We recently went on a pleasure trip to San Antonio, TX. We started out our day by drinking way too much coffee; we knew we could not get what we would consider a good cup in an airport. We knew we would have to wait until we got to our hotel to fix a good cup. Preparation was important to accomplish this.
We carefully selected a couple of our favorite coffees, roasted them two days before we left and pre-ground them, we had no choice, you can only pack so much in your carry-ons. It can be a hard decision, take all the equipment needed to make a good cup on the road or pack the clothing you need for the trip. We checked to see if the hotel we selected had a coffee pot in the room, it did. So we packed our pre-ground coffee and filters and hoped the pot was clean and the water was at least okay.
By the time we got to our room we were ready for a cup of fresh brew, it is a long trip; we needed that cup of coffee and to relax before going to look for a local place to eat up some culture. What a surprise when we saw the coffee pot in our room. I freaked, it was a single cup that used pods only, and they slide in on a tray. No way to make a pot of my all time favorite, Kenya French Mission Bourbon. We had smelled that coffee in our carry-on all through the airports. I needed it.
I headed straight to the lobby to ask if they had real coffee pots in hiding. The clerk suggested we go to Wal-Mart and buy one. Couldn’t do that, we did this trip without a car, it is a challenge, but in San Antonio it can be done easily.
What to do now, hummmmm!
I recently read an article in Fresh Brew magazine about pour-overs, so I had the concept in my head on how they work, I got into my MacGyver mode and created one with the things I had in our room and enjoyed a cup of our coffee each morning before we started off on our site seeing for the day. Here is what I did.
*I used one of those plastic drinking cups
sitting by the sink, a large Styrofoam cup with a lid (good thing we purchased a large Coke to go with dinner) the coffee filters we brought, folded into a cone shape and hot water (that was the only thing that little coffee pot was good for, hot water.)
I put a filter in the top cup, add coffee and slowly poured the hot water around the edge of the coffee and kept doing this until our cup was full. Ah, fresh brew! Now before we go on our next trip, we will purchase a travel pour-over. It will not take up to much room in a carry-on and we will know that at least we can have good coffee in our room. Leaving room to freak about something else, like no water pressure in the shower.
An added note about road trips: One of the first things we do on any pleasure or business trip is look for a local coffee roaster or local coffee shop. We would never visit a chain, we stick with the locals. We didn’t find a really good one until the day before we left San Antonio. We stumble upon one in a new art district at the end of historic neighborhood we walk through. The fresh brew was good and we really enjoy meeting the Barista/manager and talking coffee with him. He was very excited about what he does. When we told him that we are roasters in Indiana, he asked if he could pull us a shot of his espresso, very nice. There is just something about the atmosphere in a local shop that you just don’t get in a chain. What do you think it is?
Where have you found the most interesting place for coffee on a road trip?
*Disclaimer: I recreated this at home, but the results were the same. My coffee was very good. This black plastic pour over is something like I will look for my next road trip.
Fresh Coffee Blog 
My wife and I were out at Sunergos, one of our favorite coffee shops and while talking the Aerobie AeroPress came up. We watched it being used on a jet via vimeo. I can’t find the link but brewer would be ideal for taking on a trip.
I liked this story and both the planning and flexibility you showed. I am sure the coffee tasted good. The black plastic pourover looks like a good idea. What about a Clever Coffee Dripper? Would that be too big for your bags? A lot of our trips are by car, so we have taken our grinder, French Press, Chemex, Clever CD and filters. We will make room for a brewer, whatever we think we will want. I know it’s easier when you drive.
We will look ahead for local roasters to visit the shop and try the coffee. We have had some great coffee and conversations that way. It is amazing the people you can meet and the coffee you can try. We visited Coffee Labs Roasters in Tarrytown, NY and were able to try an iced coffee from a Kyoto cold drip brewer and some great fresh roasted coffee. I would also say Stauf’s in Columbus, OH and Hemisphere Coffee Roasters in Mechanicsburg, OH. We will look at our route and try to plan some stops around local coffee shops. – but we don’t have a problem, we can stop anytime we want too! Our local favorites are La Vida Java and Sunergos.
Again, I enjoyed the story and the creative problem solving!
S Boultbee we enjoyed reading your ‘no coffee in my room’ MacGyver style piece this morning. Well put about priorities. We noticed our company was mentioned in a reply. We try not to sell our coffee filters over the web as we support bricks and mortar markets and coffee roaster/shops, but if you send your mailing address we will send you some reusable certified organic coffee filters f.o.c so you can use directly in your mug and stow in your carry-on. shawn@organiccoffeefilter.com
Thank you, we look forward to the testing and using of your product. I see that the bags are made in the USA and with home grown cotton. Very cool. We know that an occasional tea drinker will arrive with a serious coffee drinker, we will need good healthy products. We are researching that now.
I agree with Dave, great blog. But you may want to take the plastic out of your operation, especially since you are using a hot brew. The BPA leaching into your coffee from the plastics is worrisome (check out new book ‘slow death by rubber ducky’).
I use an organic coffee filter that I obtained from the organicteabagcompany.com, I put the #4 cone filter directly in my mug with a few teaspoons of coffee and there is no longer any need for foreign plastics or exposure to BPA.
Thanks Phin, we do worry about what plastics can do to us. That is one reason we strongly encourage our clients to use stainless steel or glass for the storage of there coffee. Check out How Fresh Is Your Coffee. But more important at that time in San Antonio, no car and no stores nearby, we worked with what we had in our room. Desperate times can make you lower your standards on everything but the quality of your coffee. Since ours was roasted the night before we left that was our priority at the moment.
I now have some reusable certified organic coffee filters in my suitcase.
I have seen a lot of coffee websites. I think this one is in my top ten list for sure!
Thanks Dave.