I'm a coffee geek. I've tried everything from Turkish to Chemex to pourover to Aeropress to French press to cowboy coffee to moka to real whipped sugar homemade cafe cubano. If you need volume, Turkish, moka, and Aeropress are out, though they're all good options for small amounts/single serves. Chemex makes a clean, consistent cup and is simple, but you've gotta deal with fancy conical filters and worry about borosilicate glass. French press requires a coarser grind to avoid overextraction, and the brew should be decanted into another container immediately after the brew is finished so the coffee doesn't oversteep and cause bitterness, acidity, or both, but it's a self contained unit that needs no filter. Cowboy coffee can leave you with a little roughage in your cup if you're not careful- I prefer a cleaner cup, so I'm not the biggest fan. I make my Elixir of Life with a Hamilton Beach 12 cup electric percolator every morning. Since you don't want electric, you can easily find a stovetop model. No moving parts, nothing too small or hard to reach to deep clean, no BS, a good perk won't *need* a filter but you can use one if you want, and when you get the timing, grind, and proportions right you end up with a good, clean (especially if you have a filter in the basket), very hot, not burnt, balanced cup, with minimal effort. You don't have to have a seperate container to heat water in or to decant into, no need for special filters (I just shove a regular 12 cup drip filter over the downtube on the basket to punch a hole and it works great), no worries about overextraction if you time the brew, no special pours, no precise temp to bring the water to. Just put water in the pot, grounds in the basket, put the thing together, and put the whole shebang on the stove. Set a timer for however long you find makes a perfect cup for you, and forget about it until the beep.
I do Turkish when outside. I often add Cardoman and suger. I use a grinder but no one else does. Most grocery stores have a Turkish setting on their grinders. People complain about the strength but most I have made it for like it better than my espresso.
At home and at work I drink very short espressos only, when camping - instant coffee mix with sugar and creem (3 in 1).
I've been using an "AeroPress" and love it. Easy to make light coffee, or something so powerful it'll knock your socks off.
