Introduction
In the last coffee post, I mentioned that I’d try some room coffee and report back.
Equipment
Ideally, you don’t need anything more than what’s in the room. Unfortunately, the in-room makers tend to be less than ideal. Even so, if you use less water or more coffee, you’ll often get better results.
For hot coffee, I’ve found that bring a travel kettle and doing a pour-over already improves what’s in the room.
A small scale is handy for measuring water precisely because 1g water is equivalent to 1mL of water at room temperature, thanks to the magic of the metric system. It’s also handy for determining how much coffee you have in the room so that you can match it to water.
If you’re up for pouring out the coffee into your own filter, then Tetra Portable Coffee Drip is a super lightweight way to do that, and works fine with a Hario Size 01 filter, though a larger one works in a pinch.
Ratios
For cold brew concentrate, the right ratio is 8.3mL of water for every gram of coffee. You’ll dilute concentrate 1:1 to get cold brew.
For pour over coffee, the right ratio is 15mL of water for every gram of coffee.
Hilton
First in the line-up is Hilton properties. These use Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf soft pods, and are reasonably consistent about it. These contain 8g of coffee and 2g of packaging.
The Hilton Brand Standard requires that these are 100% arabica. Two of the pods in the room to 132mL of water make for a decent cold brew concentrate over 12 hours, or one pod makes a decent pour-over.
For a pour-over, two of the pods with 256mL of water should get you a decent cup of coffee.
Marriott
I’ve only stayed at a Springhill Suites since I’ve started this experiment, and that property had Cafe Valet Rainforest blend in what I believe are 7.65g packets in 100% arabica, but I haven’t yet measured it.
Two of these with 126mL of water should yield a reasonable cold brew. Two of these pods with 230mL of water should get you a decent cup of coffee.
Bringing Coffee
I’ve written before about how much of a hassle it is to package your own coffee so that it’s shelf-stable, but what about just buying something that’s already prepackaged?
At around $0.65/unit, Dunkin Donuts K-cups aren’t that cheap, and K-cups are generally pretty wasteful, but they are pretty easy to buy anywhere. Cutting one open and dumping out the coffee reveals that there is 10g of coffee.
You can pour water through the filter that comes with the pod if you can cut out the plastic, but you can also empty out the coffee and use it for a pour over or cold brew. The main advantage of these is that they are packed with nitrogen, so you can toss them in the bag and have them last for a while.
For a compostable option, you can also get a soft pod from Amazon for nitrogen flushed coffee as well. I’ve found that these aren’t as easy to find in a grocery store, but also pack flatter and can be cheaper than a K-cup.
If you don’t much care about something that can sit for months in a travel bag, then buying a bag of pre-ground coffee is also an option.
