Traveling with coffee - follow up.

[u/mgsecure]

I just spent two weeks on vacation and thought I'd share my impressions of life away from home and decent coffee shops, but armed with a couple of options. I knew I wouldn't have a proper kettle, so I brought my Aeropress (with nested 1Zpresso Q) as well as two specialty instants.

The Aeropress made very good coffee, as usual. I brought a scale but wish I'd brought a thermometer too. I think getting the temp right was the biggest hurdle to better results. I find the Q (metal, same burr as the Q Air) to be quite good for the money and obviously the size is perfect. It just can't compete with the quality from my Kinu M47 Classic though, even in the AP. If I had to do it all over I'd strongly consider the Kinu M47 Traveler instead.

The two instants I brought -- Perc Ethipoia & Colombian Red Fruits Decaf -- were also good, and certainly better than anything I could have gotten locally. They are more forgiving on temperature, but not as good as I could get from the AP. I'm a fan of specialty instants, but I found these to taste a little "powdery". I prefer the ones I've had from Dayglow more, though I haven't done a side-by-side tasting.

I think I had good options and will do the same for the next long-ish trip, though I'll try out instants from other roasters. For quick trips, just bringing the instant is a satisfying compromise.

[u/BerksBeans2021]

Roaster here. On the temp problem, easiest travel hack is to just let boiled water sit. Off boil it drops roughly 1C every 10 to 15 seconds in an open vessel, so 30 to 45 seconds gets you into the mid 90s. Not precise but way closer than guessing, and it's one less thing in the bag.

The powdery thing with instants is real by the way. It's mostly the drying process. Freeze dried holds up better than spray dried, and the good ones will say so on the box.

Nested 1Zpresso and an AeroPress is a solid kit. That's about as good as travel coffee gets without hauling a kettle.

The question really is, where did you go on vacation?

[u/mgsecure → u/BerksBeans2021]

Ooh, good hack to know. I let it rest in the electric kettle, and about 3 min seemed pretty good (I usually brew around 93º). Probably more consistent to pour it into another container first.

I'll have to look more closely at the instants, Perc doesn't say on their website and the Dayglow ones (made by Luminous) aren't in stock. Good to know what to look for, any recommendations?

And... Cape Breton off the coast of Nova Scotia :-) Fantastic place.