: $44.95, in stock (regular $53.94) · Capacity: 25.4 fl oz (750 ml) · Weight: 15.1 oz · Sales signal: #17 of 149 in Fire Maple's best-selling sort

Pour-over fans want two things a regular camp pot can't give them: a slow, aimed stream of water and a way to know the temperature. The Antarcti kettle has both. It's a 304 stainless kettle with a narrow gooseneck spout and an analog thermometer built into the lid, which Fire Maple says marks a coffee-brewing range of about 194 to 205°F. Pair it with the Antarcti filter above or any cone, and you've got a full pour-over setup for about $63.

It holds 750 ml (25.4 fluid ounces), enough for about two big mugs per fill, and weighs 15.1 ounces. It's one of Fire Maple's better sellers (#17 of 149 products the day we checked). Only one owner has reviewed it so far, calling it her "best new kitchen gadget" and praising how easy the dial makes it to watch the water heat.

Know the limits. Fire Maple recommends a stable gas or alcohol camp stove and says flames shouldn't wrap around the body or reach the handle; it doesn't recommend hanging it over a campfire because flames can reach the handle and thermometer. It also won't work on induction cooktops. It's a car-camping and cabin kettle more than a backpacking one.

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Best percolator you can buy at Sportsman's

Sportsman's Warehouse: $49.99, in stock, ships to home · Capacity: 9 cups (5-6 fl oz each) · Size: 8 x 5 x 7 in · Owner rating: 4.2 from 6 reviews

If you'd rather buy from Sportsman's (or pick it up at a store), Stansport's 9-cup is the same classic idea as the KingCamp: a stainless three-piece percolator with a flip-top lid, wooden handle and pour spout, for a camp stove or a grill rack over a fire. It costs about $10 more than the KingCamp and lacks the hanging wire and fill scale.

Owners are mostly happy: one replaced a 50-plus-year-old aluminum pot with it, another makes nearly all his coffee in it now, and he recommends boiling water in it two or three times and wiping it down first to remove manufacturing grease. Two reviews are worth reading before you buy. One owner says the wooden handle started smoking over an open fire pit and wasn't cool to the touch, and another says his never percolated properly, even after 45 minutes on medium-high heat.

Bottom line: a fair stainless percolator, but use it on a stove or keep the handle away from the flames, and treat that handle as hot.

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