5 Ways How To Make Coffee On The Stove

Tara Williams

Food Writer & Editor For KitchenSanity

Tara Williams is a seasoned food writer and editor who's been with KitchenSanity since its beginning. With a knack for experimenting with food and creating delicious recipes, she's your go-to for straightforward kitchen advice and practical tips from personal experiences. As a mom of two, Tara understands the value of time. She crafts articles that enhance your cooking skills and free up time for what matters most—like family moments.

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Imagine waking up one day, finding your beloved coffee maker sputtering about in its final death throes. It’s a sorry sight, but while your coffee maker rests in peace, your brain and body are doing the exact opposite.

How in the world are you supposed to make it through the day without coffee?

In a nation wherein 83% of adults are powered by caffeine, a suddenly disenfranchised coffee maker might just rank high enough on one’s personal crises list to make it a major trouble.

But fear not, our ancestors were able to get by without drip coffee makers themselves. They made their coffee the old-fashioned way – which is to say, they were able to brew coffee without a coffee maker.

If they could do it, why can’t we? In this article you will learn various methods on how to make coffee on the stove.

How to Make Coffee Without A Coffee Maker

We’ll start off with the “emergency” methods first (aka, your first line of defense when your beloved coffee maker conks out on you).

How To Make Coffee In A Pot

This is the most straightforward way to make coffee on the stove. If you haven’t gleaned it from the title already, this method involves only a saucepan (pot), a stove, and your coffee of choice.

Because of its simplicity, this method is also known as “cowboy” or “campfire” coffee as it is the primary method used for coffee-making by outdoorsy types.​

Here’s a quick video on how this process is usually done.

  1. Heat water in a pot and bring to a boil. Medium heat is fine. Just make sure to add more water than what you would normally use in a coffee maker.
  2. Add your coffee to the hot water. The suggested coffee ratio is one to two heaping tablespoons per eight ounces of water, but your mileage may vary depending on the kind of coffee that you use.
  3. Stir it slowly, just enough to circulate the coffee around the pan. Keep the pot uncovered and bring to a gentle boil (about two minutes).
  4. After boiling, remove the pot from the heat and let the coffee-water mixture sit for another couple of minutes to allow the coffee grounds to settle to the bottom.
  5. Pour the coffee into your mug, making sure that the grounds stay inside the pot. Alternatively, you can scoop out the coffee using a ladle.​

A lot of us coffee drinkers don’t want grounds in their coffee. But there might be times when you don’t have a coffee filter on hand, and the saucepan method just won’t cut it.

A great alternative is to use a fine strainer to keep the grounds out. Just follow the saucepan method mentioned above, and pour the coffee into the strainer to your mug.

Make Coffee In A Bag

If you’ve made tea using tea bags before, then this method is very similar in principle.

The equipment that you’ll need is a coffee filter (which is something that most coffee maker owners have), and a piece of string.

  1. Take just enough coffee for one cup and pour it in the middle of the filter.
  2. Close the filter by wrapping it around the coffee. Tie it with a string, but make sure to leave enough length so that you can easily pull the bag out of your mug.
  3. Heat your water on a stove and bring to a boil. Pour it into your mug.
  4. Place the coffee bag inside your mug, then slowly pour the hot water into it. Let steep for four to five minutes.​

Specialized Coffee Equipment

Here we’ll take a quick look at a couple of stove top coffee-making methods that require very specific equipment. These are perfect if you want to ditch your coffee maker entirely and want to venture into other forms of coffee making.

Do take note that the coffee made using these methods might taste stronger or a whole lot different than what you’re used to.​

Related | How To Make Coffee In A Percolator​

How To Use A Moka Pot

A moka pot is an Italian-made coffee maker that looks like a kettle.

It can prepare coffee at a higher pressure and temperature than normal coffee makers, so its output is akin to what you would expect from espresso machines.

There are three parts to the pot, but using it to make coffee is pretty simple.

  1. First, you have to disassemble everything.
  2. Pour enough water into the bottom part so that it reaches the bottom of the valve, put your coffee in the middle strainer part, then assemble everything back together.
  3. Put the pot over low heat. Keep the lid closed. Eventually, you will hear a sputtering sound- this means that the coffee is being pushed up the top compartment.
  4. Take the pot off the heat and let it sit for a couple of minutes.​

One of the most popular brands of moka pot in Italy:

Turkish Coffee Using An Ibrik

An Ibrik is a Turkish coffee pot. A lot of these things can be found on Amazon like the Mister Copper Turkish coffee maker. Using it is pretty similar to how you would prepare coffee in a pot.

Final Thoughts

It’s not the end of the world if your coffee maker breaks down. There are literally hundreds of ways with which you can make coffee without a coffee maker. Cultures around the world prepare coffee differently, some over open heat, other over a stove, etcetera.

The art of making coffee can be simplified into two simple steps, if you think about it. First, you need a source of heat to boil the water, and two, you need to make the hot water come into contact with the coffee. That’s about it.

Who knows, these new methods might introduce you to new flavors of coffee that you might not have encountered before. Trying them might just widen your horizons and develop your coffee palate.

Written By Tara Williams

Tara Williams is a seasoned food writer and editor who's been with KitchenSanity since its beginning. With a knack for experimenting with food and creating delicious recipes, she's your go-to for straightforward kitchen advice and practical tips from personal experiences. As a mom of two, Tara understands the value of time. She crafts articles that enhance your cooking skills and free up time for what matters most—like family moments.

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1 thought on “5 Ways How To Make Coffee On The Stove”

  1. I usually make coffee by cooking it simply in a saucepan, as I learned some years ago in Brazil and I greatly appreciate it. I found that putting the coffee into the cold water and making it heat slowly while stirring it delicately drowns the best flavor out of it. The flavour is quite different from coffee made with a paper filter, it is more thicky and complex. I find it is less harmful for the stomach made this way. I like true Italian expresso by the way, but it is a very different drink.

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