Recently I was visiting my family for the holidays. If you enjoy coffee as much as I do, you may have asked your mom after getting settled in, “Who’s slinging the dopest natty Yirgs around here?”, only to receive a blank stare. Actually, that should get a blank stare from just about anybody, aside from these guys. Seriously though, coffee lovers coming home for the holidays tend to face the same problem: Where can you get a decent cup of coffee so that you don’t have to resort to drinking coffee that originates from a pod labeled “Italian Dark Roast”.
My parents live in a coffee desert. It’s about a 45 minute drive to get a good cup of coffee. Actually, not just good coffee, but impressively great coffee courtesy of Deeply Coffee. If you’re in the Orlando area check them out.
My solution to great coffee each morning is a travel coffee brewing kit. A sub $250 investment will bring you many, many mornings of pure joy while traveling. Once the initial investment is made the only recurring costs are coffee beans and filters. If there isn’t a decent coffee shop driving distance to buy beans at you can order ahead and have some mailed where you’re going.
Let me break my kit down for you.
With these three items you can weigh your beans, grind them, and brew them. All these items fit inside the bag that’s included with the model of AeroPress I have linked to. It’s not an incredibly durable bag, but for me it has been doing the trick for many months.
It’s all possible thanks to the design of the Aergrind. The Aergrind fits nicely in the AeroPress’s plunger.
An optional purchase I highly recommend is a travel cup. The 10oz Yeti Rambler fits great in the side exterior pocket of my backpack and doubles as a great chiller for water when I get to the other side of security at the airport.
It’s a bit of a bummer they don’t include the magslider lid, but I consider it an essential upgrade for the cup.
This cup is seriously great. It keeps coffee hot for a couple hours and is an ideal size for brewing with the AeroPress. I bring it with me even when I visit coffee shops if I know I’ll be taking coffee to go. Often shops will give you a discount for saving them a cup.
Now, there are other solutions. You could simply add lots of cream and sugar to that pod coffee your folks are serving up. You could become a tea aficionado to broaden your knowledge of caffeinated beverages. There’s even a popular movement in specialty coffee that has many roasters selling tea like pouches with pre-ground coffee inside.
While those are all options, this kit will allow you to enjoy seriously great coffee anywhere you can heat water.
Mike Urell 