In this day and age, coffee making has become something of an art. Specialty coffee shops have sprung up all over, and it would be hard to drive down a city street without seeing at least one or two. These days, coffee is more than just brewing a strong cup on the stove. There are fancy coffee makers, espresso machines, and cappuccino machines, and a host of coffee flavors and different coffee additives, such as flavored creamers or syrups.

There are times, however, when making a fancy cup of coffee is out of the question. Perhaps you are out roughing it in the wilderness, you forgot your stove-top percolator, and you still want at least a good black cup of coffee but aren't sure what to do. Believe it or not, there is a trick to coffee making that doesn't include electricity or even a stove-top percolator.

Of course, even if you are lacking a coffee maker or a coffee pot, you are still going to need your basic ground coffee, and you are going to need a heat source. Hopefully, if you are on a remote camping trip, you still remembered the coffee, even if you didn't remember the stove-top percolator; and of course, most campers have campfires or camping stoves fueled by some type of gas. It can actually be a rewarding experience to use some old-fashioned ingenuity when it comes to the simple act of making coffee without a coffee pot; it helps us remember that we are not always slaves to modern technology.

The method you can use to make yourself a cup of coffee is to use a couple of paper towels, a regular pot or pan, and a cupeither a coffee cup or any cup that can hold hot liquid. Place a couple of paper towels over the cup, and then place some coffee grounds on paper towels. Heat the water over your campfire or on your camp stove until it is boiling, and then carefully, and slowly, pour the heated water over the coffee grounds and paper towels so that it filters into the cup. The more slowly you pour the water in, the stronger your cup of coffee should be. If you don't think the coffee is strong enough the first time, carefully remove the paper towels with the coffee grounds on top, pour the liquid from the cup back into the pan, put the napkins or paper towels and coffee grounds back on top of the cup, and repeat the procedure. It shouldn't take more than two times to make a strong enough cup of coffee. This may seem like a long and tedious procedure, but you'll get your cup of coffee, and you'll probably feel rather proud of yourself!