If you know the right travel hacks, it’s pretty easy to enjoy great coffee while traveling. Just ask coffee consultant and Q Grader Rachel J. Apple. Apple travels a lot for work, and has developed a routine for making coffee almost anywhere—from airports and trains to hotels. Below, she’s sharing a few of her favorite tools and hacks for quality coffee on the go.
“Different modes of travel dictate different styles of coffee,” Apple says. “I always have a specialty instant in my backpack as a fail-safe.” In the past decade, there’s been an increase in the quality of instant coffee, making this a good, basic option for everyone.
“[Instant coffee sachets] don’t take up much space, and worst-case scenario, you can make them with room-temperature water,” Apple adds. A couple of her favorite brands include Onyx Coffee, which has a large selection of instant coffee available, and Black & White, which offers limited monthly drops.
Apple flies frequently, and her typical routine includes grinding a pre-weighed amount of coffee at home before going to the airport. Then, she’ll use hot water from an automated coffee machine at an airport lounge, or ask a coffee shop for hot water.
“Sometimes, if you’re friendly at Starbucks or Dunkin, you can just ask for hot water, and often they’ll give it to you for free or a tip,” she says. She recommends using the Origami Air S Dripper, which is lighter and more durable than most other drippers, to make fresh filtered coffee. Otherwise, “You can do an immersion brew like a cupping, break it and dump it through the filter into another mug,” she says. “But brewing in one mug and pouring into another mug can be messy.”
Luckily, there’s a range of nifty gadgets that make fresh-brewed coffee a little less messy to make. For example, the Espro travel coffee press is a self-contained French press mug that Apple recently tried while on a trip to Geneva. When she’s pre-grinding coffee, Apple recommends choosing a natural-processed coffee, so it won’t lose all of its nuanced aromas even if you drink it hours later.
“I do travel with scales, but I don’t feel like pulling out a scale on a plane,” she explains. “With a self-contained French press mug, you fill it to the line so you don’t need to measure the water.”
Apple also recommends Timemore’s portable grinders. She has used the brand’s manual coffee grinder as well as its whirly electric grinder, and says the grind quality on the hand-crank machine is better. “These are a little bulky and heavy—you could use it as a weapon,” she says. “But [the whirly electric] grinds for you on the go, charging with the same charger as your phone.” This was her secret weapon to better coffee on a long train ride in Europe, but it might not make the cut to fit in her carry-on for a flight.
“I had my little French press and hot water, and I was able to grind fresh and brew on the train,” she explains. The electric grinder is quite noisy, so just be mindful of sleeping neighbors when using it. “I don’t like to drink out of the French press travel mug if I can avoid it because it holds so much heat it can burn your mouth,” she says. “I will decant into a travel cup—but I am genuinely extra, if you can’t tell.”
