Add Some Giddy-Up to Your Routine with this Cowboy Coffee Recipe

If you’ve been a friend of DWC long enough, you know we’re fans of taking your brew with you wherever you go. We keep the best of the best on-the-go brewing equipment stocked (and we’re always adding more), so you can follow the path less traveled—without having to drink that super sus coffee from the only gas station for the next 100 miles.  

And while we are proponents of traveling light and giving next to no f*cks, when it comes to our coffee—we get it, we can get a bit uppity. But sometimes you gotta get rustic, at-one with the elements and unafraid of a little grinds in your cup.  

Cowboy Coffee is a brewing method a couple centuries old at this point. Circa 1800s, back in the old west, ranchers and cowboys would bring a few essentials with them on the long rides herding cattle from pasture to pasture. This often was as simple as a tin can, a handful of coffee grounds and some water. Add fire to that equation and you’ve got everything necessary to brew up a Cowboy Coffee.  

21st Century Note: DO NOT try to brew cowboy coffee in a “tin can.” Aluminum has been used in can production since the ‘50s and can release harmful chemicals when cooked over a flame. So literally—take it easy, cowboy. Let us break down a recipe you can consume safely.  

What You'll Need:

• Cooksafe pot or enamel lined pot 
• 32+ oz water 
• 8 tbs of coffee

*Makes four 8 oz cups of cowboy coffee. 

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Bring 32 oz of water to a boil.  
2. Once at a rolling boil, remove from flame for 30 seconds.  
3. Add your coffee to the water, medium-coarse ground coffee works best.  
4. Stir, then cover for 4 minutes.  
5. Stir again and let it sit for another 2 minutes.  
6. Pour coffee into cups 

Pro Tip: Once poured, add a few drops of cold coffee to your cup to help settle the grinds.  

Weird Fact: Apparently some cowboys would use eggshells to both sink the grinds and cut the acidity of the coffee they were brewing. We did not try that, so egg at your own risk if you choose.

[Featured Image Source: Nathan Dumlao via Unsplash]