The 5 Best Ways to Make Coffee When Traveling

Traveling is one of the wonderful pleasures of life that should not be passed up. However, searching for great coffee when traveling can present a real challenge. First, you’re in an unfamiliar area, and you don’t know which coffee shops are the best. Worse, you might not even be able to find a coffee shop in the first place.

Make Coffee Yourself!

Making coffee yourself is the best and most reliable way to enjoy a great cup of your favorite brew wherever you are. However, it takes equipment to make coffee and, therefore, you need to take that equipment along with you. Luckily for you, some coffee gadgets are particularly suited if you want to make coffee when traveling. They are compact, portable, and easy to use.

Let’s take a look at five of them. 

1. AeroPress Go

An AeroPress Go looks a bit like a giant syringe. It’s basically a plastic cylinder with a plunger at one end and a paper coffee filter at the other. It’s about the size of a small Tupperware sandwich box, so it can easily fit in your backpack. AeroPress coffee holds the middle ground between a French Press and a drip coffee maker. The coffee grounds are brewed immersed for four minutes (as with a French press), but it also uses a drip and pour-over method. The resulting brew has the lovely deep richness of a French press with the smooth texture of pour-over.

2. Travel French Press

A French press specifically designed for travel deposits your coffee directly into your travel mug. This piece of java travel equipment is an ingenious combination of a French press and a travel mug. You brew coffee in it and depress the plunger as with a regular French press. But hold on, the lid has a drinking spout, and you drink your coffee straight out of this gizmo. A travel French press is perfect for freshly brewed coffee when you’re on the go. You can even get one with a lid that turns into a travel mug.

3. V60

A V60 is a type of filter cone, a pour-over brew gadget. Pour-over coffee is ideal if you are a coffee perfectionist. You control the ratio of coffee to water, how warm the water is, and how fast (or slow) the water trickles over the grounds. 

V60s are a bit of a funny shape, but because they are not particularly large, they’re perfectly portable. You can even buy pop-up models that fold flat for easier storage and portability.  A V60 is super simple to use. Just position your filter cone on top of your mug, place a paper filter in the cone, and add your ground coffee. Then, pour boiled water through the grounds and, hey presto, great freshly brewed coffee.

4. Percolator or Moka Pot 

Moka pots and percolator pots are both stovetop coffee makers that come in different sizes. The smaller ones will not take up too much space in a backpack, so all that’s needed to make coffee when traveling is a heat source - an open fire or a gas stove.

You fill the pot bottom with water and place ground coffee into the metal basket. With the water boiling, pressure builds and water is pushed up through the coffee. You get a lovely, strong coffee similar to an espresso.

With a moka pot, the brewed coffee spurts up into a top chamber. On the other hand, with a percolator pot, the brewed java falls back down into the water chamber and keeps cycling around until you take the pot off the heat.

5. Turkish Pot

A Turkish pot (sometimes called a cezve) has been used to brew coffee long before coffee beans made their way to Europe. This ancient brewing technique will give you some of the strongest, but unique, coffee ever.

One good thing about this coffee brewing method is that you don’t really need to buy this funny little pot; you can use any small saucepan you have. Start by heating water in your pan. When it begins to boil, remove it from the heat and add ground coffee, sugar, a pinch of salt (really), and any spices you like.

Cinnamon is great! 

Repeat this next step twice – bring your pot back to a boil, take it off the heat, and spoon out the bubbles. Lastly, leave it for about 3-4 minutes for the grounds to settle. Then your delicious Turkish coffee is ready to pour. 

Making Coffee When Traveling: Conclusion

So that’s it, five ways to get a cup of brilliant coffee while on the road or the trail. There is one more method that has not been mentioned - cowboy coffee. It’s a bit similar to the Turkish pot, but it requires some odd ingredients, such as eggshells. And, take a look at this battery-powered travel grinder that has great particle consistency and even comes with a camp light!

For the best coffee for when you want to make coffee when traveling, go to Operant Coffee’s shop. We only sell the very best Fair Trade Certified coffee beans to complement your travel adventures!