We love lattes, so how do we make one in the middle of a campsite? At home we have a Nespresso machine (like the one pictured on the right). It makes beautifully smooth lattes and espressos but it's not coming camping with us. So an alternative source of good coffee will probably need to be organised.

There is always Starbucks and Costa Coffee, but that involves a trip into a town somewhere which is a pain, on top of the higher price you would pay for a coffee. So what are the options for making coffee on-site. I'm assuming no electrical hook up as a) we never have one and b) I'd guess anything that can heat water for coffee would use more power than a hook up could handle. So we're talking about making a decent cup of coffee with standard camping kit, a stove (or fire) of some kind, a kettle and any coffee specific paraphernalia that's small and robust enough to take along.

Option 1. Instant. I'm not considering this as an option as, despite what the Kenco adverts say, instant does not make a decent cup of coffee. So although yes it's a solution to making coffee on-site it doesn't cut the mustard I'm afraid.

Option 2. Cafetiere. The next easiest solution is a cafetiere. This is real coffee, so we're on the right track. My concern here was whether or not it was possible to get a cafetiere that was robust enough to be thrown in a bag or box and stuffed into the boot. The ones pictured top left seem to fit the bill, but will the plunger have a good seal? To be honest part of the delight of our Nespresso machine is the ritual of making the coffee. Scooping some coffee into a cafetiere pouring on the water and plunging doesn't have the same quality.

Option 3. Percolator. This is getting closer. Real coffee and ritual. Filling the percolator, screwing it all together with seals and pressure valves like a steam engine. The percolating itself all that bubbling and squelching and popping. It's also a pretty robust bit of kit, you could probably drive over it and it'd survive (that's not a recommendation obviously).

Option 4. Handpresso. A hand-what-o? It's a hand held, manual espresso machine. No really! Here's the blurb from their site:

How does it work?

Nothing is easier! Just pump the machine to 16 bar, add hot water from a kettle or a thermo insulated bottle and an E.S.E. pod. Then, serve a premium quality coffee in your cup by pushing the button.

So this little gadget (pictured on the left) makes a real espresso by forcing hot water through the coffee (in a pod like a Senseo uses) at high pressure. This is what creates the crema (the froth) on the top of an espresso.

Seems a simple idea surely it's the perfect solution, heat the water in the kettle, pour it in the machine, pump it up and pour out a perfect espresso. There must be a catch surely , I mean it's so clever, so cute, so cool and it's just £75 ... ah. Hmm perhaps that percolator would fit the bill just as well after all.

Update

How did I manage to miss this little beauty! An espresso maker just for camping. It looks suspiciously like a percolator where the coffee is routed into a cup rather than into the top section but none the less it looks quite funky and is definitely worth a mention.