Traveling with an AeroPress

The first time you travel with your AeroPress is an exciting experience. Usually, a lot of us coffee lovers are really worried about where to get good coffee whenever we’re traveling. Back home, we know those places that make the coffee just the way we like it… And we can always just make our own coffee at home.

Traveling makes buying yourself a coffee a gamble: it’s either bad or it’s okay. Honestly, you never expect to get good coffee somewhere new, much less on-the-go.

The AeroPress is the perfect invention for people that suffer from an extremely picky palate or simply for people that travel and move around a lot and have to settle for whatever coffee they can get.

The AeroPress is super portable and as long as you have coffee with you and some hot water, you can make yourself a cup of coffee just the way you drink it at home.

Traveling with the AeroPress: The basics

AeroPress Tote Bag

If you don’t have it already, you should get an AeroPress Tote Bag. This bag is specifically made to accommodate the AeroPress, and has AeroPress in yellow across the surface. If you like to show off and signal everybody that you like good coffee, this is probably the best option for you.

If you like to bring your own coffee beans with you a very useful addition to the tote bag is travel cap. A travel cap is a basic rubber storage lid that caps off the open end of the AeroPress’ plunger. This allows you to use the plunger’s empty space as a storage place for coffee, filters and other things. Able TRAVEL CAP is a nice option.

AeroPress Go

As if it wasn’t enough making the AeroPress possibly the most portable of all devices, the AeroPress team has recently released an even more portable version of our favorite gadget. The AeroPress Go looks much like the original AeroPress. However, there are some significant differences:

• The AeroPress Go only goes up to Level 3, making it about ¼ smaller than the original design.
• The AeroPress Go comes with its own portable cup which fits perfectly and has a heat-conserving cap

The AeroPress Go is incredibly useful for certain outdoor events, like when you’re out camping, or if you’re the kind of backpacker who appreciates good coffee. It solves a big problem for many people who have an AeroPress at home but worry about getting a good cup while away.

The AeroPress Go is great for travel. You can carry it in your backpack, throw it in the backseat of your car, or even take it with you to the office every day.

Being prepared

If you’re going to travel, taking your AeroPress with you is not nearly enough. When the time comes, where are you gonna get hot water? Coffee grounds?

Here are some solutions to these scenarios:

• Bodum Bistro electric kettle: I’ve actually seen a guy making coffee at an airport with this thing. It was 2 am, his flight had been delayed, and he just needed some coffee. He took out a small French press, and then started boiling water with his Bodum Bistro. This little gadget heats up water super-fast, it’s small enough to carry in your backpack, and holds up to half a liter of water. Be like Airport Guy: Always prepared. Carry an electric kettle with you.
• Airtight container: If you’re gonna carry a kettle, you might as well be carrying some good coffee with you. Whether you’re at an airport, a train station or a foreign city coffee is not hard to come by but it is hard to find GOOD coffee that YOU like. I personally don’t trust anyone to give me good coffee, so I carry some single-origin coffee whenever I have to travel, no matter how close I might be. Better safe than sorry.

After good coffee beans and hot water everything else is minor. If you don’t mind measuring by sight, great, but if you’re very picky about that kind of thing then you might also want to carry a coffee scoop or a measuring spoon with you. Another useful addition is a metal filter for your AeroPress. If you use paper filters, just be sure to bring enough and you should be ready to roll.