travel coffee

Bringing a coffee rig on trips with you is amazing. It transforms your hotel room mornings and lets you have a great cup of coffee without having to deal with awful lines at shitty hotel coffee places. It's also a nice way of inviting people over in the morning and having a chat: rarely do people turn down a fresh-brewed cup.

I've been asked about [my rig](https://twitter.com/dansinker/status/494116328395915265) a bunch of times, so here are some notes:

Brewing: I like the [Aeropress](http://www.amazon.com/Aeropress-Coffee-and-Espresso-Maker/dp/B0047BIWSK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420581251&sr=8-1&keywords=aeropress). It's a good size, makes great coffee, and travels easily. I know others that have a v60 in their kit. To me, that makes for a bulkier kit. I've seen a couple japanese collapsable pour-over setups before that look kind of amazing because they're so tiny, but generally I like the Aeropress: it's fast, easy, and cleans up super quickly.

Grinding: If you're going to the trouble of brewing your own coffee, you should be grinding your beans on the spot, not bringing days-old grounds with you. [The Porlex Mini Grinder](http://www.amazon.com/Porlex-Mini-Stainless-Coffee-Grinder/dp/B0044ZA066/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420581420&sr=8-1&keywords=porlex+mini) actually fits inside the aeropress's tube, so your two main coffee needs are real compact, Russian nesting doll style. Note: I don't have the Porlex but I wish I did.

Scale: If you are the kind of person who wants a scale, the [American Weigh Scales pocket scale](http://www.amazon.com/American-Weigh-Scales-AMW-SC-2KG-Digital/dp/B001RF3XJ2/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1420581584&sr=8-3&keywords=american+weigh+scale) is great and comes with a little lid so the balance doesn't get fucked up in your bag. It's fairly small (about an inch or so thick), so doesn't add a lot to your kit size-wise.

Heating Water: 8/10 times, you can rely on hotel rooms to have some kind of coffee brewing mechanism that you can use to heat water (even awful k-cup machines can be coaxed to produce hot water). However, 20% of the time hauling a rig and not being able to brew is too much, so I bring a [Bonavita travel kettle](http://www.sweetmarias.com/store/bonavita-5-liter-travel-kettle.html) with me. However, it's bigger than I'd like, and definitely stretches the size of your kit to being a little on the "too bulky" side of things. I know a few people that have those (little inversion boilers)[http://www.amazon.com/Instant-Immersion-Heater-Portable-Beverage/dp/B000VK0DRY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420581610&sr=8-1&keywords=immersion+heater] However, because they're just an exposed heating element, you need something more than a paper cup so you'll be adding a [steel camping mug](http://www.amazon.com/Texsport-Insulated-Stainless-Steel-Mug-/dp/B001VNPV0E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420581898&sr=8-1&keywords=steel+camping+mug) or some other option to your rig.

Carrying everything: I use a gallon ziplock to carry everything just for ease of questions at security (was never a problem until I added the kettle), but I know some folks that have a small enough setup that they get it into one of those nice canvas [Klein Tools 5139](http://www.amazon.com/Klein-5139-2-Inch-Canvas-Zipper/dp/B000BQRCKY/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1420581921&sr=8-4&keywords=klein+tools+bag) bags. If you're bringing a sizable amount of beans, you're not going to get it into a Klein bag tho.