Good coffee away from home

Travel is where good coffee habits fall apart. The kit is at home, the grinder is heavy, and the hotel room has a machine that makes something brown. It doesn't have to go that way. A small kit, one decision about beans, and a couple of adjustments get you a cup you'd be happy with at home.

The short version

Pack a French press, a cheap scale and either a hand grinder or beans ground for the press. If you can't bring any of that, buy a medium roast and make it in whatever you have, steeping shorter than you would at home. And before you go, look up the best coffee shop where you're headed.

What I pack

My travel kit, and what each piece is for:

Metal French press. The workhorse. It makes a big batch, forgives an uneven grind, needs no paper and won't break in a bag.
AeroPress or AeroPress XL. The most forgiving brewer there is. It handles almost any grind by changing the steep time. The XL makes enough for two.
Yeti Rambler pour-over. For when I want a clean, bright cup and I have my grinder. It's the fussiest of the three about grind.
Hand grinder. The single biggest upgrade over pre-ground. French press wants a coarse grind, which is also the fastest and easiest to do by hand.
Cheap scale. It doesn't need to be precise. A scale that reads whole grams beats scoops every time.
Filters. Paper for the AeroPress and the Rambler. The French press needs none.

Pack them nested. The French press and the AeroPress are both hollow, so they carry the rest of the kit. The press holds the pre-weighed bags of grounds or a bag of beans, and the AeroPress holds its own filters and scoop. The kit takes up about the space of the press alone.

I don't bring all of it every time. What I bring depends on where I'm staying.

Pick your trip

Staying with friends and family

Bring the French press. You'll be making coffee for a crowd, and it's the only brewer in the kit that does a big batch in one go. Grind at home the day before if the grinder won't fit, or bring it and grind coarse in the morning. Their kettle does the rest.

If they already have good coffee, bring your grinder and a bag of your beans as a gift. It goes over better than you'd think.

A home or an Airbnb

You'll usually find a kettle, and often a French press or a drip machine. Check the listing before you pack. If there's a press, bring the AeroPress, the grinder and the scale, and use theirs for the big morning batch. If there's nothing, bring your own press.

Kitchens in rentals are often missing a scale, so pack yours even if you leave everything else.

A hotel

Travel light: the AeroPress, filters, the scale and ground coffee or the grinder. The AeroPress fits in a toiletry bag and makes one excellent cup.

For hot water, use the room kettle if there is one. If there's only the in-room coffee maker, run it once with plain water to flush the old coffee taste, then brew a second tank of plain water and use that. It won't be boiling, so give the coffee a longer steep to make up for it.

If the tap water tastes of chlorine or anything else, use bottled. Coffee is almost all water, so bad water means bad coffee.

The bean decision

You have three options, in order of how good the cup will be.

Bring the grinder and whole beans. Best by a distance. Beans hold their flavor for weeks; ground coffee starts fading within the hour.

Grind ahead. The next best thing. Grind no more than a day or two before you leave, and weigh each brew's dose into its own small bag or jar, sealed tight. You lose some aroma, but you keep control of the grind. Grind for the brewer you'll use: coarse for the French press, medium-fine for the AeroPress.

Buy it there. A local roaster is the best case. Buy whole beans if you've brought a grinder, or ask them to grind for your brewer. Good shops will grind to order for a French press or an AeroPress. Look for a roast date on the bag, and pick one within the last few weeks.

When you can't control the grind

Sometimes the only option is a bag of pre-ground from a grocery store. It works if you choose well and adjust for it.

Buy a medium roast. It survives an imperfect grind and imperfect water better than a light roast, which turns sour when under-extracted, and it doesn't go ashy the way a dark roast can.

Know what's in the bag. Supermarket pre-ground is almost always ground for drip machines. That's finer than a French press wants and coarser than espresso. Each brewer handles it differently:

French press: steep shorter, about 3 minutes instead of your usual 4, and don't stir hard. See the next section; it's the one brewer that needs a little care with drip grind.
AeroPress: use it as it is. Drip grind is close to what the AeroPress likes. If it tastes bitter, cut the steep to about a minute.
Rambler pour-over: drip grind drains faster than a proper pour-over grind, so the coffee can taste thin. Pour more slowly and in smaller amounts to keep the water in contact longer.

Why French press is the easy win

It does everything travel asks for. It makes enough for everyone in one brew. It wants a coarse grind, which is the easiest grind to get from a hand grinder and the most forgiving of a cheap one. The metal filter means no paper to pack. And there's almost nothing to break.

Its one catch is fine coffee. With a finer, store-bought grind, a French press gets silty and bitter if you rush it. The fix takes patience, not skill:

1. Steep for 3 minutes. 2. Break the crust on top, stir gently once, and skim off the foam and floating bits with two spoons. 3. Put the lid on and wait 5 more minutes. The fines sink to the bottom. 4. Press the plunger only to the surface of the coffee, not all the way down. 5. Pour slowly, and leave the last bit in the pot. That's where the silt is.

You wait a few minutes longer and get a much cleaner cup.

Pro tip: find the good coffee first

Before any trip, spend five minutes looking up the best coffee in the place you're going. A good local shop solves everything at once: a great cup on the first morning, fresh beans for the rest of the trip, and someone who'll grind them for your brewer. It's also one of the better ways to get a feel for a new town.

Search for specialty roasters rather than cafés, check the reviews for mentions of roast dates or pour-over, and ask the staff where they drink coffee on their day off.

If it's not right

Bitter and harsh → steeped too long, or the grind is finer than the brewer wants. Shorten the steep.
Thin and sour → water not hot enough (common with hotel coffee makers), or steeped too short. Steep longer.
Silty French press → fine store grind. Skim, wait 5 minutes, press gently and leave the last bit in the pot.
Flat and stale → grounds too old. Grind closer to the trip, or buy from a roaster when you land.
Off-tasting → the water. Switch to bottled.