Our quest for the perfect camp coffee has roughly followed our outdoor evolution. Self described coffee fanatics the thought of no coffee in the morning has never been an option - even in the remotest of locations. We've always packed in a caffeine delivery system of one form or another.

The 4 C's: Cost / Convenience / Clean-up / Containment

The Rolled Steel Percolator: (24.73oz) As witnessed by our first solution, we never gave any thought to even one 'C' so the classic rolled steel percolator, while aesthetically pleasing and making a decent albeit gritty brew, its size, weight and clean-up issues quickly removed it from the cookwear bin.

French Press: (20.21oz) Due to the containment and clean-up, the French press – cost effective and tasty – only lasted one weekend in our kit. There are smaller versions available, but we don't see much difference in the clean-up. The French press was time-consuming to clean, ranking right up there with the aforementioned percolator.

Starbucks Via: (2.26oz) A classic case of overcorrection led us to a more instant solution which just can't be beat on 3 of the 4 measures – convenience, clean-up, and containment. Boil, pour, stir, repeat. But all that comes at a cost which may very well trump the other 3. Even at our Costco best price, we were still looking at better than $0.50/cup which really starts to add up if you have 3-4 coffee drinkers in your camp. That being said the Via packets will still have a place in our kit for those times where you just need something quick or when saving space + weight is a premium.