The Perfect Start to the Morning: How We Make Coffee on Our Trips

If you’re anything like me, a hot cup of coffee is the perfect way to start the day—and honestly, it’s a necessity! Luckily, one of the little luxuries we make sure to have on our trips is good coffee. Here’s how we brew it!

Our guides are up and at it early, long before everyone else stirs. In fact, they’re usually up before sunrise! The first task on their list? Brewing that essential morning cup of coffee. Let’s take a look at how they do it.

Step 1: Prepare the Water

We might not have fancy coffee machines on the river, but we’ve got plenty of other great tools to work with. To start, we fill two large stock pots with drinking water and set them on the blasters in the kitchen. Often, the guides will set this up before going to bed to make things a little easier in the morning. When the day arrives, the task of lighting the blasters falls to either the swamper or the first crew member awake (it depends on the trip leader, of course).

While the water heats up, the guides get busy with their other morning tasks. They pack up their personal gear—sleeping bags, clothing, and the like—and begin preparing breakfast.

Step 2: Brew the Coffee

Once the water reaches a rolling boil, it’s time for the magic to happen. We make cowboy coffee—no fancy filters here! The coffee grounds go straight into the boiling water. After a few minutes of brewing, it’s time to move on to the next step.

Step 3: Strain and Serve

To filter out the grounds, we use large coffee urns that we bring on every trip. The process is simple but effective: we open the urn, place a square strainer on top to catch the grounds, and carefully pour the coffee into the urn. Once the grounds are discarded, we close up the urn, and your coffee is ready to enjoy!

And if you’re the type to enjoy cream and sugar in your coffee, you’ll find them conveniently placed on the table by the urns, just waiting for you to add the finishing touch. 

Whether you take it black or with cream and sugar, you’ll find that the perfect cup of coffee is just one of the many things that make our trips unforgettable. 

We hope this gives you a little taste of how we make our mornings just a bit more enjoyable on our trips!

Check out this blog to read more about food on the river!