How do you make your coffee when you’re camping deep in the backcountry? Some people settle for the quick and simple instant coffee route. Others just go the messy cowboy way and dump coffee grounds straight into the pot. Many who prefer a coffee experience a lot closer to what they get at home settle for pour-over stands, as it barely takes up space while civilizing your campground coffee a whole lot. The GSI Outdoors Coffee Rocket, for instance, gives you a proper pour-over stand without taking up any additional space in your pack.
No, it’s not a collapsible stand that flat packs into a pile you can put in an external pocket. Instead, it’s perfectly sized to nest inside most camping mugs, allowing you to simply slot it into whatever drinking vessel you bring with you for enjoying your regular cups of coffee.
The GSI Outdoors Coffee Rocket is a pour-over stand that you can use to make one 8oz cup of coffee at a time, making it perfect for solo campers and individuals who want to make their own coffee any time it feels convenient. It consists of a drip cone and a filter with folding legs, with the base able to collapse for nesting into the cone and the cone nesting into your backcountry mug for easy transport. To use, simply place the filter with its legs unfolded on top of your mug, snap in the drip cone on top, and toss in your coffee grounds. From there, you boil some water and slowly pour it into the filter in a circular and deliberate motion, then wait for your hot coffee to drip completely into the mug.
Because it has an integrated filter, there’s no need to bring a supply of paper filters along, allowing you to lessen the amount of disposable things you need to have in your stash. The simple design makes it extremely easy to wash, too, so it should clean up just as quickly as it makes a hot cup of coffee. Heck, this thing is so convenient, you might even want to use it when making coffee at home.
According to GSI Outdoors, the Coffee Rocket’s unfolded legs can grip on nearly any type of mug, unless it’s one of those deliberately ridiculous giant ones that look more like pitchers and jugs than a proper drinking vessel for coffee. But why is it called? We’re not really sure, but the drip cone certainly looks like the exhaust on those darn rockets whenever we see them launching on TV right before they get covered up in a thick pile of smoke.
Will your backcountry coffee taste better with this thing in tow? Probably not. Will it taste ten times better than instant coffee and cowboy coffee you’ve been making do with whenever you’re slumming it out in the wild. We don’t know about ten times better, but it should definitely offer a more elevated experience.
The GSI Outdoors Coffee Rocket is available now.