Would you like a cup of campfire coffee? This experience is a must when you’re visiting Finland!

Imagine sitting by a campfire, enjoying the wild silence of the woods around you. You can smell the freshness of the forest as well as the soft smoke coming from the campfire. You feel safe and relaxed. It’s time to have a cup of campfire coffee. Campfire coffee is one of the most Finnish things ever. Everyone must experience it when visiting Finland, no matter if it’s summer or winter.

To make campfire coffee you must have certain type of coffee grounds that are made especially for making coffee over campfire. Every grocery store usually has this “pannu” or kettle coffee from at least one brand.

You also need fresh water and a metallic coffee kettle that has no plastic parts. To enjoy your campfire coffee in the most Finnish way, also make sure you have a traditional wooden cup or kuksa with you (read more here). A Moomin cup is also acceptable.

Then you must make a fire. In Finland there are lots of maintained campfire spots, and one must not make fire elsewhere without the permission of the landowner. In national parks such as Nuuksio or Sipoonkorpi (both right next to Helsinki) there are dozens of good campfire spots with ready-to-use firewood. Be economical with the firewood – there’s no need to make a huge campfire for preparing campfire coffee.

When the campfire is ready, it’s time to begin. This is how you do it:

Measure one litre of freshwater into your coffee kettle.

Place the kettle above the campfire and wait for the water to boil.

When the water is boiling, take the coffee kettle away from the fire and measure two decilitres of coffee grounds into the kettle.

Then just wait for about ten minutes – the campfire coffee is now preparing itself. You can place the kettle next to the campfire so that it stays hot. Some people add a small amount of cold water into the kettle at this point, believing that the coffee gets ready a bit sooner. Whether this is true or not, who knows – every Finnish hiker has their own style of preparing campfire coffee.

The coffee is ready when all the coffee grounds have sank to the bottom of the kettle. You can test this by pouring a little coffee into your cup and see if there are any coffee gounds coming out. If there are some, put the coffee back to the kettle and wait for a little longer. If not, the coffee is ready to drink!

Does this all sound like a whole lot of effort? No worries! We can prepare some delicious campfire coffee for you and your friends. And to make things even better, we’ll also make some campfire pancakes and teach you guys how it’s done!