Hotel room coffee: any suggestions?

Hotel room coffee: any suggestions?

I freely confess my addiction to caffeine. I need a strong dose first thing in the morning, and I can’t abide mediocre coffee. (My Scandinavian background and years spent in Berkeley are probably important factors in this. On one fieldwork trip I brought along an espresso maker, and knew that I was enjoying the best coffee within hundreds of miles.)

When I’m staying in a hotel, I want to be able to make my own coffee as soon as I get up, which might be as early as 5 am which is when I work best. It’s great that hotels standardly provide coffee makers now. But the coffee offered by the hotel is almost always crap.

Starbucks used to sell “filter packs” of individually sealed packets designed for the 4 cup Mr. Coffee type machine you find in hotels, filled with their House Blend, not what I would choose in other circumstances, but an order of magnitude better than Maxwell House or whatever the hotel puts out. But Starbucks has discontinued this product at their stores; you can get it in bulk here, but I don’t really need 120 of the suckers at a time.

I know that there are espresso pods and Senseo pods available, but I don’t want to lug along an appliance – just want to take better advantage of the appliance already in the hotel room.

I guess I will go back to what I used to do, which is to bring along some Mr Coffee type paper filters and a quarter pound of already ground coffee. But I thought I’d ask you all here – do you know of any other option that’s more convenient? Something like the old Starbucks filter packs, with reasonably good quality coffee?

You other coffee-lovers out there in LTH land, what do you do on the road?

Amata

I... bring along some Mr Coffee type paper filters and a quarter pound of already ground coffee.

I've recently had coffee from Green Mountain coffee pods on multiple occasions, as a client has that in their retail location. The flavors, all described in lavishly overwritten copy on the dispenser, have ranged from okay to bizarrely off (one kind of African-Asian late harvest savannah grown left-handed picked by moonlight whatever coffee tasted like soy sauce). Anyway, didn't exactly make me want to check out other forms of space age coffee dispensing systems.

I do the same as Mike G. I usually bring my own ground coffee and the small paper filters and brew my own. I also bring along either my own creamer or the little mini moo pasteurized half/half containers (don't need refrig) as I find the courtesy packets of condiments to be woefully inadequate.

A- You could carry some good espresso and one of those tiny Thai/Cuban/etc. individual drip coffee presses that sit on top of your cup, whatever they are called. Use the hotel coffee maker to heat the water. My primal need to find good coffee is what gets me out of bed and into some of the more interesting areas of the cities I visit for work (if I have a car, of course).

I learned from one hotel manager that the sanitation is awful on the mugs they leave out...so use a paper cup or bring your own. And give the machine a good scrubbing, because they sure don't.

Stewart's Private Label is available in 1.1 oz. foil packets. I have bought them at the Treasure Island on Clybourn but suspect that most other TI stores carry them. Most supermarkets in Chicago carry the cans but may not have the foil packs. Stewart's is a Chicago-based, family-owned coffee roaster. Their standard roast is just a little lighter than a Viennese roast, uses pretty good beans and so has better flavor than normal American coffee.

Amata,

I know you said that you didn't want to lug along an appliance--but what about a mini french press? PIGMON and I usually bring ours along--and either get hot water from the hotel, or if desperate, brew a pot of hot water from the hotel coffee pot and use that for the press.

trixie

If Antonius hasn't squandered, er, I mean, invested his Sophie Come Si Chiama winnings in fine Belgian ales and white truffles from the countryside around Alba you might claim your fair share of the lucre and spend it on a Sofitel or Four Seasons. You will be assured of good coffee.

I realize I'm not helping here, but I just drove across the country staying in Best Westernesque places and grieve that I neglected to bring along a coffee maker and a few bags of Terroir Kenyan.

There's always Pocket Coffee....

This was mentioned in today's Travel section in the Tribune...http://www.magellans.com/store/Appliances___Food___BeverageEF223?Args=

I reallly really make sure to sanitize the coffee maker, mugs, and other appliances used if they were placed in a hotel washroom. Reason being I saw something on Dateline and the Ananda Lewis(sp?) show. Some of it had to do with putting the lid down when flushing. For those who are queasy, please don't click on the link. Let's just say I try not to touch anything when I go to public restrooms!

http://www.princessmelissa.com/news.php?page_id=1&id=113
http://www.thenewstribune.com/soundlife/story/5314100p-4816267c.html

This thread made me think of an old topic covered by Cecil Davis and "The Straight Dope".

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a990416.html

Condensed version: Yes, flushing causes plumes of aerosolized virii and bacteria to eject into the room, but it's still safer than a dirty kitchen sink sponge.

A subject as near and dear to my heart as only it can be for one whose primary food groups are comprised of caffeine, nicotine, alcohol and cholesterol--with carbs mostly eliminated but still barely hanging on.

Some hotel chains are drinkable: Doubletree (Cafe Valet), Westin (Starbucks, which I generally avoid due to its high caffeine, but for hotel stuff its better than much of the rest), Renaissance and Hyatt are all at least acceptable, although none are better than fair. I probably like the Hyatt coffee best.

In the realm of the truly undrinkable are Sheraton at the head of the pack with Maxwell House (the abject worst). Other undrinkable chains include Holiday Inn, Marriott, Best Western, Hampton Inn and so forth.

When I hit a 'drinkable' location, I bribe, cajole, con, connive or purloin an ungodly amount of extra coffee paks from the housekeeping staff. Then when hitting the road on subsequent trips booked into locations rated undrinkable, I pack several drinkable coffee packs into my suitcase.

I call this 'defensive coffee' (a first cousin to 'defensive eating'--i.e. when you know you're going to be served a lousy meal at a get together, eat heartily about two hours earlier, leaving just the barest modicum of appetite for when you arrive at the detested degustation).

For hospitality locations without a coffee maker (generally the most upscale), having been repeatedly abused with 24 hr room service coffee 'on demand', which generally means slow, cold and old, I have a 110/220 Volt Brookstone sourced travel unit my wife bought me to ward off those $7 a cup coffee charges at Asian hotels. Which with my 24 oz morning habit equates to $35 daily, in light of the fact that we're talking 5 oz cups.

The problems with the Brookstone unit are several:
1. Delay: It always causes a search at security.
2. Packing: Its as big as one of my shoes, so it takes up room.
3. Usability: You have to clean carefully it with cotton bathroom towels, tissues and hot water after each use.
4. It only makes 11 oz at a time.

On the up side, the coffee is good, and its on demand. Strangely enough, its highestest use is for boiling water for evening mint tea.

As was noted above, hotel room coffee units are never clean, and no matter how many pots of straight water you run through, the heated 'plain' water always tastes like what you rinse from a dirty coffee pot. Still on the subject of evening tea, a room with a microwave is actually best!

Other: hotel room mugs are always cold. Pre-heat the mug with hot tap water AND place the mug on top the coffee maker which will heat it even more.

I was bummed when delk spotted the unbreakable french-press coffee maker in the Trib, 'cause I wanted to post it. However, I do have an idea to propose [if you think getting decent coffee on the road is a challenge, try finding a decent cuppa tea ]

Mellita small 1-cup plastic drip cone +
small stainless steel pitcher [like one used for foaming milk for cappucino] +
immersion heater +
cup =

not too much space in suitcase and good coffee.

You can tuck the immersion heater, coffee & filters into the stainless pitcher. The plastic cone might like being tucked in with your clean socks. And I imagine you, like everyone else, has a spare mug in the house. You heat the water in the pitcher and pour over the grounds into your mug. You don't even have to go anywhere near the nasty hotel room coffee pot. And there's nothing here that TSA should find very interesting.

Giovanna